Plant Gardens 101

Choosing a garden compost bin keeps getting more difficult as more new designs and methods of composting are created. One of the best backyard compost tumblers has to be the Envirocycle Composter.

The Envirocycle Composter is an extremely squat and sturdy form of revolving compost bin. Compost Tumblers are always quick to produce usable garden compost and this one is no exception. With a good mixture of wet and dry materials added, and regular spinning of the compost you can create compost in weeks rather than the months it takes in a conventional static bin. (more…)

Composting toilets can be a complex product to shop for, because there are so many different styles and types to choose from. If you don’t know much about composting toilet systems or how they work, the process of shopping for one can be downright daunting. In this article, we’ll explain the ins and outs of shopping for composting toilets so that you’ll know what to look for and all the right questions to ask during the buying process.

First, we’ll begin with a basic definition of the product. Composting toilets are a type of waste management system that turn human waste into clean, dry, non-offensive compost that can be applied to your gardens. The toilet itself can be installed virtually anywhere because many of these systems require no water or sewer hookups. The most important feature of any composting toilet system is that it should be 100% guaranteed odorless. It should be a clean and low-maintenance system that is easy to own and operate. (more…)

Compost is a great tool for any gardener. It helps your garden hold just the right amount of water, makes it the right texture for optimal plant growth, and provides it with beneficial natural organisms. While you can buy several different types of compost products at a retail store or gardening center, it’s much cheaper to make your own compost. Not only will you save money, you also get the added benefit of knowing that you’re not just throwing your yard waste away; it’s actually doing something beneficial for your garden and for your health.

Before getting started on building your compost pile, you should know what to put in it. To get good compost you need four elements: carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and water. Grass clippings from your yard provide the carbon. Nitrogen comes from leaves in the fall. To make sure your pile gets water, build it somewhere where it will be rained on; just be sure it’s not completely soaked with water. Lastly, you can add oxygen simply by mixing the pile regularly. Just turn the soil over once a month with a rake or garden shovel. Don’t worry if you can’t provide enough nitrogen or carbon to your compost pile through your yard waste, you can always add a little fertilizer. The type of fertilizer you select will depend on what nutrient you’re lacking. (more…)

I am sure you have heard about the latest idea in composting, the Bokashi system, but what is Bokashi composting. Well it is not a real composting system at all but it is a way of treating your food waste before you compost it.

I have been composting for yours and in the summer can produce rich sweet smelling compost in a couple of months using a custom built hotbox composting system I have come up with. This just works with normal composting materials but now I am putting all the things I would have avoided in there. Have you ever composted a chicken carcass or uncooked fish skins. I know where I live this would attract vermin from the local farms. They would be attracted by the smell of the food I had put into the hot compost box. I do not think I would have been happy with the smell either.

Now I have a bokashi composting system and all this goes in. You name it; I compost it, well all the normal waste from my kitchen. I also add waste cooked food, bread, raw meat and fat and even things like duck carcasses left behind after a meal. (more…)

Compost is what is left over when organic matter decomposes. Organic matter can be things like vegetable scraps, leaves, mown grass and any other garden waste. This material will decompose without any assistance at all, though you can help it along and enjoy the benefits of compost faster if you wish.

Because it doesn’t contain a high level of essential nutrients, compost is not considered an actual fertilizer. Instead, it is treated as a soil conditioner or amendment. Compost does supply many good things to the soil. It attracts beneficial creatures like earthworms and it improves the soil composition.

Cold composting is basically just making a pile and letting it sit in the bin. This takes longer than hot composting. Hot composting is when you take a shovel and turn your pile every few days to supply more oxygen to the microorganisms in your compost pile. (more…)

It is becoming more and more obvious these days that we need to recycle as much as we can, and anyone with a garden has a head start and can make a great contribution. To many novice gardeners, including myself, this subject can be somewhat difficult to grasp; but in fact it is really straightforward – there are just a few very simple rules:

You need a compost bin, and the type you decide on rather depends on the size of your garden, but there are a couple of options:

A purpose built plastic bin purchased from a garden centre, not too expensive; and you just fill up from the top and a few months later, you can take compost from a small hatch at the base. Alternatively, if you can wield a saw and some nails, you can make a wooden slatted enclosure, one metre square – or you can buy them ready made – and cover it with a piece of old carpet to keep the worst of the weather off. (more…)

Shredded leaves make excellent and effective mulch for your spring garden. Making mulch from your fallen fall leaves is not difficult. Leaves can be shredded with your lawn mower or a leaf shredder. Shredding leaves and piling them into compost bin or if you don’t have a compost bin a large heavy plastic yard bag works well too. Add the leaves in layers and on each layer add a handful of either urea, ammonium nitrate, or bone meal, either is found in your local garden center. Any of these will provide the needed nitrogen to help break down the leaves.

Continue to add leaves to your bag and when full add water enough to only saturate them ( not soak ) them. If you used a compost bin cover it with a heavy tarp or heavy plastic in the winter and mix it in early spring. If you used a heavy plastic bag, turn it occasionally during the winter. In the spring simply add your leaf mulch to your garden soil. If you notice white spots on the leaves, don’t worry, it’s a leaf fungus that adds a nutrient to the mulch. Leaf mulch is very light in weight and easy to apply and your garden soil will have the added benefits of carbon rich leaves and high nitrogen compost when mixed right into your garden in the spring. (more…)

Home composting is one of the best ways to cut down on waste going into our overtaxed landfills.

Food waste, leaves, and grass clippings contributes a huge 24% of solid waste in our landfills. As these materials break down in a landfill situation, they produce Methane Gas, an explosive GreenHouse Gas. This can leach through the ground and affect surrounding residential or business areas. This solid waste also takes years to breakdown, rather than months in a composter.

In a composting situation not only will this matter break down faster, more efficiently and non-toxically, it also has many benefits to our environment.

What you can and should compost:

Cardboard Rolls, Clean Paper, Coffee Grounds, Coffee Filters, Eggshells, Fruits, Veggies, Tea Bags, Nut Shells, Cotton Rags, Dryer Lint, Vacuum Cleaner Lint, Fireplace Ashes, Grass Clippings, Hair, Fur, Houseplants, Leaves, Sawdust, Shredded Newspaper, Wood Chips, Wool Rags, Shrub and Perennial Trimmings

What Not To Compost:

Charcoal Ashes, Black Walnut Leaves and Branches, Diseased or Insect Infested Plants Fungicides, Pesticides, Insecticides, Dog /Cat Feces or Litter, Dairy Products, Meat/Fish Bones or Scraps, Fats,Grease, Lard or Oil (more…)

There is no need to let kitchen waste go to waste! Gardeners can spend lots of money buying good soil or compost to make the garden grow. There is, however, no need to do that if you eat at home more than once a week! Composting kitchen waste solves several problems simultaneously by converting kitchen scraps that would otherwise be thrown away into rich, organic soil for the garden. Incorporating compost into the soil helps keep the soil alive and life-sustaining. Creating your own compost saves money and helps the environment.
Composting 101

There are a few things that every new composter needs to know: · Kitchen compost can include any vegetable matter or paper. Do not add oils, meats or fats to your kitchen compost, as it will cause your compost to smell and attract animals. Additionally, you need certain conditions of heat and bacterial activity to properly compost these materials. · Shred your scraps or tear them up into the smallest pieces possible. This will help the scraps break down faster. · Compost operations need green and brown materials. Kitchen waste falls into the category of green materials. In addition to the kitchen waste, you will need to add dried shredded leaves or other brown matter. · One of the most efficient ways to compost kitchen waste is to use worms. (more…)

One of the gardening techniques that most confuses beginners, and more experienced gardeners, is Mulching. There is much discussion, muttering and head shaking over this process which has it’s origins lost in the mists of time. So what is it? In a nutshell, mulching is putting a thick layer of material over the soil around your plants. That is simple enough, the debate comes when discussing the best materials, and that has to be a matter of personal choice. Organic matter blended into heavy or clay soil will break it up and improve drainage and fertility. The same organic material mixed into light, sandy soils will help it hold water and improve fertility. Inorganic mulches such as plastic shreddings, and stones or chippings will do little for the fertility of the soil but will help conserve water. One of the main reasons for using mulches as an important gardening technique is that it does preserve moisture in your garden, as water becomes a more expensive and scarce resource we need to make the most of it. The natural increase in fertility of a well mulched soil also saves on buying expensive fertilizers and the added benefit of weed reduction saves not only time and money but also an aching back! (more…)

hose reel and landscaping.”>Keeping your lawn its greenest and continuously growing at its peak potential doesn’t happen overnight. Diligent waterings from your hose reel are excellent, but your lawn may demand more, depending on the quality and type of soil that’s underneath the surface. Composting is an excellent and environmentally friendly option, but you must remember, your compost need its own attention as well, so that it can generate all the growth-giving properties that you desire.

The location of your compost pile or bin is something that should be considered. It should be placed appropriately in your lawn so that any runoff that may occur can be beneficial in and of itself. If your lawn is sloping, make sure to place your compost pile or bin at or near the top of the slope so its runoff can be utilized advantageously. A bin to store your compost is not necessary, but is helpful in keeping it contained, though a simple pile will do the job as well. (more…)

Air is one of the three essential requirements needed by the decomposer organisms in your compost pile.

Because air penetrates only the first few inches of the pile, it needs help to reach the composting pile’s center. Therefore if you suddenly get that nasty rotten egg smell around the compost, it means that anaerobic bacteria are moving in, and it’s time to give your composting pile more air.

In hot composting, plenty of air is essential to develop the high temperatures needed to kill harmful bacteria and speed the process of decomposition. Here are a few ways you can add air to your compost pile:

1. Turning:
The most effective method of introducing air is to turn the pile with a garden fork. Lift the material from the top and sides, toss it into the more active center of the new pile; then add the partially decomposed center to the outside. In other words, take the composting material from the outside and the top of your pile and exchange it with the composting material in the middle of your pile. (more…)

There are several ways to get free mulch. Getting it for free can be helpful to the environment and on your pocket book. For starters, one way to get it mulch for free or at least get a good discount is to check with a local dump or landfill station. Every year homeowners and landscapers drop of 100s of thousands of yard debris and a lot of it can be turned into excellent mulch. Why not take advantage of this? Another way to get free mulch is to borrow or rent a wood chipper next time you prune or cut down a tree. You can rent one from most rental shops and you can feel good that you are recycling your own lawn debris. Another way to save money is to have a neighbor split the cost of delivery. Often, when you buy 8-14 yards at a time, you can waive a delivery fee altogether. Also you could get free mulch by calling a tree cutting company, they have a mulcher and may even deliver it for free rather than paying to take it to a landfill. Also Craig’s list is a great place to finds mulching materials that people may be giving away for free. If you have Pine trees, they will often give you a free layer of pine needle mulch every year. Although pine needle mulch isn’t the most attractive, it can certainly stop weeds and most grasses from growing. If you are looking to use mulch to make free organic compost, you can buy a mulching bin and than throw lawn mulch or grass clippings into it on a regular basis along with organic food wastes. In about a years and a half, your lawn mulch will turn into free organic fertilizer for your lawn.

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I’m sure that if you are reading this, you have used some form of mulch during your gardening career. However, you probably didn’t know that there are many other options for organic mulching that you can explore. These days, many gardeners are discovering new sources of free mulch that has been there all along; an untapped resource. These include clippings from a lawn, or woody prunings from other plants in your yard. You will be surprised by how beneficial all these things can be, and how often the opportunity arises to use them.

Many gardeners have taken to spreading out their excess grass clippings across the rest of their yard. You may think this will look tacky, with big piles of grass just sitting in your yard as if you were too lazy to rake them up. However, if you spread them out enough then you won’t even be able to tell that there is an excess amount. Leaving the extra grass on the yard acts as a sort of mulch by preventing evaporation and weed growth. With this extra water, you won’t have to water nearly as much to keep your grass green. When I started leaving my grass clippings, I had to adjust the frequency of my sprinkler system because I was worried my yard was getting too much water! (more…)

Have you ever noticed that the standard answer for anyone who wants to start living green is to replace all of your light bulbs?

“Oh, you want to help the environment, you better get all new light bulbs.”
“Light bulbs are the way to go.”
“Yes, I changed my light bulbs for the children.”
“Did you watch that Al Gore concert?”
“Yeah, he said I need new light bulbs or the Earth will explode.”

It’s not like old light bulbs were nuclear powered or anything but it’s still a great first step that’s easy for people to accomplish no matter where they live. Whether it’s out in the country on a farm or in a small studio apt in the city people have light bulbs. (more…)

So your neighbor’s garden is more fruitful, beautiful, and aggressively growing than yours: why do you think? He/she is seemingly not out and working in it anymore than you are, you haven’t seen a hired gardening expert milling about, but you have noticed a sweet smell coming from next door that you don’t seem to recognize. You could get the answer quickly by asking your neighbor what he or she is doing that you’re not, but your pride won’t let you ask. Dollars to donuts, your neighbor is using compost to help enrich the fertility of the growing beds, whether commercially produced, or produced in his back yard as well. You would do well to attempt the same, and the benefits to your garden will be overwhelming! (more…)

When I first heard about the rotating compost bin I must say I was a little dubious. Claims of compost in two or three weeks seemed unrealistic to me. I decided to investigate, to see if this really could be true. The compost bin tumbler works in a fairly unique way. The bin is always on a pivot so it can be turned around. This mixes up the contents thoroughly.

Why do we do this? The mixing ensures that all the contents become finely chopped making them easier to break down. If we add to this the fact that mixing encourages the high temperatures needed to make compost. There will be an even temperature throughout which means all the contents will compost at a much higher rate than a conventional heap. (more…)

If you wish to know how to build a compost heap, you may have become a little overwhelmed. So many instructions can be a little overwhelming. It seems like some people go out of their way to make it as confusing and difficult as possible.

It is actually a very simple thing to do if you can get hold of some basic materials. All you will really need is four pallets and some nails and a hammer. That’s it!

It is a relatively straightforward matter of nailing all of them together. You want to do this so that you have created a square that you can then shuffle in to place. Simple and very effective. The base is left open so that earthworms can have easy access to the contents, this means they can get to work helping the composting process as soon as possible. This simple design is very effective. The slatted sides mean that the contents are well aerated and this helps to increase the composting rate and helps in the heating process. (more…)

There are many different methods of composting, and there are a number of products now available to those who compost. The compost bin to buy depends on the needs of the garden or home. With that said, compost tumblers provide an efficient, low maintenance, and reliable method of composting.

One of the many misconceptions about composting is that there is an odor associated with decomposing materials. The odor that is referred to is caused when microbes don’t thrive amongst the compost. Microbes are the microscopic living organisms that convert biodegradable waste into rich organic soil. Like any living being, microbes require oxygen to exist. This happens by turning the compost. When the compost sits neglected, microbes don’t get their oxygen. When the microbes don’t get their oxygen, they die, they smell, and the compost doesn’t decompose nearly as fast. The smell associated with composting only happens when compost is neglected. (more…)

I was very dubious when I heard about compost bin tumblers. The claims just seemed to optimistic. The more I researched, however, the more I have become convinced.

Because of the way they work you can make compost in a matter of weeks and not months. How is this possible?

They work by being rotated every few days. You spin the rotating compost bin on its axis. This means that a steady temperature is always working away at the contents. It also has the added advantage of keeping the contents well aerated and chops up what is inside at the same time. The claims are that this ensures a rapid heating and decomposition of the contents. From everything I have read it seems that this way of making compost will give you a rich mix in about three weeks. (more…)