Tools You Need for Composting
All the tools you really need to start composting are a long-handled fork, a spade or shovel, and something with which to chop up larger stems and prunings. But like most jobs in the garden, having the right tools for the task makes it a whole lot easier. Here's a list of the best tools for basic composting tasks:
Mixing things up with a pitchfork or compost fork: Pitchforks and compost forks have four or five long, thin, tapered, and upward-curving tines designed to efficiently glide into a pile of organic material, allowing you to hoist and pitch it to a new location. These forks are perfect for moving large clumps of bulky, lightweight organic matter, such as hay, straw, leaves, and plant trimmings. Use them to build new compost piles and turn them until the organic matter is fairly decomposed.
Digging in with a soil fork: A soil fork is useful for turning almost-finished compost or digging heavy finished compost from the pile and incorporating it into garden beds.
Digging and moving dirt with shovels and spades: Generally, a shovel is a tool designed for moving material, with a raised lip on each side of the blade to stop bits from falling off. A spade has a sharp, straight head and is used for digging. Shovels and spades are available in various styles, with slight variations to enhance specific gardening tasks, such as trenching for irrigation lines, edging lawns, or transplanting perennials:
Rounded-blade shovel: A rounded-blade shovel serves as an all-purpose tool for gardening tasks such as turning almost-finished compost, shoveling finished compost from a bin, incorporating compost into garden beds, and digging transplant holes in already-loose, sandy, or loamy soils.
Pointed-blade shovel: A pointed-blade shovel is the most versatile choice if you buy only one digging implement. It performs the same chores as the rounded-blade shovel, while also allowing easier digging into compacted clay soils. The pointed blade is useful for chopping up organic matter into smaller pieces before tossing it into the compost pile.
Keeping things moist with a good-quality hose: In composting, easy access to water is important because moisture is an essential component of a successful composting effort. A cheap hose will plague you forever, kinking, cracking, and refusing to coil easily until you finally give up and buy a better one. Splurge on a good-quality hose at the outset and add a nozzle that allows you to turn the flow on and off.
Moving compost in buckets or tarps: Compost transport around the garden can be as thrifty and low-tech as a heavy-duty plastic builder's bucket or a tarp. A bucket is ideal for moving small quantities of compost.
Hauling compost with wheelbarrows or garden carts: If you generate a lot of compost and have a big yard with lots of plants and planting areas to haul your lovely compost to, a wheelbarrow or garden cart is an asset. They come in all sizes, shapes, and weights.
Gardening Glossary
annuals
Plants that complete their entire life cycle within one growing season. The plant germinates from seed, grows and blooms, and then produces seed and dies.
Gardening Glossary
biennials
A plant that take two growing seasons to complete its life cycle. It germinates and grows leaves and stems in the first year; produces flowers and fruit (seed) in the second, and then dies.
Gardening Glossary
bolt
When a plant flowers or produces seed prematurely.
Gardening Glossary
cold frame
A wooden or concrete block box in which you can grow plants or hold dormant during the cold winter months.
Gardening Glossary
cole crops
A family of vegetables, including broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and Brussels sprouts. They thrive in cooler weather.
Gardening Glossary
complete fertilizer
Any fertilizer that contains all three of the primary nutrients, N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium). Phrase is based on regulations governing the fertilizer industry. Does not mean that the fertilizer literally contains everything a plant needs to thrive.
Gardening Glossary
deadheading
The practice of pinching or cutting off spent flowers
Gardening Glossary
evaporative-pad humidifier
A humidifier in which fans blow across a moisture-laden pad that sits in a reservoir of water.
Gardening Glossary
harden off
The process of acclimating plants grown indoors gradually to the brighter light and cooler temperatures of the outside world.
Gardening Glossary
hardiness
The ability of a plant to survive is called its hardiness.
Gardening Glossary
humus
A stable end product of organic-matter decomposition that's believed to increase microbial activity in soil, improve soil structure, and enhance the root development of plants.
Gardening Glossary
Bacillus thuringiensis Bt
An effective bacteria that attacks only the larvae of caterpillar family insects. It is safe to other insects, animals, and humans.
Gardening Glossary
macronutrients
Mineral nutrients that plants need in the largest quantities: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur.
Gardening Glossary
mulch
Organic or inorganic material placed over the surface of soil, usually directly over the root zone of growing plants. Used to conserve moisture, kill weed seedlings, modify soil temperature, provide attractive covering to garden beds.
Gardening Glossary
organic matter
Once-living stuff like compost, sawdust, animal manure, ground bark, grass clippings, and leaf mold (composted tree leaves). Used to enrich soil and improve soil texture.
Gardening Glossary
perennials
Any plant with a life cycle of three or more years. Herbaceous (non-woody) perennials include flowering plants and herbs, mainly. Woody perennials include trees and shrubs. Longevity depends on the plant and growing conditions.
Gardening Glossary
pH
The measure of soil's acidity. Soil with low pH means it's too acidic; soil with high pH means it's alkaline. Most plants grow best in soil with a pH value between 6.5 and 7.2. Neutral soils measure 7.
Gardening Glossary
photosynthesis
The process through which plants take nutrients from the air and from the water in the soil to produce sugars that fuels the plant's growth.
Gardening Glossary
primary nutrients
Nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium are the three nutrients plants need in the largest quantities.
Gardening Glossary
root crops
Plants with edible underground roots such as onions, carrots, beets, potatoes, turnips. Most root crops are cold-weather crops.
Gardening Glossary
self-blanching
A type of cauliflower with leaves that naturally curl over the head and exclude light. Requires cool temperatures for leaves to curl effectively.
Gardening Glossary
sets
Small onion bulbs, about 1/2-inch wide, that were started from seed the previous year. Grow onion sets with the pointy end up.
Gardening Glossary
side-dressing
The act of adding a small amount of fertilizer around or "on the side" of plants after they're growing.
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succession planting
Planting small, 2-to-4-foot patches of plants every two weeks throughout the growing season so that you can harvest a crop over an extended period of time.
Gardening Glossary
thinning
The act of cutting the least robust seedlings in your garden to give the healthier plants more room to grow.
Gardening Glossary
vining crops
Crops that grow on vines, such as cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, and winter squash. They usually require support (staking, trellising, etc.) to keep them off the ground.
