Garden Compost
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Vermicomposting: Turn Your Garbage into Garden Gold
Do you know what vermiculture or vermicomposting are? These are the terms given to describe the process of using special worms to breakdown organic waste into functional compost.
Not any worms will do however; you need to use special composting varieties such as red worms. This process is an organic, eco-friendly way of producing a nutritional supplement for your garden plants and reduces landfill waste.
Making use of vermiculture to create worm compost is similar to having an ant farm or raising bees. You basically give the creatures the substance they want and need. In our case a comfy environment and organic leftovers and they simply go about their business living. The leftover product, compost, is in return something you want. Both sides win!
And the item of interest is the worm castings. This superb, organic fertilizer is like high octane racing fuel for your garden vegetables. Red wigglers will do well in a storage bin eating their food (again your scraps), processing the scraps, and leaving behind wonderful organic, earth-friendly worm compost in a fairly short period time.
The majority of gardening centers will provide worm castings. Various kinds of compost are often called “black gold” and worm castings is some of the best “gold” available. It is nearly odorless, clean, and sterile. There are no health risks with handling it with your bare hands and it will not harm your pets or the natural creatures in the backyard. Finally, if you haven’t guessed, it will dramatically improve your soil, promoting the health and growth of your plants.
Obtaining Your Own worm compost – As discussed above you can often obtain vermicompost from your local gardening center. If you want to get all of the benefits of these worm helpers you could also get started quickly by buying a commercial worm bin. Most of those sold online will come with some red worms to get started.
If you are the adventurous type or a regular DIY type person making your own worm bin can be completed in one afternoon. A handmade worm compost bin will probably cost only a fraction of a commercial bin and red wigglers can be purchased attained from a number of sources, local and over the Internet.
Raising Your Worms – Vermicomposting can be a simple process if you have get a hold of the right information. It is pretty straightforward to raise worms in a composting bin. After just a short while you will get use to caring for worms and you may come to think of the worms as pets. Typically your composting worms will be cheaper and easier to care for.
Many worm composters will use this as an opportunity to show your children about science, gardening, and helping to take care of the our resources. After all educating the young is our best chance for improving society.
For some resources on creating your own worm composting bin, information on building an army of worms, and much more visit us at DiscoverComposting.com. Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.
organic garden diary —liquid fertilizer compost on Dec 15th
organic garden diary —liquid fertilizer compost on Dec 15th, Compost demonstration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFDIBChF-_Q
Duration : 0:6:53
Organic Gardening – How to Make Worm Compost Fertilizer
Vermiculture is the fancy word for worm excretion which is worm compost. Heres how to do your own worm composting.
Choose the Proper Container
You will need a container at least 8 to 12 inches deep. Wood is better as it absorbs moisture and insulates the worms. A rectangular plastic container is often used, but the compost tends to be soggy.
Make Sure to Aerate the Bottom
Drill holes at least 2 inches apart all along the container bottom. Plastic containers may need more holes. Raise the bin off the ground with bricks. This provides air flow to the worms and prevents the materials from rotting. Keep a tray underneath the bin to catch excess moisture that can then be used for liquid fertilizer. If your compost comes out too wet, simply drill more holes.
Use Shredded Newspaper to Line the Container
Shred newspaper into one inch wide strips. Dampen the paper strips with water in a spray bottle until damp. Add about a cup of sand for the worms digestive tract.
Save Kitchen Scraps
About a week before you purchase your worms, start collecting kitchen scraps to feed the worms. The kitchen scraps you save are just like for home composting. Do not use animal proteins like meat, bones, cheese, milk, or oil products like salad dressing or mayonnaise. All raw vegetable and fruit leftovers, coffee grounds, used tea bags and egg shells are good.
Purchase Your Worms
You will need to have at least 2 pounds of worms for each day of food waste. Surprisingly, this works out to be approximately 2,000 worms. The best variations for composting are red worms or red wigglers as they thrive off of organic materials such as rotting fruits and vegetables.
Put a Cover on the Container
When placing your container outside, a wooden board works best as it keeps the worms in darkness just as they like it while keeping the soil moist. In addition, it also prevents predators from getting in. If your container is indoors, a simple plastic lid cover will suffice.
Collect Worm Excretions
Within four to six weeks from starting your worm compost you will start to notice the bedding becoming darker. Finally, in about two to three months, there will be very little of your original bedding remaining. If you wish to collect all of the compost or castings at once, simply pour the container onto a tarp or old shower curtain liner. The next step is to shine a light over the piles to ensure the worms move to the bottom. Once you are sure they are at the bottom, begin scooping the castings until all that is left are the worms. Place new bedding, the worms and some of the castings back in your container and start all over again.
Rhonda Abrons is a keen organic gardening enthusiast. She loves to share her gardening experiences and provide lessons about Organic Garden Pest Control and DIY Recipes for Natural Pesticides on Clivir.com.
In Depth Guide to Home Composting (Part 2 of 3)
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What Materials Can You Compost?
Pretty much all your organic household and garden waste is an elligible candidate for composting although there are a few exceptions. Things to particularly avoid are meat, fish, bones, fats and oils, dairy products like milk and cheese, dog and cat droppings as these can attract animals, create foul smells as they degrade and carry nasty diseases. Also, whilst weeds and plants can be added, it is advised to dry out persisent weeds and remove seed heads before adding these. Ashes are also best avoided, as are glossy magazines although shredded paper and cardboard are fine to add. Feel free to add waste fruit and vegetables, crushed egg shells, coffee grounds (worms love them!) and tea bags, hair, leaves, grass clippings and other organic waste. As a general rule, if in doubt, leave it out but most organic waste will rot down just fine and if you shred it or cut it up smaller, it will compost faster.
How Long Before It Becomes Compost?
This depends on the balance of materials in your compost heap, the weather and the amount of time you can devote to the project. If you want to take an active managed approach to your composting then you can have afully composted pile in 3 months but if your only desire is to dispose of kitchen and garden waste in a more ‘green’ manner then it can take 6 months to a year or longer.
Managed composting can produce a ‘hot rot’ with very fast results but it does require additional effort on your behalf to keep it going. A managed, hot compost heap with an excellent balance of materials can reach temperatures of 70 degree celsius but requires regular turning and nurturing with careful layering and balance of browns and greens in the mix, shredding materials and maintaining a good moisture level.
An unmanaged cool heap is however much easier to maintain and rots down at up to 30 degrees celsius with little input from you. Just throwing your waste on the heap will give you a cooler heap which will rot down more slowly but is fine for green waste disposal purposes.
There are ways to increase the rate of the composting process in both cases by, for example, adding composting worms, or by using an activator which help speed up the process. The addition of a handful or soil now and then or horse manure will also add micro-organisms to speed up the composting process free of charge.
For The Best Compost…
…use a wide variety of different materials. The more varied the materials you add to the compost pile, the nutrient rich your final compost will be. Compost made from kitchen and garden waste is the best food for your plants and at the same time you are helping the environment and saving yourself and your local government money into the bargain.
Duration : 0:9:5
Beginners Guide to Composting!
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Recent studies show that an average family throws away approximately 200 pounds of organic kitchen waste every year. Combine this with all the leaves, grass clippings and other organic garden waste accumulated over time and that’s a lot of household waste being added to the already mountainous waste disposal problem. Some local authorities are refusing to take away green waste from gardening and others charge for the service in an effort to curb mounting costs and then when you add in the environmental costs of adding new landfill sites, road transport emissions from ferrying all this waste around and potentially incineration and the fumes that releases the environmental advantages of composting are clear.
In slightly more selfish terms, if you are a gardener then you will know the relatively high cost of fertiliser. Well, OK an average gardener’s yearly fertiliser expenditure is not going to break the bank but when you can get fertiliser for free out of the stuff you throw away then it starts looking extremely expensive. Composting simply makes good environmental and financial sense and it’s so easy to do there’s nothing stopping you.
What Do I Need To Begin?
A compost bin, box, enclosure or handy place to put an open compost heap. Cheap plastic composters and compost bins can be bought from all good garden centers and are quite inexpensive depending on your requirements. A plastic compost bin is generally the cheapest whilst wood composters are generally more attractive additions to your garden but a little more costly. An open heap (just create a pile somewhere) is also an option but it is advisable to have some sort of cover like a tarpaulin available for colder periods of weather.
Another slightly different alternative to composting in the traditional sense is vermicomposting or wormeries. These use a special kind of worms to break down kitchen scraps producing a fine compost-like material fromtheir casts and a nutrient filled liquid plant food which is ideal for feeding indoor pot plants. If do a lot of greenhouse gardening or have a lot of houseplants then a wormery may be the best choice for the disposal of household waste.
If you do not want to actually spend money on a composter then building your own isn’t exactly difficult if you do not mind picking up a hammer and nails. Nail together a few wooden pallets for example and you’ve got an enclosure suitable for composting. For plans and ideas on how to emble your own composter at little cost, simply head to your favourite search engine and type in phrases like “build your own composter” or “compost bin plans” for an endless supply of simple ideas typically costing under $30.
Where To Put Your Compost
Whether you purchase a composting bin or make your own composter you need to make sure you have a flat, well drained place in your garden not too far away that you begrudge taking your kitchen scraps out to it. Compost bins should not be placed on concrete, patio areas etc. as you want to allow the insects, worms and microorganisms which help degradation of your waste materials the freedom to migrate into and out of your compost without hinderance.
In addition, choose a site which suits your climate. Warmth and moisture helps the composting process so place your composter in a place which receives a fair amount of sunlight and shelter from the wind if you live in a cooler climate and if in a hotter climate, ensure you give it shade to prevent it drying out.
Duration : 0:1:26
In Depth Guide to Home Composting (Part 1 of 3)
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What Materials Can You Compost?
Pretty much all your organic household and garden waste is an elligible candidate for composting although there are a few exceptions. Things to particularly avoid are meat, fish, bones, fats and oils, dairy products like milk and cheese, dog and cat droppings as these can attract animals, create foul smells as they degrade and carry nasty diseases. Also, whilst weeds and plants can be added, it is advised to dry out persisent weeds and remove seed heads before adding these. Ashes are also best avoided, as are glossy magazines although shredded paper and cardboard are fine to add. Feel free to add waste fruit and vegetables, crushed egg shells, coffee grounds (worms love them!) and tea bags, hair, leaves, grass clippings and other organic waste. As a general rule, if in doubt, leave it out but most organic waste will rot down just fine and if you shred it or cut it up smaller, it will compost faster.
How Long Before It Becomes Compost?
This depends on the balance of materials in your compost heap, the weather and the amount of time you can devote to the project. If you want to take an active managed approach to your composting then you can have afully composted pile in 3 months but if your only desire is to dispose of kitchen and garden waste in a more ‘green’ manner then it can take 6 months to a year or longer.
Managed composting can produce a ‘hot rot’ with very fast results but it does require additional effort on your behalf to keep it going. A managed, hot compost heap with an excellent balance of materials can reach temperatures of 70 degree celsius but requires regular turning and nurturing with careful layering and balance of browns and greens in the mix, shredding materials and maintaining a good moisture level.
An unmanaged cool heap is however much easier to maintain and rots down at up to 30 degrees celsius with little input from you. Just throwing your waste on the heap will give you a cooler heap which will rot down more slowly but is fine for green waste disposal purposes.
There are ways to increase the rate of the composting process in both cases by, for example, adding composting worms, or by using an activator which help speed up the process. The addition of a handful or soil now and then or horse manure will also add micro-organisms to speed up the composting process free of charge.
For The Best Compost…
…use a wide variety of different materials. The more varied the materials you add to the compost pile, the nutrient rich your final compost will be. Compost made from kitchen and garden waste is the best food for your plants and at the same time you are helping the environment and saving yourself and your local government money into the bargain.
Duration : 0:7:39
How to Make a Worm Compost Bin – Cheap and Easy
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Duration : 0:4:2
How to Compost : Learn Organic Garden Composting Online : How Nitrogen Affects Compost
Too much nitrogen in compost can kill necessary microbes, but too little can keep the compost from breaking down correctly. Learn how nitrogen affects your compost pile and how to add it to your compost in various forms in this free organic gardening video. …
Duration : 0:1:45
How to Compost : Learn Organic Garden Composting Online : What Should You Put in Compost?
Coffee grinds are great for compost. Find out what other yard and kitchen scraps are best for putting into a compost pile in this free organic gardening video. …
Duration : 0:0:48