by Sammy Stein

Created on: January 07, 2011

Every garden is a community - a community of plants, the soil environment, the micro sphere of fauna and flora in which bacteria, fungi, soil animals and mites all play their part. It has predators, prey and should be a balanced community where each plant, organisms and habitat area survives and relates to the site overall. However, in the garden, crops are harvested, grass mown, flowers picked, shrubs pruned and with each of these activities a range of nutrients are taken away and potentially removed from the garden.

As well as this, leaves fall from the trees, weeds are dug up and plants are thinned, new ones added, old ones removed and many other things so you begin to realise that far from being stable, the garden community is constantly changing or being changed by the activities carried out and the different needs put on the space.

Therefore, it makes sense to encourage as much recycling as possible so that nutrients are never permanently lost or are replaced as soon as they are taken from the garden in order that plants remaining have access to the range of nutrients they need for different activities over the year. This will help the garden remain productive and in effect produce its own recyclable material for the coming season.

It is unavoidable that some nutrients will be lost due to cropping and harvesting so fruit, flowers and vegetables are removed from the garden altogether and in this case, the nutrients lost can be replaced by recycling not from the garden itself but from other sources. Your kitchen is probably the best source of organic material suitable for renewing the gardens nutrient supplies in the form of a home-made compost heap. Create one or buy a proprietary compost bin and use your vegetable scraps, crushed egg shells, old papers (shredded) and even coffee grinds to create a compost heap which will provide long-term , slow release fertilisers for the garden. Use home made compost to condition the soil, add a layer of mulch or dig it into improve soil structure. However you use it, it helps return lost nutrients and provide the plants with what they need.

The garden itself can provide material for the compost in the form of plant parts (not too woody), leaves, lawn clippings (mix with paper) and almost anything apart from perennial weed parts and weed seeds. Add them to the compost heap to make an even richer source of compostablematerial for the garden.

It is not only material for compost which can help replace lost

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