The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Small Home Landscaping

In autumn, leaves are plentiful, usually burned on every street. All become excellent humus in your compost pile and will do much to keep your soil in condition and reduce the cost of fertilizer.

Choose a corner of the garden which may be screened off, if necessary (see the Landscape Plans). You may make the pile by digging a shallow pit or build it right on ground level. Start the pile by placing several inches of leaves or coarse materials like corn stalks, flower stalks or the like on the ground. The size of the pile will be determined by the space you have as well as the amount of materials you expect to collect. (Where there are quantities of material two piles should be made.)

As materials become available they are added to the pile. When a layer of this is some six inches thick, sprinkle some manure or fertilizer, then a light layer of good garden soil. Then the next layer is begun. The pile is so built until about five to six feet high.

The manure or fertilizer acts as a sort of activator to get the materials fermenting. But the pile must have water. Moisture is needed to make good compost and to prevent the materials from overheating, perhaps catching fire.

Just when the compost will be ready to use in the garden will depend upon the time of the year it is made as well as the materials used. Green materials collected in summer and kept moist will be ready for the garden in autumn. Leaves and other materials collected in the fall and piled up for winter may take much longer. These can be broken down, i.e., rotted faster by using the suggested manure or fertilizer. Turning the pile over and mixing it all together after a couple of months speeds the rotting process.

Compost is excellent for spreading over the roots of trees, shrubs, hedges and flowers; also, for digging into the vegetable garden. Do not use it on the lawn, especially if there is a suspicion that weeds with seeds were used in the pile. Also, keep diseased and insect ridden plants out by burning them.