My OG Blog

In my last article we discussed the first fundamental of organic gardening: collect, collect, collect. The next two fundamentals are about what you do with all of this organic material you’ve collected. As was stated before the single most important ingredient in a successful organic garden is the soil and the best fertilizer for an organic garden is compost.

If you are lucky enough to be starting your garden with great soil compost will keep it rich and healthy. If you’re not so lucky, compost will build any type of soil into great soil. Compost improves sandy soil by adding nutrients and improving water retention. Compost will add nutrients and improve texture and drainage in heavy clays. No matter what soil type you have you can improve it by adding compost.

So now that you have collected all these great organic materials it’s time to start composting some of them. Some of the materials you will collect should be put into an active compost pile immediately. Kitchen scraps you don’t have room to freeze, weeds that have gone to seed, sick or diseased plants, fresh grass clippings (though there is another use for these), garden debris which may harbor harmful insects or their larvae and hay.

There are many different methods of composting find the ones that work for you. I personally have two or three methods going at the same time. Check out some of my other articles on composting to discover what works for you.

Tags: compost, garden composting, organic gardening tips, soil organic matter