Balance The Ingredients

In order to for a compost pile to be considered active, there must be a proper balance of ingredients. If you have too much of a single component, your compost may eventually go cold. To keep a hot compost pile in good working order, you need to vary the materials that you add to it. Over time, some ingredients in the compost heap may dominate over the others, so make it a point to replenish your compost bin and check it frequently.

Select The Right Bin Or Container

Consider what you will be composting. Is it just yard waste, or will kitchen scraps be included? You will need a bin that keeps out rodents. How much will you be composting? You may need more than one bin. How much space do you have to compost in? What can you afford?

Dampen, Don’t Soak

As you are assembling the layers in your compost pile, you may want to dampen as you go along, especially if you are adding things like sawdust or shredded tree branches. Just put your trusty hose attachment on mist. You will also have to moisten it over time. If the compost pile gets too wet, that stops the pile from cooking, and can wash away the nutrients. If you create an open pile, you will want to cover it with a tarp during rainy season.

Bacteria Needs Air

The bacteria that break down the organic contents of your compost pile also require air. If you provide your heap with the right amount of oxygenation, the bacteria that produce humus will thrive the humus that is created will exceed your expectations. You can achieve aeration by turning your pile, or by installing a PVC pipe with holes drilled in it in the center of the pile. You probably won’t have to turn the pile as frequently if you do that.

Check The Temperature

The ideal temperature range for a pile is between 135 – 160 degrees F. If you can get the temperature in this range, it accelerates decomposition, kills off weed seeds and pathogenic organisms. A higher pile makes it easier for it to reach these temperatures. There are a number of thermometers on the market made especially for composters.

Have A Fixed Area For Composting

It’s not recommended to have a mobile compost heap. If it is in a fixed location, that increases its chances of growing and thriving. When you are moving around your pile too much, less reaction takes place. It requires a degree of permanence to produce optimum results.

Here are the tips to create your dynamic compost pile. Your flowers and vegetables are going to be so happy.

A Good Composting Site

The site of your composting activity is of primary importance and one of the tools you need to utilize before you do anything else. The area that you choose must be easy to access, (to load your wheelbarrow), and capable of reaching the right temperature (not in the shade) needed for your composting. You will also need to be able to access the site frequently, as hot composting requires monitoring on a frequent basis.

Compost Bin

The type of compost bin you use must be functional for the particular type of composting you intend to make. If you are planning for an industrial level of composting, you may need more than one compost bin to satisfy your objectives.  It should be large enough to accommodate the amount of biodegradable material you intend to throw in it.

If you are a beginner, it is recommended that you start small and then branch out once you get the hang of it, or at least get comfortable with composting.

Thermometer

Hot composting requires that the pile maintain a specific temperature range. A thermometer may come in handy for you as you do your daily rounds of inspection on your compost pile. You need to make sure that the thermometer is properly calibrated. Some shops also sell a thermometer that is tailored to suit the needs of compost owners, so you can also check these out at your local garden store.

Garden Fork

The garden fork has a great variety of uses. For composting, it will help you mix your materials much more easily, especially if you are dealing with a large composting pit or bin. The garden fork will help you rake in the materials, mix them and test the texture and softness of your degrading materials. When choosing a fork, choose one that is comfortable in your hand, for your height and fits the size of your composting operation.

Other Containers

You may not only need a compost bin, but if you are an extremely organized composter, you may want additional containers that can help you manage combining and categorizing your composting materials. In cases where you need to change the Carbon and Nitrogen ratio components in the mix, you want make sure that you are adding the right type of materials to maintain the right temperature.

Room for Growth

You may want to consider having room to expand your composting enterprise. Your area must be spacious enough to accommodate your present composting needs, but at the same time, it must be able to accommodate expansions, should you decide to increase the capacity of your compost pit.

You can start solving trash problems at home.  Small contributions like this could go a long way.  About 25% of our wastes are yard trimmings or food scraps.  Although many people are learning to recycle and reuse plastic, metal, glass and other similar items, biodegradable items are hardly recycled at all.

A great way to recycle food scrap is by having a compost bin or by vermicomposting.   Vermicomposting is where worms are used in the composting process. Red worms are the best for this, and produce vermicast which are worm castings or worm humus, which is a great way to fertilize a garden.

Worms can eat a lot of your food scraps and wastes, like vegetables, fruits, coffee grounds, tea, and even eggshells.  However, avoid feeding them bones, dairy products, spicy food, oily food and animal manure.  Beddings for vermicompost bins can also be made out of household materials like newspaper and cardboard.

Different type of containers could work, as long as they would protect the worms from temperature extremes.  Worms are comfortable in temperatures ranging from 55 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit. Most commonly used bins are those made of wood or plastic.  A 12-inch deep compost bin can accommodate about a pound or 1,000 worms.   Odors do not have to be a problem.  A vermicompost bin which is done properly will not give out any smell.

There are many benefits associated with vermicompost.  The vermicast is 10 to 20 higher in nutrients compared with other organic material used to enrich soil.  It can also improve the soil’s ability to hold water. Enriching the soil could enhance plant growth and the crops yielded.  If you have a vegetable patch, this would be a great way to reduce food waste and increase productivity from your patch using chemical-free fertilizers.

In the United States, there are states that are banning landscape waste in landfills.  Vermicomposting is a great way to address disposal of these kinds of waste. Aside from that, there are some who would use vermicomposting as another source of income.  They would sell vermicast, which is often called “Black Gold” because of its high nutrient content.

Using vermicomposting as a waste management method for food scraps and other biodegradable materials at home is surely a win-win solution.  You get to reduce waste and benefit from it, and so does the earth.

1.  You need to decide why you want an organic garden. What is it you want to accomplish? Do you want something to do? Or are you looking to get fresh healthy vegetables? Will this become a job for you, or a relaxing pastime? Decide why you are going to start gardening before you do anything else. It is all in the planning: once you decide why you want an organic garden, it will be much easier to make it work for you.

2.  Now that you have decided your why, you need to consider the next steps. You need to decide where your garden will be. What vegetables will you be growing in your garden? Are those vegetables compatible with your soil, your environment, your location, your climate, and your taste buds? Keep in mind that not everything will grow everywhere, so you need to do some homework to find out what will grow in your area, and if you are interested in those vegetables. It does you no good to be able to grow a healthy squash crop if you don’t like squash, unless you want to sell squash.

3.  Make sure you allocate enough space for your garden. Here it helps to know what vegetables you intend to plant. If you want to plant pumpkins, you will need a lot more space than you would for tomatoes. This all needs to be kept in mind during your planning stage. I agree things will come up and you will need to go with the flow, but the better job you do during the planning stage the better it will turn out, and the happier you will be with your garden and its crops.

4.  Since you are going organic it is a good idea to make your own compost. You can start this some months before you actually start your garden. The soil needs to be properly nourished so that the plants get the food they need in order to grow and provide you their bounty. So start collecting your organic material from kitchen scraps, grass clippings, shredded branches, bush trimmings and more, and place them in a pile to decompose.

5.  I touched on this above, but it is critically important to choose the right mix of vegetables to plant. You will want a variety since this will help with any insect problems as well as with your soil. You want to do like the professional farmers and do crop rotation. If you plant the same vegetable in the same spot year after year you will deplete the soil and the resultant crop will not meet your expectation.

6.  The main challenge with an organic garden will be insects. One comforting thought is that only about 2% of the insects in the world are bad for your garden. By mixing up your vegetables you will be inviting different insects into your garden, and the good thing is some of those insects will actually eat some of the bad ones. Getting birds and frogs to join your garden party is also a good idea. And the best way to do that is to make your garden friendly to them. Put up a couple of bird houses, consider adding a small pond. Let your imagination go a little wild here and have fun.

While getting great tasting healthy food from your own garden, there are many other benefits you will realize. For example did you know that vegetables picked fresh off the vine start to lose their potency immediately.  So it will be much healthier for you to go out and pick your salad fresh, than if you purchased the ingredients from a store that had them imported from half way around the world and they ripened along the trip. You will also enjoy the time spent out in nature. It can be a healing experience working with the earth. There are so many benefits to having your own garden. So why not get started today?

Organic vegetable gardening is the “in thing” these days, as people have realized that the use of fertilizers and pesticides do more harm than good. Yes, chemicals will make the vegetables bigger or enable the farmer to harvest them faster, but they don’t taste as good and the chemicals used in making this happen could be detrimental to the health of those who eat it.

Organic also means that the seeds haven’t been genetically modified. You will want to make sure to purchase heirloom seeds to grow in your own garden.

But since the early farmers never did that and relied only on sunlight and irrigation, this organic concept is making a comeback. You can easily make an organic garden at home, since you have access to the three most basic things namely soil, water and sunlight.

What kind of organic vegetables can you plant? Well, just about everything. Some examples of these include broccoli, cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes, corn, spinach, radishes and a lot more. You just have to know which of them can be planted during the different seasons of the year.

Proper drainage is important for your vegetables. If your gardening area is always wet, you can make and plant your veggies in a raised bed.

After you have done your research and decided what to plant, you can now buy the seeds. Most stores don’t stock heirloom seeds, so you will need to order them. Do an online search for “heirloom vegetable seeds” and a number of companies should result. It shouldn’t take long for the seeds to arrive. The proper planting directions should be on the back of the package.

After planting, your next job will be to monitor your garden. You will want to watch out for insect and animal pests, which will happily make a meal of your lovely garden. To prevent this from happening, you need to lure birds, toads and even other insects to your garden to eat them. For weeds, the only thing you can do is pull these one by one from the ground. As for other animals, putting up fences and using animal hair, baby powder or deodorant soaps seems to be a good deterrent.

Mulch is another solution. This can be made from chipped trees or garden compost. This helps to keep the weed population under control. It also decomposes, and provides nutrients for your vegetables.

Don’t forget to water your garden frequently, especially during the dog days of summer.

Organic vegetable gardening is challenging, but it pays off when you are able to eat healthy and fresh produce that you pick moments before eating it. This means additional savings to you and maybe even a small business if you want to sell your excess produce at your local farmers market.

Hot or Cold?

There are basically two ways to create compost. It can either be a hot or cold pile. The cold type is the easier route since you just have to leave the pile to break down. You gather the biodegradable materials for your compost, which includes matter like leaves, grass trimmings, vegetable peelings, fruit scraps and a variety of waste that can be found in the garden and in your kitchen. This manner takes longer because you are not really helping the materials on the pile to disintegrate much faster by using heat.

The second option is to create a hot compost pile. For this, there is more of an art being followed, starting from the time that you gather your materials for composting.  With this method it’s recommended that you pile up the leaves first, add soil, then you can add the kitchen wastes. Don’t use materials that can attract unwanted visitors to your compost, like bones and meat products.

Your compost pile should be kept moist, but not wet. You may dampen the pile whenever you think it’s necessary. Some composters suggest using beer instead of water.  Beer contains yeast that will then make the bacteria that are decomposing the pile very contented.

With this process, you may want to monitor your progress and the heat output of the pile. You can then add ingredients like manures to help speed up the decomposition process.  You should also take time to turn the pile every once in a while. This way, the air circulation will improve and increase the breakdown of the pile. (If you use manures, don’t use that compost on vegetable gardens).

How do you know when the compost pile has produced humus? If it already smells like earth and it already looks like dark, rich, crumbly soil, then it is time to get it out of the pile and utilize it on your gardens.

Some gardeners believe that the products of compost alone will not make your garden soil completely healthy.   If you are one of them, you may want to have your soil tested so you know what other ingredients to add to support plant growth.

Composting is good for your garden and the planet, and can be easily done. So go forth and make compost!

Here are different techniques for teaching composting methods to children. It will really help bring about awareness to their parents and other members of the community.

Use Visuals

Nothing beats the boring feeling a kid gets from pure text. Visuals are your best bet into inculcating a love for composting. Make use of pictures, Powerpoint presentations and other technological devices you can use. If you are in an impromptu teaching class, use your words to help the kids visualize the scenario of composting. In any case, encourage the children to imagine the entire process.

Do A Complete Demo

The demonstration will be able to teach volumes to the children, way more than any discussion can. With a demonstration, you not only show them how it’s done, it allows for time for them to ask questions and for them to get their hands dirty. Experience is the best teacher.

Track For Feedback

Kids can get opinionated about things that they like. Engage their interest even further by getting feedback from them from time to time. Also, ask them questions and encourage them to ask their questions to you. Removing their inhibitions will help you teach them more concepts than when you are dealing with kids that are uncomfortable and shy.

Entertain All Questions and Allow Ample Time to Answer Each One

Kids can get easily discouraged. Make sure that you are able to reserve judgment and entertain questions, no matter how “stupid” or minor they may seem to you. Remember, you are dealing with children here. If at all possible, have the teacher help you gain a better perspective of teaching composting to children.

Discuss The Benefits Of Composting At The Beginning

If the children understand from the outset that what they are doing is important, they are more likely to cooperate. Insure that you are able to help them understand how composting helps the environment and how it will make a positive difference to a majority of people.

Experience Is The Best Teacher

The purpose of education is to equip kids with the skills they need so they can take care of themselves. Composting is no different. Watching them set up a mini-pile will help you see where any potential problems are, as well as complimenting and correcting as necessary. Let them do it, and refuse to interfere if possible.

Unless you’re a gardener and know that composting has its own paybacks. Here are just some of the advantages that you may want to tell your friends about if you want to convince them that composting is worth their effort as well as yours.

It agrees with nature.

The very first advantage of composting is that it is all-natural, and you will not be fighting or poisoning the forces of nature to be able to do it. In fact, you are actually contributing to the health of the planet if you make and use compost.

It allows you to recycle organic materials which would have otherwise been placed in a landfill.

Composting lessens the garbage coming from your home, since most of what you would put in your garbage bag may now be placed in the compost pile. On a larger scale, there will be less need for dumps and landfills since the quantity of garbage being trucked to those sites will be less.

It’s flexible – you can add or subtract materials as you go along.

The flexibility and usefulness of composting lies in the fact that most of the materials are readily available. You can add (organic material) or subtract (humus) materials at any time you please and in any conceivable quantity just as long as it doesn’t interfere with the ratios you are maintaining for your compost.

There are numerous resources and support groups online and offline for this purpose.

Support groups are readily available for composting enthusiasts on a global scale. With the emergence of global warming issues, the need for environmental solutions are very important and are highly promoted these days. Expand your network of saving the planet allies by joining a group or activity that promotes good planetary stewardship. Composting is one such activity.

For farmers, it brings in higher revenue.

More and healthier crops are yielded from more fertile soil. Better soil can be obtained by having a healthy compost to fertilize their land. This will increase their profits and keep the sources of the profits healthy and thriving for all seasons. It also accelerates beneficial processes for plants and flowers.

It costs virtually nothing.

Aside from the manual labor and the gathering of materials, composting costs nothing. The actual costs are inconsequential compared to the returns that composting can bring to your garden and Mother Nature.

Organic waste, which includes kitchen and yard garbage, makes up 30% of household waste and if composted would contain the necessary nutrients, microbes, and substances to enrich the soil and benefit trees, bushes, flowers and vegetables. In the past, composting was only known as a gardening practice, but ever since people became aware of waste and environmental issues, it has become a way of managing organic waste.

There are existing composting efforts on both large and small scales. Many communities, for instance, are running local composting projects using collected organic waste from households. On a smaller scale, many individuals make their own compost at home using different techniques. Regardless of the size of the project, composting should be managed in order to produce effective compost.

Making compost relies mainly on organic waste. Not all organic waste, however, can qualify as material for compost. Diseased plants shouldn’t be piled for compost as they may infect other plants. Although the hot temperatures of a compost pile can kill the disease organisms, it is best not to take chances.

Unless weeds and grasses, (the kinds that tend to stubbornly re-grow), are dead and dry, never add them to the pile. Cat and dog feces are also not best for composting because they may contain disease organisms that are harmful to human health. Pest-attracting kitchen waste, such as meat scraps and bones should also be excluded.

Which organic waste then is a good compost ingredient? Here is a list.

1. Fruit and vegetable peels, rotting fruit and veggies and other debris are best for composting. Because they are high in nitrogen, they are classified as “green” compost ingredients. Eggshells, tea bags, and other food and kitchen scraps can also be added to the compost pile, providing they won’t attract too many pests. In order to break these scraps down quickly, chop them up into smaller pieces.

2. Sawdust is a “brown” compost ingredient, which means it is low in nitrogen. Depending on the wood, some sawdusts tend to decay more quickly than others. When using sawdust as a compost ingredient, make sure it does not come from any chemically-treated wood. If it does, it can potentially contaminate the entire compost, soil, and eventually plants.

3. Leaves are common compost ingredients. Whether dead and dry (“brown”) or living (“green”), leaves are ideal for composting. Actually, forest trees usually thrive on the dead and decaying leaves on forest floors, which cumulatively act as compost. Lawn clippings are also great for composting.

When making compost, it is very important to thoroughly mix all the organic waste so there won’t be clumps that prevent aeration. Brown ingredients are normally best to mix with green ingredients to speed up decay. Other ingredients are also best to use in thin layers.

If every household in every community manages their organic waste by composting, the volume of waste will be reduced by 30%. And in a world that is literally threatened by massive waste production, that is a significant number.

One of the best processes is composting.

Composting happens in nature all the time. These days, composting takes on a new meaning as it becomes one additional method of waste disposal under the bigger umbrella of waste management.

Composting is controlling the decomposition of organic matter in a more scientific manner. The product is compost (humus), and is used in gardening and industrial farming by mixing it with the soil. This improves the soil quality, soil structure and brings back the nutrients.

Compost or humus is the end-product of decomposed organic matter as performed primarily by microbes, fungi, molds, and other microorganisms. They are helped by larger creatures like the earthworms, ants, snails, millipedes, sow bugs, slugs and others who consume and break down the organic matter.

To encourage the microbes, the compost heap should have the correct mix of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and water. If the heap is too wet, it will block the oxygen needed by the bacteria. If the pile is too dry, the bacteria do not have the moisture to survive and reproduce. Nitrogen is needed for the proteins the microbes need.

Decomposition still works even if some ingredients are missing, but not as quickly as planned. This mix of biodegradable materials is still capable of being completely broken down from the action of microorganisms into carbon dioxide, water and biomass.

There are two composting techniques – active (hot) and passive (cold) composting.

Active composting allows the most effective decomposing bacteria to flourish, killing most pathogens and seeds, and producing usable compost quickly. This is used by most commercial and industrial composting ventures because not only this ensures a higher quality, it also produces fast results.

Most home composters usually employ the passive kind unconsciously – just throw in everything in there and leave it for about a year or two. Some, of course, are extra-conscientious in their home composting endeavor – monitoring temperatures, regularly turning the pile and adjusting the ingredients.

Organic materials included in waste sent to landfills produce the dreaded greenhouse gas methane during decomposition. In suburban areas, organic waste materials can be removed from the total stream from the very start – at household levels.

Promoting backyard composting to the community at large can help reduce organic materials (kitchen scraps, other biodegradable materials) thrown out to landfills. This goes a long way in helping decrease the production of greenhouse gases.