Sunday, November 15, 2009

Composting aka life


Composting frankly is expansive then not composting, but still we should practice composting regularly cos composting is purposeful and pays back in the longer run. Composting was being practiced by the ancient Romans and there are traces of practicing composting in many religious scriptures.

Composting occurs due to the activity of microorganisms available in the soil & organic materials. Composting is nature’s recycling process that helps break down organic materials into a nutrient rich soil like substance that is extremely good for plant growth. Some argue that nature does not compost, it only mulches. Well mulching it’s self is the most basic form of composting. Through mulching nature not only saves the fertile layers of soil in the forest from washing away but also maintains a constant cycle of composting. Last weeks mulch would be today’s compost. As composting creates the skin [top soil] in nature so it’s wise to starts composting with the skin of our organic trash.

What to compost:

Composting can turn a lot of our organic trash into fertile organic goodness. If you live in a developing or a third world country then you could do a lot of composting compared to the people who live in developed countries with processed & caned food. Fruit & vegetable peels along with egg shells and dead leaves are some very basic composting ingredients that come out of our kitchens almost every day.

Where to compost:

Compost in your back yard or on your roof top or even in your garage.

Composting pot & process:

If your intend to start with kitchen based composting, a couple of large terracotta pot should be your basic apparatus, placed on top of each other with table tennis ball sized hole at the base of the top one. Now start dumping your organic raw kitchen waste except flesh into the top pot and cover it with your grass clippings or dead leaves and if you feel that the materials are too dry simply sprinkle some water. After about a couple of weeks start shaking the top pot and the broken down compost would pour down to the bottom pot which could be later on used to feed plants and vegetables.

Composting means Life:

A single spade from the middle of a compost bin contains more species of organisms than can be found above ground in the entire Amazon rain forest.

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