Plant Gardens 101

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…)

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…)

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…)

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…)

You have a number of choices, here. A compost bin, box, tumbler, trench or heap – all will work, its a matter of personal preference. Let us look. Compost Bin. This can be made out of just about anything; discarded 44gal. drums are good, provided they are clean of petro-chemicals; plastic cherry-bins are ideal. For the most part, it needs to be big enough that you could climb into it. Cut off the top and bottom – keep one of these for the lid. Make a number of ‘breathing-holes’ around the shell – these can be either cut or drilled through. A plastic rubbish bin will do. Once again, cut off the bottom, make holes in the side – then turn it upside-down, so that the wider opening sits on the ground. The idea of no bottom, is to allow the insects, worms and micro-organisms which help degradation of your waste materials the freedom to migrate into and out of your compost. Compost Box. This can be made out of anything you have to hand, be it old pallets, bricks, or spare lumber. Bales of hay work quite well – the hay ultimately becoming compost itself. Plastic Composters. There are a number of plastic composters available, stand alone units and tumblers. These are made of a special grade plastic that ‘breathes’. (more…)

Gardens are becoming more popular as the economy continues tracking downward and people look for ways to trim their expenses. Composting is a major component to successfully increasing crop yields and minimizing material that ends up on landfills. If you have never built a compost bin, there are several designs to choose from, but essentially this article will focus on the basic concepts and designs that can be serve as a fundamental approach for the basic gardener.

Compost bins are essentially a place to recycle plant vegetation to create a robust material rich in nutrients like nitrogen that when added to the soil will help new crops grow more vigorously. Composting is a process that occurs naturally when older material like leaves, grass clippings and old rotting vegetation begins to breakdown and decompose into a rich fertile soil material. This provides minerals and other nutrients for plants, animals and other micro-organisms and along with moisture and external temperatures, the decomposition process becomes very efficient. (more…)

Recycling is a noble effort in which everyone should participate. Sadly, the inconveniences sometimes faced by potential recyclers are enough to dissuade them from actively taking part in the green movement. What better alternative than to easily dispose of trash and recycle at the same time? With a compost bin, that becomes a possibility. The days of painstakingly separating paper and plastic will be over with the acquisition of a compost bin. Composting relies on trash and food scraps, and the process is as simple as dumping those things into a bin and letting nature do the rest of the work. As the refuse decomposes, a valuable fertilizer is produced. Not only has trash been reused, but it’s actually useful!

Minor separation is a necessity, though. Basically, biodegradable items like vegetable peelings and uneaten food are ideal fodder for a compost bin. The bin itself is (usually) placed outdoors, while scraps are steadily fed into it. The sun and oxygen take care of the science, breaking down the materials into usable fertilizer. The organic substances provide ideal nutrition for plants, and it all comes from your home! Compost is fairly simple to produce and saves money and time that may have been spent at the hardware store lugging around heavy bags of manure. That is definitely something to consider the next time you are at the grocery store, as eggs and coffee will do the same work with much less effort. (more…)

No one can now argue with the fact that compost tumblers make compost extremely quickly. Here I simply want to write a few words about compost tumbler reviews and what to look out for when reading them.

It is important to get an unbiased opinion when reading about composting tumblers. This means looking at sites that are apart from the manufacturers. You will be able to read about certain brands of a compost tumbler on the site of the owners of the brand name but they are not going to be as thorough as from stores that stock large selections.
Read composter reviews from sites that sell multiple brands. You may then discover what people really think of the various tumbler on offer and get a much more rounded view of what may be the best composter for you to buy.
You want tumbler reviews from people who have used the products. In this way you can find out the benefits and the flaws of the different tumbling composters on offer and make a much more informed decision about what will be the most suitable product for you to purchase.

Keep in mind your needs when looking for reviews of the tumbling composter. If you want a small tumbler then look for reviews that will match your needs. For dual chamber composting tumblers then do likewise. You want recommendations for products that suit what you are looking for.

In this way you can build up an accurate picture of what is the most suitable for your needs and what will work best in your situation.This should help you find really good compost tumbler reviews.

For cheap compost tumblers and unbiased opinions please read the compost tumbler reviews article on urban compost tumblers.

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Many pond owners face the un-enviable task of fighting aquatic weeds every year, particularly during the late Spring and Summer months. Different approaches are taken to combat these problem plants such as chemical treatments, manual removal or even hiring a service company to manage them.If you are a pond owner who deals with these problems, there is a highly ecologically responsible way to manage your aquatic weeds and put them to work for you…compost them.

Composting is the controlled decomposition of organic matter that results in the formation of humus-rich material that contributes nutrients and beneficial soil life and improves soil structure and water retention. Virtually anything organic can be composted, including aquatic vegetation and is fairly simple to do. (more…)