All those grass clippings, kitchen waste and leaves can give flowers a boost

Master Gardener Patti Larson shows off some of the effects of compost used at the Gillette Community Garden. The earthworm is a vital part of making nutrients for the compost, which adds needed minerals to Campbell County’s alkaline, compacted soils. — News-Record photo by Paul RuhterBy J.D. STETSON, News-Record Writer
Leftover vegetables, lawn clippings, fallen leaves — these waste items can actually help grow a garden.
It really is easy to make the mulch and compost that can be used in gardens and flower pots around the house.
Decomposing things provide nitrogen and nutrients that can help plants grow.
Compost is very important to the garden because of the high amounts of alkaline in the highly compacted soils, said Master Gardener Patti Larson.
There are two types of plant materials to use to make compost:
- Greens: These materials are freshly cut and high in nitrogen. Green materials include lawn clippings, green plant wastes and kitchen wastes (no meat or dairy products).
- Browns: These dry materials have already started decomposing and are high in carbon. Hay, sawdust, leaves and straw make good brown materials.
There are different ways to mix the greens and browns to get the desired compost, but the typical ratio is four parts brown to one part greens.
The Community Garden uses several different ways to create its compost:
- Hot compost: This way collects the decomposing plants in three piles, each a cubic yard, near the garden entrance. When people pass by the piles in early spring, they can see three stalls with a large clump of dark brown mass in each with an occasional twig or tree leaf sticking out of it.
What they can’t see is the microscopic organisms that fill the center of the mass.
The organisms heat the mass to 120 degrees with their digestive process, causing it to breakdown into nutrient healthy compost. Larson calls this process “hot compost” because it heats up on the inside.
Grass clippings, vegetables, shredded paper, kitchen leftovers (no meats) could be used for the pile.
The gardeners are careful what they put into the pile because they do not want any pathogens or chemicals to be transferred to the soil.
When they get grass clippings, the grass cannot be treated with weed killers prior to cutting, Larson said.
As long as the piles are kept out of the wind and sun, and kept moist, they should produce compost in a couple of months.
- Cold compost: This process simply allows the mixture to decay on its own. Larson showed a plastic garbage bag filled with leaves that had been left at the Community Garden since last fall. That compost would be good enough to use by next fall.
- Vermicomposting: A newer way to create compost that is becoming popular inside the home is vermicomposting, or using worms to make compost.
Janet Thompson, horticulture program coordinator with the Campbell County Cooperative Extension Service, said the service encourages gardeners to try the method.
In vermicomposting, people keep the worms in a container around their home. They feed the worms their organic garbage and the end result are called “worm castings,” which are black in color and rich in nutrients.

Source:www.gillettenewsrecord.com/