Ingredients of Compost

ingredients of compost

    In my previous posts, I have been discussing about compost—its importance and how it is made. There are actually 2 kinds of materials or ingredients that we can make as compost. Generally, they are grouped as browns and greens:
    Browns
    Browns are eaten by the microbes and they give them energy. They are dry and mostly from dead parts of plants. They need to be moistened first or mixed with moist ingredients.
    1. Autumn leaves
    2. Hay straw
    3. Dry leaves
    4. Dead plants
    5. Saw dust
    6. Wood chips
    7. Brown weeds
    Greens
    Greens are moist ingredients and they usually come in the color green but not all. They are mostly from kitchen wastes. If you leave in a community, don’t use meat scraps and bones because they tend to attract pests. Alternatively, use compost pile.
    1. Green plants
    2. Green leaves
    3. Fresh leaves
    4. Vegetable peels and scraps
    5. Fruit peels and scraps
    6. Tea bags
    7. Scrap of Ground coffee
    Your compost should have a good mix of browns and greens. The mix will bring air and moisture which the microbes need in order to digest the browns and the greens.

Composting for a Green Earth

compost

    Compost is a natural soil fertilizer that is made from materials that were once living or parts of living things. The most common materials used for compost are the wastes from our kitchen and yard such as dead leaves. Compost used as fertilizer is not harmful to the environment and it reduces the waste that goes to our landfills. Composting is one simple way to contribute to the green revolution.
    Much of the work in composting is done by the environment. All you have to do is to separate the organic wastes and put them either in a compost bin or directly onto your garden soil. When you put the leaves and fruit peelings into the soil, the wastes will rot while the nutrients are being absorbed into the soil. This is a very basic explanation and I will elaborate on this on my next posts.
    We should encourage our communities and individuals to make compost in their homes. There are many mothers in the Philippines stay at home who can do this. It is aid that the wastes in our landfills are made up of 30% wastes from the kitchen. We can reduce our wastes by 30% and help make our country green if we make compost at home.
    If we don’t have any gardens, we can earn selling compost. Big companies who make chemical fertilizers can also gradually turn to organic fertilizers such as compost. Farmers and vegetable growers always need good soil for their produce and so there is always a demand for fertilizer. Composting is simple, green and can even be a good green business idea
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