How To Make The Best Compost For Vegetable Gardens

Composting is an important part of gardening. The health of the soil determines the quality and quantity of your harvest. Learning how to make the best compost for vegetable gardens can be crucial in creating a reliable food supply for your family. If you’re looking for ways to improve your soil and increase the yield of your garden, composting is ideal.

What Makes the Best Compost For Vegetable Gardens?

Compost is rich in organic matter, which makes it ideal for producing vitamin-packed veggies. Vegetable gardens require a lot of nutrients, so making the best compost will benefit you and your garden.

Manure in Compost

The advantages of using manure as fertilizer are well-known.

• It’s nutrient-dense making it an excellent component of compost for vegetable plants.
• It also provides beneficial microorganisms for your soil health.
• Acts as a slow and continuous supply of nutrients to plants growing in the soil, which is useful since it improves the soil.
• Improves the soil’s texture, allows for proper drainage, and increases the soil’s water retention capacity, even in clay soil, compacted soil, and even sandy soil.
• Used in vermicomposting it can be converted more quickly.

We advise people to be careful when offered manure from neighboring farms. If you practice an organic lifestyle then you should know what the animal was fed.

Manure is an inexpensive part of the best compost for vegetable gardens, especially for farmers who raise their own animals.

Warnings About Using Manure

Don’t add raw manure to your garden. Fresh manure can harbor harmful germs such as E. coli and other disease-causing organisms that can cause serious illnesses.

Also, livestock doesn’t always break down seeds during digestion. In fact, certain weed seeds require a trip through an animal or bird’s digestive system to scour their hard shell and allow them to germinate. A garden plot filled with undesirable weeds can be produced by fresh manure containing viable weed seeds.

Another reason to not add fresh manure to the garden is that it will burn the tender plants killing them before they can produce.

Because cow manure won’t burn plants, many people spread it in the garden and allow it to compost there instead of in a compost pile. However, we recommend all manure be added to your compost pile and be thoroughly broken down.

Composting at Home Vs. Buying Bagged Compost

There are numerous advantages to composting at home.

• You can ensure it is all-natural and chemical-free
• It prevents your garbage from going to the landfill.
• It’s also cost-effective
• Gives you peace of mind knowing what has gone into your garden from the start.
• Runoff from your compost won’t put harmful chemicals into natural water sources which is best for the water table and the environment.

If you can’t have your own compost pile, you can purchase organic compost in bags online and at your local garden supply. For small vegetable gardens, this can be a good option.

Tips For Making the Best Compost for Vegetable Gardens

• In general, a good balance of 50:50 nitrogen-rich (green materials) and carbon-rich (brown materials) ingredients is required to make the best compost. There are all kinds of numbers floating around out there as to the proper ratios. This is a good starting place and you can adjust the ratio to suit your needs.
• You can build your own compost bins or you can purchase compost tumblers.
• Set your compost bin directly on the ground to encourage worms and other microorganisms to help with the composting process.
• If you have a problem with rodents, place a layer of hardware wire or chicken wire on the ground.
• To speed up the process, flip your compost pile every now and then and use a garden fork to mix it up and aerate it.
• Although not everyone agrees, it can be helpful to cover your compost bins to keep the rain out.
• The procedure is finished when the mix looks like dark, crumbly soil. If it’s been turned regularly and kept moist this will take around six months, but it could take up to a year.
• If you notice that your compost isn’t heating up, add more green material to the pile. If you find that your compost pile is becoming smelly, add some more browns.

Some Green and Brown Materials

Nitrogen-rich (Green) Materials:

• Grass clippings
• Peelings from fruits and vegetables
• Manures
• Plants and weeds that have not gone to seed
• Coffee grounds
• Eggshells

Carbon-rich (Brown) Materials:

• Prunings from trees, hedges, and bushes
• Newspapers or paper (loosely scrunched up is best) If you want to avoid chemicals, leave these out.
• Cardboard
• Straw
• Sawdust
• Hay
• Paper Bags
• Leaves
• Pinestraw
• Wood ash

FAQ

• Can I use the contents of my composting toilet in my vegetable garden?

While composting toilets are an excellent choice for helping reduce your footprint and bring you closer to nature, caution should be advised with reusing humanure. There may be particles in human manure which are unsafe, and as such shouldn’t be used in compost, which is destined for human consumption,

• In my vegetable garden, should I use compost or manure?

Compost and manure are complementary. Manure must be composted before using it in the garden so why not just add it to the pile and accomplish two things at once.

You can use either compost or only manure, depending on the quality of your garden’s soil and what your soil needs. It’s critical to understand the soil pH your vegetable plants will require before determining whether to use compost, manure, or a combination of the two.

To improve soil health, this is just one of the things you can do to assist with water retention, aeration, and fertility.

• Should I use compost to fertilize my veggie garden?

Composting provides a multitude of benefits, including reduced soil erosion, reduced runoff, and the creation of nutrient-rich soil. Aside from these benefits, you can make your garden organic, which is beneficial to both your garden and you.

It has even been shown to change the nutrient dynamics of the land it’s used on. If you improve and maintain the nutrient density of your soil, it will be beneficial for years to come. 

Summary

The best compost for vegetable gardens is a mix of 50:50 nitrogen-rich (green materials) and carbon-rich (brown materials). If the bin has been turned regularly and kept moist this will take around six months, but it could take up to a year.

Using compost in your vegetable garden provides a multitude of benefits, including reduced soil erosion, reduced runoff, and the creation of nutrient-rich soil. It has even been shown to change the nutrient dynamics of the land it’s used on. If you improve and maintain the nutrient density of your soil, it will be beneficial for years to come.

The best thing you can do for your garden is to improve the health of your soil. If you would like to learn more about soil health and about gardening, TFL can help.

You can learn more about Practically Green by visiting their website.