Uncle Matt’s green tip: Making your own compost

Don’t throw away that banana peel!  Composting is a great way to introduce natural beneficial bacteria, fungi and nutrients into the soil while building organic matter  and helping make everything in your garden grow and taste better.

Learn below how to make your own compost with some practical, and easy, tips from eHow & Ben McLean, head of R&D for Uncle Matt’s.

1.  Collect food scraps usually headed for the garbage:  fruit and veggie peels, lettuce leaves, apple cores, egg shells and coffee grounds. Skip over any meat or dairy. You can even add shredded newspapers or grass clippings.

2. Designate an area to compost. This can be a hole in the ground or composting bin.

3. Start with a base layer of brush (old leaves and small twigs).

4.  Add a layer of your biodegradable scrap waste. You could mix in a bit of cow    manure at this point if you like.

5.  Lightly water your pile. The goal here is to allow for fermentation with proper aeration.

6.  Keep adding alternating layers of brush and scraps, keeping your pile loosely packed and well aerated. You’re looking for an internal temp of 160 degrees F. within a couple of days.

7. After three weeks, use a spading fork to dig into the pile and mix up the contents.  Turn it again after five more weeks.

From there, put it out in your garden at a rate of one pound for every 4 sq. ft. That’d be 50 lbs. of compost for a 200 sq. ft. garden (on the high side).

Source: Ben McLean III, head of R&D for Uncle Matt’s and http://www.ehow.com/how_2185497_own-compost.html.