ART OF COMPOSTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 March 1939, Page 3

ART OF COMPOSTING

IMPORTANCE OF SOIL FERTILITY. STEPS TO ASSIST DECOMPOSITION . In our enthusiasm for the spellbinding effects of artificial fertilisers we are apt to forget that fertility in the garden is founded upon the amount of humus present in the soil. Humus is the basis of all the chemical and biological processes that result in plant growth. Without it, artificial fertilisers are useless. In these days, when the former common source —farmyard manure —is none too plentiful or easy to obtain, every gardener who wishes to maintain or build up the fertility of his soil should learn the art of composting. Compost heaps are an economical and efficient way of preparing rich black humus for the soil. They are composed of the waste organic matter of the garden, weeds, leaves, lawn mowings, vegetable trimmings, pea, bean and potato haulms, kitchen waste, etc. This vegetable matter, when decomposed, forms the most valuable ingredient a garden can have for making plants grow. First dig a trench one spit deen, about four feet wide, and as long as me size of the garden dernands. For a garden of half an acre, a french, four feet by six feet is ample. Pack the bottom of the trench firm, and place the top soil to one side. Now fill in the trench with accumulated vegetable refuse. Coarse material should be shredded or chopped up with a sharp spade or hoe to facilitate decomposition. After each addition, moisten the vegetable matter well, and tread it down. There are three ways of encouraging decomposition. The simplest is to wet the organic matter thoroughly, and sprinkle each layer as it reaches a thickness of four to six inches with soil. As the heap grows, taper it like a potato clamp, and at the end of the autumn enclose it in a jacket of soil. This compost heap should not be opened until the following spring, when it will have rotted to fine black humus. A quicker way is to spread each layer of vegetable refuse With a one or two-inch layer of animal manure and a sprinkling of soil. After four weeks, the heap should be turned. If the weather is dry additional water Should be added to speed up decomposition. Compost from such a heap is ready in about three months. The third way is to sprinkle each layer of added vegetable waste with a chemical decomposition accelerator, after wetting the heap well. We can use one of the proprietary articles manufactured for the purpose. It is possible to prepare one’s own accelerators, but so much ctepends upon correct balancing and technical details, that risk of failure is greater than likelihood of economical achievement. Every scrap of vegetable refuse can be made use of in this way—annual weeds, leaves, etc. Vegetables should be trimmed when gathered, and the surplus leaf and stalk added to the compost heap for return to the soil. In my own kitchen garden I have the paths sodded'. It means a little more trouble keeping them in order, but I get a barrowful of mowings for my compost heap weekly. As the heap grows it is worth while having a wood-sided frame to fit the size of the trench, and to pack the material in this. In this way, nothing is wasted everything rots down, and the heap slices easily when the time comes to open it up and distribute it on the garden—S. B. W., in “Amateur 'I Gardening.”