Building a compost pile the old school way involves throwing scraps in a heap and letting them slowly rot, but, the result of this type of composting is a terrible odour. There are steps that should be followed to eliminate compost odours and the involve inparticular carbon and oxygen.
In most cases it's easy to come up with greens for your compost from kitchen scraps and yard trimmings, but, it's very important to remember to supply your compost with an equal if not slightly higher level of brown material. The brown material supplies carbon that the bacteria that breaks down your compost needs to do it's work.
Though you may not always think of composting these items, they can be found all around your home and are often sent out with the recycling. Newspaper torn into about 1 inch strips are a great source of brown compost material. Other everyday sources in...
Posted : September 13, 2011 | 
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Composting weeds is not as simple as composting other organic materials.
Many gardeners spend much of their time pulling weeds out of their garden and prefer to not take any risks of reintroducing weed seeds into their gardens through compost, however, others like to compost as much as they can 'in house'.
Not all weeds are equal and some are safer for your garden compost than others, but rather than looking at each weed individually, it's easier to follow a few basic rules of composting weeds.
Ideally all weeds should be picked before they reach maturity and the seed bearing stage. It's when they mature and start producing seeds that they can become most detrimental to the compost.
Compost should produce temperatures around 55 to 60 degrees celsius. This number isn'...Posted : August 05, 2010 | Comments : 0 |
Compost tumblers are fixed containers designed for ease of turning compost.
Compost tumblers are also known as tumbling compost bins or rotating compost bins.
These tumbling compost bins are typically made out of plastic and fully contained which adds the side benefit of keeping scavengers away from your decomposing lawn and kitchen scraps.
The bins are turned a few times a day making for an efficient alternative to turning your compost by pitchfork or shovel. It is also suggested by many compost tumbling enthusiasts that compost tumblers speed up the rate of composting.
The video below is an excellent demonstration of how compost tumblers work and included in the video from 'grandpadavis', is instructions on how to build your own compost tumbler at a min...Posted : August 03, 2010 | Comments : 0 | Coconut fibre and coconut shells can be used in your backyard compost.
Generally with a coconut the meat and the milk of the coconut will be used as food, but you will be left with a lot of excess waste.
As you can imagine the coconut core and shell doesn't break down very easily, so you will want to try to break up the coconut into smaller pieces before putting it into your compost bin.
Be careful when breaking up the coconut, it's not worth hurting yourself over as even if left whole the coconut will eventually breakdown, it will just take more time. Try placing the coconut pieces in a sturdy bag and giving it a few whacks with a hammer, but please be careful. The smaller pieces will have an easier time composting into soil.
The fibre of the coconut wil...Posted : July 28, 2010 | Comments : 0 | What should I do with the sawdust from my woodshop?
If you use your woodshop at home fairly often, you know that a lot of sawdust is created. Traditionally, this sawdust has been thrown in the garbage.
Sawdust can actually be quite beneficial to your compost, so don't waste it by throwing it in the garbage.
Sawdust acts as a 'brown' compost material, similar to dry leaves. Sawdust does a great job of adding carbon to your compost. To have an ideal compost you'll want a fairly even ratio of brown and green materials, or carbon rich and nitrogen rich materials.
Sawdust and wood chips come from trees so they are a natural product that will benefit soil made from compost, however, some types of wood contain poison.
Posted : July 23, 2010 | Comments : 0 | Garburators or food waste disposals are mounted in kitchen sinks as a convenient way to get rid of food scraps without throwing them in the garbage, but, is it a green option?
Of course, composting should be your first choice if the food scraps are compost compatible, but in reality that isn't always an option for every person all the time.
The idea of sending food down the garburator, giving nutrients back to the oceans and feeding the fish is a novel idea, but that isn't how it actually works after grinding up those scraps.
To start with food disposers run on electricity and you need to use a lot of water to flush those scraps down the sink without clogging the drains. Once it all has 'vanished' from your kitchen, it isn't on it's way to be devoured by sea life.
Fi...Posted : July 21, 2010 | Comments : 0 | Can wine corks go in the compost?
Hopefully, you are asking this question and not just throwing your corks in the garbage. Wine corks can be composted but there are some things to keep in mind.
First, a short rant on wine corks. Be sure that you are only buying wine that uses natural cork and not synthetic varieties. Natural cork is a sustainable natural resource that should be supported. Cork is harvested from the cork tree without killing the tree. As the bark of the cork tree thickens, the bark can be stripped off of the tree and no harm is done to the tree in the process. After 10 to 12 years the bark will be replenished and can be harvested again. The cork forests create natural green spaces, remove carbon dioxide, create oxygen and support the local economy. Again, be sure to always choose natural cork when you pick up a bottle of wine, for the reasons ...Posted : June 02, 2010 | Comments : 0 | What should I do with my coffee grounds?
Coffee grounds should never be wasted by throwing them in the garbage. Instead, you should be putting your coffee grounds into your compost along with the filter if you use disposable filters.
When buying disposable filters for your coffee maker, be sure to buy the beige coloured filters. These filters are unbleached filters that are better for the environment from the get go. The common white paper coffee filters have been bleached and for the sole purpose of assumed asthetics. There is no need to use bleach when creating coffee filters. As far as bleached coffee filters in the compost, it shouldn't create much of a problem, but composting unbleached filters can remove any worry you may have.
The coffee grounds can be put into the compost bin, sprinkled around plants or m...Posted : June 02, 2010 | Comments : 0 | Composting has benefits that run very deep, both in your garden and for the environment as a whole. By composting you keep tonnes of food scraps and yard trimmings out of the landfill and create nutrient rich soil that can be used to feed and grow your plants and vegetables.
The soil created from compost is of top quality and will save you money when you don't need to go to the store as often to pick bagged soil to add to your gardens.
As long as plants have grown, composting has occured. Composting is a natural occurence as organisms decompose, so composting doesn't have to be complicated. Avid gardeners may prefer to take a more scientific approach to composting and there are methods that can be used to speed up the process and achieve more nutrient rich soil, but for others simple is best.
The articles on this...Posted : June 01, 2010 | Comments : 0 |
News Headlines DIY Worm Compost Bin [Video]...Published:Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:50:31 -0800 # composting Worms can compost kitchen scraps and shredded paper much faster than the aerobic compost process utilized in most commercial backyard compost bins. A vermicomposting ...... Compost Bins Installed on Campus by Pre...Published:Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:12:04 -0800 Pomona has installed compost bins across campus to supplement ongoing efforts at the Organic Farm. The initiative, which launched in late March, was spearheaded by Samantha Meyer ...... Bootstrap Compost aims to make composti...Published:Sat, 04 Feb 2012 05:25:32 -0800 Residential food scrap pickup service Bootstrap Compost has recently launched operations in Melrose. Based in Jamaica Plain, the green startup serves residents of Greater Boston w...... Compost happens if you let it...Published:Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:28:24 -0800 The most popular environmental search on Google in 2011 was the phrase "How to Compost," reports Treehugger .com , the go-to website for all things green in the world....... How to make perfect compost...Published:Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:32:51 -0800 Want to make perfect compost? then I advise that you start in the kitchen....... Cameras will keep an eye on compost pla...Published:Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:47:38 -0800 Plans afoot to install three cameras at the site in Pachchanady......
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