Gardening requires manure, which you normally buy from the market at high price. You can easily prepare organic manure at home from the kitchen waste and grow healthy plants in your garden without creating a hole in your pocket. The manure will help the plants by increasing its genetic strength of absorbing the nutrients from the soil. Moreover, you will save your plants from the harmful effects of chemical fertilisers.
Instructions- Difficulty: Easy
Things you will need:
A hand shovel
Kitchen waste
Dry leaves for covering
Hose or watering can
Compost bin
Vegetable peelings (green material)
Cardboard boxes, like egg boxes, and other types of paper packets.
Steps
Step One
After taking the decision preparing manure at home you have to first of all decide about the place where you will collect all the kitchen waste and allow it to decompose to form the final product. You can either dig a pit of nearly one or one and a half feet deep in a place in your garden, which is away from direct view but convenient for your working in the garden. On the other hand, you can buy a compost bin and start preparing your manure in the bin.
Step Two
If you are using a bin then you should always cover the top of the bin but keep one side of the bin open so that you can easily add the materials and frequently use the shovel to turn the added matters so that decomposition takes place quickly and your manure is ready within a short period. However, if you are using a pit, you should cover the pit with soil, but if you live in a rain prone area then you should always use a bin that is tightly covered from the top so that water will not enter into the collected waste.
Step Three
You can also buy some earthworms from the market and put them in the pit or the bin if you want to quicken the process of getting manure from the collected waste. However, do not use leftovers that have spices or excreta of carnivorous animals. The right mixture of brown and green waste will maintain the right humidity in your pit or bin, which will prove helpful in quickening the process of manure formation.
Step Four
You can also add egg shells, rotten eggs, fruit peels, and other type of waste papers and biodegradable materials from the kitchen or from other parts of the house. However, you should always ensure that the humidity level of the collected waste does not reduce to an extent that the matter in the bin or the pit becomes dry as this will create obstruction in the formation of the manure.
Step Five
You should always sprinkle water in the summer season in the bin or the pit where you are making the manure. You should also keep on turning over the collected material frequently to increase the speed of manure formation. To verify the right level of moisture, you can touch the collected material while turning it over, and it should give a feeling of a squeezed sponge. You can start using the manure when you find that it has turned into a crumbly brown matter, which has a earthy smell.
Tips
- Always maintain the right level of moisture and use gloves while turning over the collected waste material.
- If you allow the manure to mature it will have a better effect on the plants.
- You can use the water used for washing grains and vegetables for sprinkling on the dry materials collected for the formation of manure.
Warning
- Do not put any type of oil, or oily food in the collected waste.
- Do not add meat or fish or sick plants or weed seeds in the collected waste as this type of manure will harm your plants.
