Plant Gardens 101

There are now any number of different methods of making compost, but what is the best composter and how does it work. In this best composter reviews article we will take a look at what is now one of the best selling composters of all time. It may surprise a few of you.

The Best Composter Is……….

The Achla CMP-05 Horizontal Spinning Composter. Did you know that the compost tumbler is now THE best selling composter? You may not even have heard of it but the compost tumbler work so efficiently and creates compost so quickly that they are being used by more and more people wishing to make quality compost in a matter of weeks, yes weeks! (more…)

Recycling is now a mainstream activity and hopefully the types and volume of items being recycled will continue to increase even during the current weak economic times. There have been a lot of old, dead cars recycled in the past year because of the value of the metal. It wasn’t uncommon to get $300 to $500 per car. Demand has slackened due to the global recession but it is a good example of the benefits of recycling.

Paper, cardboard, glass, cans and metals of all kinds are now recycled. Less and less waste is going to the landfill these days. Families who religiously recycle and compost their organic materials are reducing their trash collection by up to 75%.

The recycling of organic materials by making compost is the most exciting type of recycling for many people. That compost bin on the kitchen counter gets filled up fast by families who eat a lot of fruit and vegetables which most do today.
There are certain items in your kitchen that you shouldn’t put in the compost bin because they can create odor problems and attract rodents and flies. Don’t put meat or fish bones or scraps, any dairy products and any fats grease, lard or oil in your compost bin. (more…)

If you do not have the room to start garden composting, but want all the green kudos from making your own compost have you heard of a kitchen composter? If you would like to know how you could possibly recycle kitchen scraps into compost without your kitchen smelling like the municipal dump, read on.

A kitchen composter ‘does exactly what it says on the tin’ so to speak. With it, you recycle all your kitchen scraps and organic household waste into lovely friable hummus. Because it works through fermentation rather than aerobic decomposition, you can actually site your compost bin indoors.

I admit, I was very sceptical at first. But, it really does make sense. If you seal air out from organic waste, rather than rot, it will ferment. If you introduce helpful yeasts and bacteria into the mix it will start fermenting even quicker. (more…)

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Mulching beds has become extremely popular these days, and mulch can be really beneficial to your plants and the soil in your planting beds, but there are things you need to watch for.

Here in Ohio the most popular type of mulch that people use is shredded hardwood bark mulch, which is a byproduct of the timber industry. When they haul the logs into the sawmill the first thing they do is debark them. Years ago the bark was a huge problem for the mills because there didn’t seem to be a useful purpose for it, until people realized the hidden benefits that it held. Still to this day, the bark is a headache for the saw mills, and they don’t always understand how to properly handle it.

They like to pile it as high as they can so it takes up less space in their yard. The mulch really tends to back up during the winter months because there is little demand for it. In order for the mills to pile the mulch high, they literally have to drive the large front end loaders up onto the pile. Of course the weight of these large machines compacts the mulch in the pile, and this can become a huge problem for you or I if we happen to get some mulch that has been stacked too high, and compacted too tightly. (more…)

Have you heard of composting, but just aren’t sure what it means? Not sure why how compost can benefit you? If you haven’t started composting at home yet, now is the time! Home composting is more than just a growing trend among gardeners, it’s a great way to recycle your kitchen scraps and yard refuse into something you can use-compost!

So what is compost and why is it so beneficial? Compost is a fresh black material similar in appearance and texture to potting soil. It is produced naturally when organic material breaks down and decays (a process also known as composting). The resulting compost is rich in nutrients that plants love, making it one of the best types of fertilizer you can use. Compost, also known as black gold, can be tilled into the soil before trees, shrubs, or other plants are planted. It can also be applied to the soil around existing plants. Compost will help plants grow bigger, faster, and stronger than you ever thought possible.

Better yet, composting is a way to recycle! We all know that recycling is the right thing to do. The more items we can keep out of our landfills, the better. And after all, why throw away things that you can turn into valuable compost? Simple things like vegetable peelings, dead leaves from your trees, and plant clippings can all be turned into compost. It just makes sense to recycle these things into compost rather than throwing them away. (more…)

Many people who maintain gardens have a large amount of organic waste, from grass clippings to leaves and dead plants.

Unfortunately, many waste money and time having these wastes transported to a landfill. It isn’t just a waste of good compost; it’s a waste of everything that goes into the process of transporting it (the garbage man’s time, the money you pay for the removal, etc). It is truly a travesty. All this garbage that people are trying to get rid of can be a better supplement for your garden than any fertilizer or chemical. If you properly facilitate the decomposition of all of the garbage, it will alter chemically until it is in such a state that it can be nothing but beneficial nutrition for other plants. Therefore you can turn all the stuff you would have thrown away into top grade fertilizer for your garden.

Usually compost is maintained in a pile somewhere in your backyard. Usually the thought of a compost heap brings disturbing images to ones mind; heaps of rotten garbage emitting a horrid odor. However, if you maintain it correctly you’ll be able to produce great compost without producing an offensive odor. When I first began my compost pile in an effort to improve environmental health, I made several major errors. These included preventing the pile from the oxygen it truly needed, and keeping it to dry. It ended up decomposing in a very non-beneficial way, and producing an odor so foul that I had government agents knocking at my door. (more…)

Organic is now a word with so many ‘green’ and ‘Environmentally Friendly’ connotations. More people are growing their own food and creating their own garden compost. But It is often confusing as to what organic composting actually is and how we should be making it.

First of all, lets start with the basics. Garden composting is merely encouraging what nature is all to happy to do anyway. That is, decomposing any organic matter into its basic constituents. Hummus and minerals easily utilised by living plants. (more…)

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Having an ample supply of good rich compost is the gardeners dream. It has many uses, and all of those uses will result in nicer plants. However, composting can be time consuming and hard work. I place a reasonable value on my time, so spending hours and hours turning compost piles doesn’t qualify as a worthwhile exercise, at least in my book. Nonetheless, I do compost, but I do so on my terms. (more…)

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!

If your garden is in more need of mulching than your yard, it is not unheard of to rake up all the grass and transport it to your garden. By making a small layer around the vicinity of the plant, you’ll apply all the same benefits from leaving it in your yard. My yard is rather green on its own, but I often have trouble with my plants staying green and healthy. So, rather than leave the grass clipping in my yard, I move them all around my plants. It is just a matter of choosing what your highest mulching priority is. (more…)

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…)