Making Compost with grass and leaves

I have been saving rather than bagging my leaves each year and placing them along with the leaves I rake up later in the summer from hot weather, to make a bed of compost for planting things like bell peppers and jalapenos. The jalapenos really love it when, after having them sprout from seeds in small pots, I then remove them and place them in larger pots, about 3 to 5 gallon pots using lots of backyard mulch, then topping it off with top soil and then giving them plenty of water and placing the potted jalapenos on the porch so they are not in direct sunlight because in Dallas, during the heat of the summer months, it really gets too much heat and the plant can dry out too fast therefore making it impossible for the plant to thrive. I find they like it best in half shade or sitting on the porch and I water them daily.

Compost made simply from grass clippings and leaves, raked after mowing the lawn as well as leaves that fall year round due to hot weather days, can eventually decompose and produce lots of organic nutrients for any plant. I have never had a problem growing plants with 80 % compost at the bottom of the pot and 20 % top soil and or miracle grow potting medium soil. Watering them frequently is good for them and the compost base is porous enough to allow proper drainage.

I usually will get a shovel and turn over the compost once every so many months. I tend to slack in that department. It takes effort to produce good compost for a garden. Watering the compost pile, spread evenly across an area partitioned around it by landscape timbers, allows even amounts be spread out to decompose more quickly. At the bottom of any compost area, nearest the ground, will be faster to turn to soil. The need to add other elements like leftover table scraps of vegetables not eaten and buried just under the compost with a shovel on a regular basis will speed up the process of proper decomposition. You can always buy manure and add that to the compost and keeping it turned over and over insures a full level of compost to be viable for the next year to use in the garden both for adding nutrients into the garden but to provide a source of holding more moisture and some winter plants can be lightly covered in compost to prevent freezing of the near surface roots.

It takes all kinds of patience to garden. The one thing you need to learn is from practice and learning more about creating compost from raw materials such as organic materials from leaves, grass, twigs and left over vegetable table scraps and extra manure can be easily realized from personal experience and over time and learning more about organic composting from online sources, you might be surprised at the results in your personal backyard garden. The earth worms and the other insects will thank you and so will the birds.