Here are two easy ways to compost your food scraps and soft garden trimmings and weeds.

Why compost?

Your plants need organic matter in the soil. When you make compost and add it to your garden soil, you are doing three wonderful things for your plants.

1. You are feeding your plants nutrients.

2. Your are adding material that will help the soil stay moist and loose so the roots can thrive.

3. You are feeding the microbes and worms in the soil that are necessary for a healthy garden ecosystem.

Easy composting for your garden.

You can compost in place and plant your vegetables right on top of your compost pile.

1. Make a container to hold the compost. Your container can be a ring of chicken wire or a cardboard box. Your container should breathe.

2. Layer your soft garden trimmings including grass and pruning bits, fall leaves, and weeds that have not yet gone to seed with some soil or potting mix and sprinkle with nitrogen fertilizer. Pack down the layers so they don’t dry out.

3. Put a layer of good garden soil or potting mix on top.

4. Sprinkle from time to time if there isn’t enough rain to keep it damp.

Your pile will be ready to plant with vegetables in a few weeks. Don’t worry if it isn’t completely composted. It will continue to break down as your plants grow. If you use a cardboard box, the box will also compost.

Easy kitchen composting

Just put an old blender by your sink. Put all the food scraps directly into the blender including your coffee grounds and salad and fruit trimmings. You can even put some animal products in your compost mix. Then cover your kitchen scraps with water. Blend into a slurry and go pour it in your garden around your flowers, shrubs or anywhere where you are preparing a new garden. It is not recommended to pour the slurry directly on the vegetable garden where you are growing food to eat.

Your compost slurry will breakdown very quickly and add nutrients and texture to your garden soil.

You will also help your garbage service because you won’t have smelly rotting food in your garbage can. Everyone wins!