Article submitted by Wee

Have you ever wondered why there are so many fertilisers on the shelves in your local garden centres? And have you ever wondered "are they any good? and can you do without any of them?". The simple answer is "Yes" and you will also save money too plus you get the benefit of chemical free harvests. I will show you how briefly how to make your own rich manure here;-

1. Get yourself a good quality Heavy Duty, Micro-Cut, Paper Shredder.

2. Start collecting scrap paper at work, home and from friends. Pile them up for the weekend in a dry place and shred them once a week or a fortnight, whatever time you can afford.

3. Take your shredded paper and mix them in your Com-poster with all the foliage that is already in there (which you painstakingly collected during the autumn) and any food wastes from your kitchen. Keep turning them over every time you visit the Com-poster. The earthworms will also help you, they loved all the foliage that is in there and will quickly turn it into beautiful rich compost. Remember, it is the foliage that you put in there that is attracting and encouraging the earthworms to be there in the first place.

4. Have as many Com-poster as you can afford to have in your growing area and rotate them in use marking them out by age you started. The aim is to use the compost from the oldest Com-Poster. You don't need to buy a Com-poster (you can make them up) or just allocate a composting area somewhere. However, it is always nice if you can confine an area for "composting". It just makes your garden or allotment look tidy.

5. When your compost is ready to use. Dig them into the soil you will be growing your crops on. You will find the soil will retain water better because of all the shredded paper you put into it and will help to release the fertiliser from your compost very slowly to feed the plants. Last summer, everybody is watering the plants in the allotment (except me) and I am harvesting crops while they are all busy watering their plants. The soil around my plants are wet because it is retaining water well and releasing water to the plants only when the plants need it. The plant feed itself as and when it needed food and water.

6. Don't think you can achieve what I achieved in one year. You need to work at the soil for many years before it can become self managed and even then you need to continue and keep up with the soil maintenance continuously. Gardening is NOT a Sprint, it os a Marathon.

Happy Gardening - use the money you saved (from not buying Miracle Grow and other types of chemical fertiliser) to buy seeds or treat yourself with a new fruit tree or grow healthy berries.