You don’t have to look far at this time of the year to find the makings for a lot of compost.
Some leaves are already beginning to fall and there are vegetable plants that have yielded their crop and are now ready to go back and replenish the soil.
Compost making, you might say, isn’t in the realm of garden equipment. But it is. Just as in any garden operation.
The right equipment goes a long way in helping you do the job easier and better.
There are many ways to make a compost heap or pile and some people prefer to make compost in a bin.
Important Ingredients For Compost
The most important ingredient in making compost is the green or organic material which breaks down into humus.
This you can’t buy—you have to gather it yourself.
A few examples of what you might use:
- Leaves
- Vegetable tops
- Weeds
- Grass clippings
- Hedge clippings
- Spent annuals
- Above-ground portions of spent perennials
You can even use some of the material that usually goes into the garbage can.
Nature makes its compost in the woods and we use this in the form of leaf mold. But, let’s face it, it takes Nature a long time to break this material down.
For our home garden, we want to compost a little faster.
Compost Activators And Their Types
Here’s where compost activators help. There are two types of compost activators:
- One is a chemical
- The other is bacterial
What the chemical activator does is supply the food for the bacteria which breaks down the vegetable material.
There are preparations made especially for this such as Anco, but you can also use chemical plant food to do the same thing.
The very fast-acting soluble fertilizers seem to work best. RA-Pin-GRo should be very good for this purpose.
Put on in the liquid form, it will not only supply the food for the bacteria but also moisten the compost—and compost has to be kept constantly moist.
Also, what food the bacteria don’t use will remain in the compost to improve the garden.
The other type of activator is bacterial. It is the bacteria themselves in a dormant form.
Here, the theory is that the material will decay faster when there is a great abundance of bacteria. The best-known of this type of activator is ACTIVO.
The strains of bacteria in this activator have been carefully nurtured so that they work with greater speed and efficiency.
Another excellent organic activator is made by BURKLEIGH. I’m tempted to try both kinds on the same compost pile sometime.
Other Equipment Helps
Piling up layers of organic material, soil and activator is only part of making compost. It has to be turned over at least once a year.
The whole mass has to be thoroughly mixed to get even decomposition. 1 remember back in my apprentice days this was a regular job.
It’s best to use a fork for this—either a spading or manure fork. A spade or shovel will be a little difficult.
The mechanized way of preparing compost is to grind the raw material either before it is added to the pile or after it has decomposed.
The W-W Grinders and KEMP SHREDDER are machines that will do both.
My theory is that grinding and using after partial decomposition (about the time it has to be turned) is ideal.
Then there will be material in various stages of decay and the compost will be effective longer in the soil.
For Fall Planting
More and more, fall is becoming an important planting time for many gardeners.
Plants set out now have the jump on spring-set plants because they are just waiting to get off to a quick start without setbacks in the spring.
The only trouble is that the labels attached to fall-planted material are often lost over the winter.
You need good ones because it’s surprising how you can forget the name of something by the time spring comes.
Have you ever noticed the labels used in botanic or display gardens? Many are metal strips with the name embossed on them.
You can make these labels, too. The ROVERS label embosser is a small tool designed for the home gardener.
It is a self-contained unit with a supply of metal for tags, a hole-punching mechanism, and a cut-off device.
Planting bulbs, though, is the real fall-planting operation. A good bulb planter helps a lot.
There are many types on the market, small and large, but I prefer the larger ones. One in particular that I have used is DON’S DANDY DIGGER.
This is a rugged tool with a step on the side for extra leverage with the foot. It also has inches marked on the side so it isn’t necessary to measure the depth of the hole.
The diameter of the hole is over 3 inches, which is large enough for all but the largest bulbs.
Beware Of Problems: Insects Aren’t Relaxing
Even though the weather may be getting a little cooler, it is no indication that insects are relaxing. They’re still on the rampage.
Insects and diseases are active even in the more northerly areas up into October.
lf the insects aren’t relaxing, we shouldn’t relax our use of the sprayer and duster. Don’t forget either that the mildew disease is very damaging in the fall.
It might be a good idea, then, to look over your spraying equipment. If you need a new sprayer you can’t go wrong with the HUDSON line.
They make a sprayer for every need. If it’s a power sprayer you want, they have the 10-gallon Suburban.
They have standard compression-type sprayers in three sizes: 4, 3 1/2, and 2-gallon capacities.
One of their newest sprayers is the Hydra-Gun which is a powerful hand-action sprayer. It comes in two sizes.
44659 by William L. Meachem