Before you even start with your garden, soil preparation is absolutely necessary. Not only is the quality of the soil better, but your plants will also benefit from the compost that you use for their food source. This is especially true if you use the organic composting method to prepare your soil.
Preparing your soil for composting starts with your garden. You need to make sure that the soil is rich in nutrients. Many people skip this step and then wonder why their garden doesn’t thrive. Here are a few benefits of doing soil preparation correctly:
Composting prevents soil erosion. Erosion happens when soil takes years to erode and then there is simply no more dirt to fill in the gap. This happens less frequently in soil that is prepared properly. Soil that is ready for composting has already gone through a long process of breakdown, so it already has the elements it needs to break down.
Aerating your soil before you put down your compost also allows the natural movement of air to circulate around the contents of the soil. Air and moisture are necessary for most aerobic bacteria to work. When you aerate the soil, it allows the air pockets to be filled up with oxygen and the moisture from the air helps move the compost along. Both of these things help speed up the decomposition process.
Many people think they can just throw down their organic scraps and compost their material without any soil preparation at all. This couldn’t be further from the truth. If you have tilled soil that has been treated with fertilizer, you should make sure you’ve mixed the fertilizer into the soil, as well as adding some light tillage. All that tilling will only serve to speed up the composting process and nothing else.
A proper soil preparation is essential if you want your compost to break down properly and without much problem. Soil that has been tilled or that has been treated with chemical fertilizers will not work well for most organic materials. Instead, it is best to start with a clean slate. Then, after you’ve put down some good quality organic materials that are ready to decompose, you can add some light tillage. Then, you’re ready to get started on your own compost pile.
Your compost pile needs to be at least a foot deep and should hold at least a cubic yard worth of material. You also need to make sure that you have added at least three inches of gravel to the bottom of your pile. This will help contain any materials that may break down or clump in the process.
Now that you understand more about soil preparation, the process of actually making the compost is a lot simpler. And the result is compost that you can be very proud of. Just give it a good tumbling and mixing process and you’ll have a great new fertilizer that you can be very proud of. It will provide nutrients back to the environment, it will improve the soil’s structure, and it will make your plants healthier.
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