Benefits of Death

So everyone probably knows something about the cycle of life and death from various interpretations of Lion King. In terms of gardening, however, it is more like the cycle of fruit and compost. The wonderful thing about plants is that even when it is dead and essentially useless in terms of bearing fruit, you can just chuck it in the compost bin and use its remains to spruce up the soil for the next cycle of plants.

For more active members of HOPE, you'll probably think "Are those the apples leftover from the pie baking episode?" If that is your thought process, then you are correct! We took the remaining apples that were getting rather soft and dumped it in our outside compost bin.

Good compost consists of two types of materials, browns (carbon-rich materials like dried leaves and wood chips) and greens (nitrogen-rich materials like freshly dead plants 🌱 leftover apples fall in this category). The browns should be in a higher quantity than the greens, forming a ratio of about 25-30:1 or 25-30 parts carbon-rich to one part nitrogen-rich.

So once we collect enough dead organic matter, can we just dump it in the soil and call it a day? Well we can once we consistently add water to it, mix it up, and store it in a dark place for about 4 months. This creates the perfect environment for bacteria to slowly break up the organic matter into plant absorbable nutrients. The end result should be this lovely dark crumbly stuff.

So that's about it. See ya next week!