Grow Your Own Compost

Buy this, buy that. Then get some of these, and a handful of these, then some more of that, and a few of those…

Gardening can get expensive if you do it the “normal” way.

Consider these rough numbers on building a 4′ x 8′ bed:

(3) 1″ x 8″ x 96″ Cedar boards = $65.00
(8) Bags of mushroom/cow manure or other bagged compost = $40.00
(5) 6-packs of vegetable transplants = $15.00
(1) box of screws = $4.00

TOTAL: $124.00

Now really, $124.00 isn’t a bad price to pay. Over time, a garden bed will pay for itself in homegrown organic produce, provided you don’t count in the labor costs. (If you do, all is lost… so don’t. There will be tears.)

However, what if you didn’t need to spend all that money?

If you wanted to, you could give up the Most Noble Constrained Order of Raised Beds and just double dig. You could also grow your own transplants from seed, which is another money saver. Beyond that, there’s the compost.

If you’re worth your salt as a gardener, you’re already composting – yet I daresay very few of us create enough compost to meet our gardening needs. Most gardeners simply throw in some yard waste and whatever comes out of the kitchen, creating a measly few buckets of good stuff in a year.

More enterprising composters will wander their towns and neighborhoods in search of piles of grass clippings, rotten straw, manure and even rotten vegetables from local dumpsters.

Yes. I’ve done that.

The ultimate in composting, however, is to grow your own from scratch...

(Read the rest over at The Prepper Project).