Each fall one of the most celebrated and iconic natural displays is the changing colors of leaves. This beautiful visual show of natural color comes out in bright splashes of red, orange and yellow just before the leaves start to fall for winter. What many don’t know is that those falling leaves can actually be applied to your lawn or garden as powerful compost to help boost your plant growth!

The first step to making effective compost is to gather the leaves so they don’t harm your lawn. Either use a rake or leaf-blower and gather all the leaves on your property into one area. Leaving the your fall leaves spread across your lawn can actually cause your grass and smaller plants to suffer root rot and promote the growth of dangerous molds. For this reason, it’s important that you clear away fall leaves even if you aren’t planning to compost them.

The next step to making compost is to break down the leaves into a more workable form. To accomplish this step you can take a shredder to the pile of gathered leaves or a lawn-mower with attached-bag. The main hurdle to be jumped in this step is to shred the leaves into fine, easily decomposed segments while not scattering them all over your lawn and yard.

The composting process can be long and tedious. In some cases a single batch of compost can take in the upwards of two years or more to fully mature. To help ensure that your leaves compost at a decent rate and produce a rich mulch you should add in additional materials such as coffee grounds or eggs. The best compost is made from a healthy balance of nitrogen and carbon. Leaves provide an exceptional source of carbon and old vegetables and other biodegradable materials can easily supplement the necessary nitrogen. This gives you the perfect blend of compost for mulching.

The churning process is key to the effect decomposition of compost materials. Every other month you should make it a point to turn and stir your compost materials to ensure that they are circulated with oxygen and able to decompose at an even rate. This will facilitate the compost process and give you a healthier, richer mulch.

Once the compost is ready you can begin applying it to your garden or lawn. The ideal way to apply compost is to spread it evenly and lightly. Make sure you don’t use too much compost or pack it too tightly as this will cut off the oxygen from your lawn or garden.

Keeping a consistent and healthy amount of water on your garden or lawn is very important. The ideal way to ensure that you don’t over water your garden or lawn but still maintain a healthy soil moisture is with a powerful irrigation system. Drip irrigation provides a one-of-a-kind and precise way to apply irrigation to your home garden.

Composting and Drip System are both easy and effective ways to generate nutrient-rich mulch for your home garden or soil and virtually all of the ingredients are provided for you by nature! With a tiny time and effort and the use of Drip Irrigation you can easily reap the rewards of powerful compost. Irrigation Systems can be a great way to ensure that you get the most out of your home garden this year with precise and accurate watering and minimal effort.

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