May has some great national gardening celebrations in it – the month of May is Gardening for Wildlife Month and May 29 is Learn About Composting Day!

You can create a wildlife friendly garden to help local native wildlife and pollinators! Follow these steps to create a wildlife friendly garden:

• Provide a food source. Use plants that provide food in the form of berries, nuts, nectar, or other types of foods. Or you can add a feeder – such as bird, squirrel, hummingbird, or butterfly feeder.
• Provide water. Water is necessary for all wildlife to thrive. Add a pond, rain garden, or birdbath.
• Provide cover. Wildlife need shelter for a variety of reasons – from rain, hot sun, or from prey. Add a roosting box, rock pile, or brush pile.
• Provide a place to raise young. This could look like a nesting box, dead trees or snags, or mature trees.
• Skip the chemical pesticides or fertilizers. Chemical pesticides and fertilizers harm wildlife, especially pollinators. Instead go organic or find other alternatives.

A great natural fertilizer is homemade compost.

You can make a compost right at home to create nutrient-rich fertilizer for use on your garden. Composting is such a valuable soil enhancer that farmers call it “black gold.” Instead of passing along your food scraps, turn them into your backyard “gold” and avoid having to purchase fertilizer or compost at the store.

Tips for creating a compost:

• A compost pile should consist of three things: food scraps (greens), woody materials like yard trimmings or leaves (browns), and water.
• You should have twice the number of browns than greens.
• Always add browns on top of greens to help it breakdown faster and to reduce the smell.
• Keep your pile damp, but not soggy. Think of a rung-out sponge.
• Stir it periodically to allow oxygen to reach the bottom and corners.
• When adding food scraps, do not add meat or dairy products.
• Extra Fun Tip: grab some worms from a tackle shop and add them to your bin for vermicomposting.

You can even get the kids involved with creating compost! Having kids at home help with the compost will teach them about food waste, how to protect the environment, and show them how to make nutrient-rich soil for their home garden. Here are some fun activities you can incorporate to get the kids interested. You can have them do the following:

• Go outside to collect the “browns” or leaves, twigs, etc. They can have a fun outdoor scavenger hunt.
• Take the temperature of the compost. When microorganisms break down the compost materials, they release heat. Have them use a meat thermometer to check the temperature of the edges versus the middle. The middle should be higher in temperature.
• Play “Name that Food.” Ask the kids to help stir the compost and as they do, they can try to guess what the broken-down food used to be.
• See how good compost is for plants. Fill different pots with different percentages of compost vs. soil, add seeds, and see which mix helps the plants grow the best.