How Will Your Garden Grow?

A compost pile can do wonders for your garden.

“Vegetables, like everything else that lives, grow and need food. The minerals that plants need move into the plant root system with the water. … In many soils there are not enough of these minerals to enable plants to grow and do well, so they must be added to complete the diet of the vegetable plant. These additions are usually made in the form of some kind of fertilizer. …

“A compost pile in the corner of the garden can be used as a constant source of organic fertilizer. It also provides a place to put such waste materials as lawn clippings, leaves, and vegetable and fruit peelings.” (Getting Along with Your Garden, Brigham Young University: Benson Institute, 1977.)

To make a compost pile, spread out a layer of waste plant materials about six inches deep. For every ten square feet of this layer, add half a pound of commercial fertilizer containing nitrogen (or add two inches of manure, if preferred), and top it with an inch of soil and enough water to moisten but not soak it. Repeat the process until the pile is four or five feet high. Make sure the top of the pile is indented to form a basin for catching water—important if the pile is to work without an odor.

The temperature of the pile should be between 160° and 170° F., and the temperature can be measured by placing an ordinary thermometer into the top of the pile. If the temperature is too low, the pile is either too wet or too dry.

Woody materials added to the pile need to be shredded; in fact, shredding will help the decomposition of anything used. Do not use diseased plants, seeds and pits, weeds that have gone to seed, fat, or bones. These do not decompose quickly enough and may draw rodents.

This instruction—and more details—come from Getting Along with Your Garden, a brochure published by the Ezra Taft Benson Agriculture and Food Institute, 473 Widtsoe Building, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602. Price: $1.00. Also available for the same price is a new Benson Institute pamphlet, Having Your Food Storage and Eating It, Too.