Garden Compost Bin: The key to a healthy garden.

We set up a Garden compost bin this past weekend as a great addition for our Hoop House Greenhouse.

It was a fun project, that my 3 year old son loved.

Once the bin was set-up we were onto cleaning some of our self watering containers and while spraying them out with the hose we found a number of earthworms whow must of came out because of the moisture.

It was perfect timing. We added them to our newly set-up compost bin. My son now refers to the garden compost binas the worm castle.

It is estimated that 1/3 of an average families compost waste can be composted. The amount of waste that canbe saved from our land fills is pretty amazing, not to mention that it can be used to grow our own food in our ownbackyards.

We get something for free that we would otherwise throw away.

And although composting is made out to be difficult it really isn't. There are a few things to keep in mindand a list of items that can and cannot be added, and if these simple rules are followed, well then it is simple.

Our organic household waste decomposes, turning into a very nutrient rich soil that helps to fertilize our gardens.Produce enough compost and there is no need for chemical fertilizers.

Just keep adding the compost to your garden when ever the opportunity presents itself. Any time you take out a weed, or plant a new plant add some fresh compost. Add itas a seasonal dressing to your garden to add nutrients.

Here is the Garden Compost Bin that we recently installed:

1. The ground was leveled for the bin.

2. We laid down some newspaper to prevent and of the weeds or grass from growing up into the compost bin. Newspaper works as a cheap alternative to ground cover. You can punch a couple of holes into it with a pen for drainage.

   A fine mesh wire or some chicken wire can be laid down and bent a couple of inches up the sides to prevent rodents, andother vermine from getting into the compost bin. If the list of items that can be added is followed then pests shouldn'tbe a problem anyway.

3. When the bin is in place you can start with a 2 inch layer of "Brown" Waster Materials. And alternatefrom Greens and browns from there.

We Started our compost bin from some soil that we had left over from some of our self watering containers, along with sometea bags and other waste materials from our garden.

The soil that we added was bone dry so we watered it and mixed it until it was as moist as a wrung out sponge.

We then added the worms that we found in our yard, and have continued to add worms and other materials to build up the compost.

It's been fun, my three year old son has loved it, and refers to it as the Worm Castle. One of our next projects will be a Worm bin. Stay tuned.