The most important part of growing an organic home garden is properly preparing the soil. What you're trying to do is create a rich, nutrient filled soil without using the aid of chemical products. After all, you want the final product to be as healthy as possible, no matter what you are growing. The best, and most natural way to do this is by starting a compost pile.

Why Compost?

Creating a compost pile is beneficial for many reasons, especially when growing an organic home garden. It's a way of naturally creating a soil additive that contains all of the nutrients and organisms that are essential to successful gardening. In addition to this, it's also a way to reduce the amount of trash you have by reusing your garden and kitchen scraps. There are numerous materials that you can naturally recycle in your compost pile.

Getting Started

Long before you begin planting your organic home garden, you will want to create your compost pile. There are about as many different techniques for composting as there are people who do it. Fortunately, composting is not an exact science. You can pile up just about any biodegradable materials, and eventually, it will break down into compost. There are, however, techniques for speeding up the process and maximizing the benefits that this material offers.

There are four basic ingredients in any good compost pile – carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and water. This can be as easy or difficult as you want it to be. There are numerous materials you can use to make your pile, from lawn clippings to kitchen scraps, but you can get these four basic elements by using grass clippings and leaves. Grass clippings will provide the carbon, and you can get nitrogen from adding the leaves that you collect in the fall. Your pile should get enough water from the rain that falls, but you may have to water it occasionally. Try to make the top of your pile slightly concave so that the water doesn't run off. To get the proper amount of oxygen you simply need to mix or turn your pile from time to time. This will create air pockets that will provide it with the oxygen it needs.

It will generally take several months to get compost that is suitable for your organic home garden, so make sure you begin right away if you are planning to grow one. The more you mix your pile, the faster it will break down. Use caution though, because if you mix it too much, the pile will become to hot and possibly destroy some of the organisms that you need to be successful. A good compost pile will eventually provide your organic home garden with all of the nutrients and bacteria that it needs.