It goes without saying that healthy soil is the back bone of healthy plants. But many people struggle with how to improve their soil without spending a fortune on compost bags from your nearest department store.
There's one step we're going to skip for today and come back to, and that's testing your soil. Without knowing your pH balance, you won't know if you're slightly acidic, if you're lacking nutrients and what kind etc. In a general sense for the average gardener though, you will at a base level need to increase the nutrients and organic matter so we'll start with that.
You probably didn't know, there are free sources of compostable material all around you. From the leaves that fall and grass clippings we call yard waste to those peeled veggie scraps you likely throw away, all can be a source for compost! And if done right, you can have compost ready for your garden in a few months!
Now what makes compost well..compost? Its made up of carbon and nitrogen materials or Browns/Greens and generally has a ratio of 30 Carbons/Browns to ever 1 Nitrogen for ideal conditions. This ratio is important because microorganisms in compost use carbon for energy. At this ratio, bacteria can quickly break down organic material.
What items are considered browns or Carbon?
Leaves are an excellent Carbon and if you have a wooded backyard, you can have a free source year over year! If you don't, ask friends with trees or an app called ChipDrop is a free resource for wood chips or yard trimmings.
The newspaper is great as well, and many receive small papers for free. Just be sure to remove any of the plastic like film materials that sometimes are included like the coupons.
Are you an Amazon Prime shopper? Well save those boxes! Cardboard is a great brown/carbon.
What items are considered a Nitrogen?
The easiest nitrogen to add comes from grass clippings! Every time you mow your lawn simply save your clippings and add a layer to your compost.
Coffee grounds are another easy nitrogen and is easy to add to your pile along with the paper filter and reduces waste!
Veggie scraps are also considered a green. You can add a little tin under your sink to save your scraps and a few times a week, add what you've saved to your compost.
Now where are you going to put all these compostable items? You can either get a compost bin or create one out of heat treated pallets which could be found free behind local department stores, just be sure to look for the HT stamp. Otherwise you may have a pallet treated with chemicals that may be harmful for your plants.