Do you ask yourself what is composting and why should I bother making my own compost? The reason people invest their time in composting can vary with each individual because there are many attractive benefits to composting.  Two main benefits include:

Environmental benefits:
By composting your organic materials, valuable nutrients and organic matter are effectively being recycled instead of being sent to the landfill where it will just sit for years and years. By composting your organic waste, you helped alleviate a portion of the solid waste problem! And it is a big problem with garbage mountains growing tall worldwide.  Every bit helps.

Compost benefits your garden and soil:
Compost contains macro and micro nutrients that are critical to healthy plant growth and it releases these nutrients slowly over time. In sandy soils compost helps to retain water and nutrients and in hard clay soil it helps to loosens tightly bound particles so roots spread, water drains and air penetrates.

And here are the top 10 reasons to make your own compost:

It’s earth-friendly: Food scraps and yard waste make up at least 20-30% of the waste stream in most communities. Making compost keeps these materials out of landfills, where they take up precious space and release methane gas.  

Compost benefits your yard: Compost improves soil structure and texture, increases soils ability to hold both water and air, improves soil fertility, and stimulates healthy root development in plants.

Composting saves money: Adding compost to your garden can reduce or eliminate the need to buy chemical fertilizers or compost. If you pay for the amount of trash and yard waste hauled, composting can also cut down on your trash removal costs.

Composting is easy: You can start with yard waste like leaves and grass, then work your way towards composting your food scraps. Use a compost bin, a compost tumbler or why not a worm bin!. Or go advanced and get a bokashi composting bucket and ferment your kitchen waste including fish, meat, bones, and dairy!

Composting is fun!: Really, it is a lot of fun and very rewarding to see your organic household trash transform into useful compost for your garden instead of sending it to our landfills to let future generations deal with it.

Making your own compost is safe: When you make your own compost you know it’s safe for your plants and that it will help to grow healthy food for your family. Read more about possible herbicide carryover in purchased compost.

Compost feeds the soil: Compost returns important nutrients to the soil slowly. And compost also increases the soils ability to hold on to those nutrients.

You have to water less:  Compost retains lots of water and increases your garden’s drought resistance.

Compost promotes healthy roots: When mixed in with your garden soil, plants can produce deeper roots over a wider area for healthy and strong plant growth.

Your neighbors and friends will think you are really cool: Well, maybe they won’t but we certainly will!

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