It's well known that one of the greatest assets in your garden can be the addition of compost to the soil to produce the wonderful crops you dseire. The benefits of healthy soil will turn your garden into an oasis of desirable plants; you will be assured of a rewarding experience in your backyard and a successful harvest.



However, it's not good enough to just buy topsoil from the local garden centre as a quick fix and think, Oh! That's easy! Mother Nature is more demanding than that. Even if you have a bottomless wallet its just not feasible to keep buying topsoil, after all, you're just buying what the garden centre recommends, which still needs looking after anyway. As with everything, if you don't put in, you won't get out.

So to keep your soil in top shape you need to be able to understand its needs, and how to keep it healthy, and then, and only then, will you reap the rewards your hard work deserves. There's no rocket science involved here, just simple procedures which will make gardening easier and very rewarding. Unfortunately, these days it seems that society in general has become very wasteful. Daily we read stories that our planet is under threat because of this. It's been reported that in the US alone, garden and food scraps make up 30% of the waste stream. Now there's no better place to address this than in your own backyard; in reality what this means is that a large portion of your garbage can be recycled and reused as fertilizer for your garden.

Instead of dumping your families' biodegradable waste into the garbage bin and sending it off to landfill, or water treatment facilities, you can compost it and divert it on to your own garden in the form of valuable humus, which is a wonderful food for our plants and flowers. Another great benefit of home composting is that it will save you money as you won't need to buy fertilizer.

First of all diagnose what soil you have and its deficiencies, as its condition will reflect on how well your plants will grow.

Nutrients in the garden soil are most readily available to plants at a pH neutral range of around 6-7 so you should aim to get your garden soil to this level and keep it in this range. An easy to use test kit or soil meter can be purchased and used to help you determine the pH level of your soil. Amendments can then be added to the soil to achieve this neutral pH reading.

Sandy, Clay or Loam are the three basic types of soil, with loam being the ultimate choice as it allows good drainage and aeration, so that your plants roots have a good supply of necessary oxygen. Now the cheapest and most beneficial way to obtain the loam you desire and to keep your soil healthy lies in your decision to recycle your kitchen and garden waste.

First choose the best alternative for your situation, taking into account your budget, the location of your composting site and making sure your neighbors are given some consideration. The various ways of making compost include making a pile in some out of the way corner of your garden, using a container or bin or buying some worms to help with the process of breaking down the kitchen and garden waste. I prefer to use a compost bin as they are very easy to use and come in a large range of types and sizes to suit most budgets and landscapes. You'll find they perform better out of the wind and direct sunlight and directions on how to use compost bins usually accompany them.

At the end of the process, which should take about 6-8 weeks in an average size compost bin, you should have rich brown crumbly compost with a pleasant earthy smell. This is then used to enrich the soil by digging it into the garden beds. This is forever ongoing, so you will be able to use the proceeds from your kitchen and garden waste to keep your soil healthy and in return for your labor will be rewarded with great tasting fruit and vegetables. What a great way to save the planet.