Our both magnificent and monstrous concrete civilization expands and brings new technologies along the way, there is some sort of green nostalgia, as we may call it, that is taking people over the world to gain interest in the gardening arts as a pastime activity for retired people as well as a relaxing hobby for youths asphyxiated by pollution and wanting to test their sense of responsibility. Nowadays there is even urban agriculture for people living in apartments in buildings located in big cities. 

Gardening is a very interesting and fulfilling field and there might be quite a few reasons you did not know about a process called Composting and how you can use your lawn clippings for the environmentally friendly home production of organic fertilizers. 

What is Composting? 

Composting is basically the process of monitored decomposition of organic and easily bio-degradable material into compost, which is an organic humus resulting from the action of aerobic bacteria, worms, fungus and some other organisms in organic material that has been piled up for this aim. It's a process that can take from 5 months up to a year or two and results in a totally organic fertilizer made from disposable organic and fast-biodegrading material

How does Composting work?

This very easily performed process of creating natural fertilizers pends in the interaction of Carbon and Nitrogen, mainly. Carbon would then, heat up the material and be present mainly in brown organic material such as wooden sticks, dry leaves and even cardboard. On the other hand, high nitrogen-containing organic material is either green or colorful such as fresh leaves, lawn clippings, and fruit skin and plays a critical role in the reproduction of organisms in charge of decomposing the matter as researches from The University of Illinois have stated 

Green Waste 

The raw material from which we will be obtaining lovely nutritious Compost, we can call Green Waste. It basically consists of the mixture of our green material (Leaves, grass clippings) and our brown material (Wooden sticks, dry leaves) with measured inputs of water according to the specific composting process. 

The Carbon-Nitrogen Ratio 

This is the term for the quantity of Carbon versus the quantity of Nitrogen used in our organic material mix so it can decompose properly and be transformed into compost. The portion of green material (Nitrogen) against Brown material (Carbon) determines the kind of composting process you will be performing as it can be hot composting depending on this ratio. 

Hot Composting using Grass Clippings 

If you want to have your compost all broken down, black and nutritious for your plants, the quickest way, but also the most dedicated one, you must put in your mix 2 parts of Carbon to 1 part of Nitrogen, so the bacteria grows rapidly in the organic matter, heating it up to 141AF to 151AF. This elevated temperature will help us get rid of seaweed and malicious as well as infectious organic material

Tips on Hot Composting 

First of all, you can easily build a wooden box about 120 centimeters tall to pile up your compost and keep it well monitored for all the time the process might take, which should be around 5 months. After building your wooden box, pile up and mix the green and brown material and add some water (not that much) and try to leave spaces for the mixture to get oxygen, some material such as straws can facilitate that oxygen entrance. You should also flip down the pile every two or three weeks to allow it to breath and to keep its heat so it burns out infectious material and breaks down the pile into that dark nutritious material that has been called the Gardener's black gold, as some well-recognized gardeners have called it.

Cold Composting 

If you dispose of a longer period to compost your clippings and disposable material, you can go for cold composting as it requires less effort but will take approximately twice the time Hot Composting. You don't have to be rigorous either on the quantity of green and brown material you use, normally some material is added with the passage of time but it has been recommended that this material does not include diseased plants or rotting material as the absence of heat may allow seaweed and rotting infectious material to expand, as fine gardening's experts point out. 

Tips on Cold Composting 

Avoid using human or animal waste in your pile. Try not to include Weeds in your green waste as this method doesn't count on the heat that eliminates weed in the Hot Composting Method. You can also use a lot of goods easily available in most households: newspapers, cardboard, coffee grounds, pasta, dry crackers, Eggshells and hair, are some good examples, as the Old farmer's almanac points out 

What are the Benefits and Advantages of Composting? 

Composting, whether hot or cold, means recycling and recycling means taking responsibility for your future and the future of your grandsons and humanity plus it brings a productive alternative of residual disposal for you that can help your own plants to grow healthier and stronger. Whether farming is your main activity or if you are interested in it as a hobby and find peace and poetry in the work put into your plant's care, Composting is an interesting process that involves mainly Nitrogen, Carbon, Oxygen, Water, Fungi, Worms and aerobic bacteria in the controlled transformation of organic waste (from or lawn for instance) into a healthy and nutritious home-made fertilizer. 

How can lawn mowing help you save money and improve the productivity of your crops? 

Many people think of mowing the lawn as a boring, almost meaningless process, but the reality is that as standard grass mowers have attached to them a bag to collect the grass clippings left from cutting, they can easily gather some good amounts of grass clippings that contain significant quantities of nitrogen. They can be sold or used home or in your farm, as the make half of the material we need to produce high quality fertilizers with fully organic supplies that otherwise would fill your garbage bin with no utility.