Why compost ?!?

[nayeli]

You can also compost with red worms, that speeds up the composting process and provides you with worms which you can use for fishing, feed to your chickens and ducks, and sell!

 

[Teery]

I would like to think of my husband and I to be pretty self-sufficient, we hunt our own meat, raise chickens, garden, etc...

I've heard of alot of people composting, but have no idea why! I am still pretty young and would love to learn as much as I can on self sufficiency, and heard that composting is important.

So I would love for anyone who knows composting 101 for some info..why compost, and exactly what goes into a compost pile?!?

In my circumstance, I live in a area that was once farmed and is still farmed less than a mile away. We have sandy soil lacking nutrients. I compost and work it into the soil. As I do this, my harvest yield and water (moisture) retention improves. I grow strictly heirloom seeds and I use no chemical pesticides or chemical fertilizer. The compost is my fertilizer and I enhance it with worm castings and worm tea.

My organic pesticide of choice is neem oil mixed with organic liquid soap as a wetting agent along with water. This solution doesn't kill the insects unless they eat the leaf with the neem residue on it. It has little to no effect on the beneficial insects (i.e. pollinators, predator insects) and it won't hurt animals or humans..... The best way to apply the solution is with a electric atomizer (but you can use a sprayer) that cost about $250.00. The atomizer applies the solution in a fine mist (fog) and a gallon of the solution can do about a 1/4 of an acre of garden. Good neem oil isn't cheap (super clean neem is what I use along with Doctor Bonner Sal Suds as the organic soap). The neem costs $40.00 for 16 ounces and you use about an ounce to two ounces per application with an atomizer.

When I apply it is usually in the evening just before it gets to dark. The neem will last on the plant for 3 to 4 days depending on weather. I apply it once a week. It also helps with common leaf diseases like powdery mold and leaf blight.

If you are growing hybrids, they are more resistant to insects and other leaf diseases but they are not infallible so it does help to use neem. I like heirloom as the taste of the vegetables in my opinion is better. Of course, taste is subjective.