Want the dirt on a great garden?  Look no further!  If you’d love to get your hands on some nice, fresh, organic “black gold” soil – look no further than your backyard!

You can use compost anywhere in your garden, including in and on the soil around trees, flowers, shrubs, vegetables and plants. The rotting process to make beautiful, rich compost happens when organic materials are piled on top of one another, layered and kept moist produces the best thing in the world for things that grow, good healthy compost.

Fresh compost material that is placed on the pile’s surface actually feeds the soil below and helps it to drain better. Having all that product on top attracts worms and other insects to help jump-start the decaying process which causes all kinds of microbial activity.  If you want happy, healthy plants – you’re on your way!

Here are simple steps to help get you started:

1. Find a nice, partially sunny spot for your pile, away from your gardens.
2. Construct a 3′ x 3′ wire cage (the openness allows your pile to breathe and leaves good access for insects).
3. Create a base of broken twigs at the bottom of the pile. This will allow for air flow and drainage.  (It helps it to decompose yet not be a stinky mess!)
   
4. Add a layer of leaves (both green and brown leaves preferably). The mix of green and brown will give you two different additions to your compost pile: Green is nitrogen-rich and brown is carbon-rich. You may also add kitchen scraps too (only vegetation like veggie cuttings, coffee grounds, filters if they are all natural & egg shells, never animal products as they will attract rodents).
5. You can speed up the decomposition process by adding one cup of blood meal, or finished compost which already has all of the necessary micro-organisms and bacterias.
6. Keep the pile moist with moderate watering and turn it with a shovel or pitchfork.

Want more tips on homeowner ship, or thinking of staging your home to put up for sale?  Find more valuable information at our Ocala Real Estate Homepage!  For more detailed statistics or a free market analysis, please call or e-mail us.
Info@TheShultzTeam.com or call us direct at 352-291-1276.

Art & Brigitte Shultz
The Shultz Team
#1 Team at Re/Max Premier Realty
Ocala, FL
Toll Free: 800-243-4087
Direct: 352-291-1276
Info@OcalaVisualTours.com
www.OcalaVisualTours.com
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