Seasonal Considerations for Composting

Photo: Wikimedia

Most composting is done in the spring and summer months.  The reason is that heat is such an important element to the process.  Even though the composting process itself generates heat, the warmth from the weather certainly helps everything along.  

Most composts go dormant in the winter months and start up again with the spring thaw and warmer temperatures.  But if you live in a milder climate that does not get harsh winters, there is a way to continue to compost during the winter months.

You can create an insulated compost bin.  Using a plastic garbage can dig a hole big and deep enough to put at least six inches of the can underground.  Use a natural insulating material such as straw and pack it around the base and up the sides of the can.  Continue to compost as you would at any other time of the year.

Even though this method will still work in the winter months, the speed at which the material will decompose will still be slowed down.  Winter composting will allow you to continue recycling your kitchen scraps throughout the colder months and you may even have compost at the beginning of spring to use in your garden.

The spring and fall are the best times to collect leaves to start a new compost bin.  In the spring, the leaves you collect have already started to decompose as they stayed wet and insulated throughout the winter.  It doesn’t matter though if you collect your leaves in either season – they are the perfect base for a new compost pile.  If you are using dry leaves from the fall, consider putting them through a chipper of some kind.  If they are smaller and already cut up it will aid in the whole composting system.

---

---

The Pros of Worm COMPOSTING

The inside of a worm composting bin, after the worms have eaten many kitchen scraps.
Note the castings on the sides of the bin.
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The old "Eeeeeeew!" may well become one of the solutions to environmental problems and lack of nutrition in the soil. Scientists have tested this in the laboratory and have now approved of this new technique to composting: worm composting. Particularly, the red worm variety is the ones capable of doing this new feat.

Finally, they found a new way to make use of worms aside from being the main dish in Fear Factor. Some of us may have goosebumps upon imagining the sight of creepy crawlies-- it truly is more than enough to give an average person the heebie-jeebies. But on the upside, they have been known to help cultivate the environment for a long time. It is really no surprise to find that they play a vital role in the whole composting process. 

Some of you might think that worm composting is not really such as a good idea. But before you banish the idea of that red crawlies helping save the environment, take a break, open your mind and hear out some of the advantages of the now-becoming-popular worm composting technique.

Advantage Number 1: Flexible: Indoors or Outdoors, Take Your Pick

Whether you want to have your worm compost indoors or outdoors, it does not really matter. You can have them on either or on both areas. The good thing is that you won't even have to sweat around too much with your worm compost. They are relatively easy to transport and are non-complaining workers that will till your compost day in and day out, for relatively no charge. You only have to feed them to keep them in top condition. 

Advantage Number 2: All it needs is moist bedding

Worms like moisture, and having moisture is one of the easiest components of composting. If you are able to provide the moisture, you only have to wait and see until the worms do their wonders in helping you have more fertilized soil.

Advantage Number 3: Worms are readily available and are not that hard to cultivate.

In some areas, you need not look for worms. You only have to get a jar and focus your eyes while walking in the garden. Sometimes, you need not go out of the house and you can find them sauntering in your bathroom (rich in moisture, remember?). So the good thing is that they will not really resist you if you put them in a cage rich with food.

Advantage Number 4: Aside from the yuck factor, the worms will happily do the work; you only have to regulate them.

You will act more like a worm manager than a laborer, really. After you put on the heap and the worms together, you will do very minimal work for so many positive results. You can also get a lot of support from governments and people worldwide regarding this aspect. In fact, in some American communities, it is already being implemented and widely promoted to have a worm composting in the home. 

Advantage Number 5: Mobile bins will not affect the worms' performance.

Another thing with the worm composting that other composting techniques don't have is the mobility. You can take it with you anywhere, assuming that you have small-scale composting on your sleeve (industrial size worm composting isn't really a lovely idea, anyway).

---

---

Avoiding COMPOSTING Dangers

Turning a compost pile for viticulture
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you are engaged in any composting activity of sorts, you might find yourself encountering certain dangers. Composting is an activity that leads one closer to nature. But then, disasters can happen even on the road paved with good intentions. There are imminent dangers. However, these dangers can be avoided by a few techniques from the pros.

Read up

The best way to prepare for composting dangers is to read up. That's right. You need to read up on concepts and techniques and all the other factors pertaining to composting. Like in learning a new language, immersing yourself with available information on composting prior to the composting activity will ensure that you are to get the best deal of the composting activity. Also, it will show you how to do things the right way and keep you from doing things that can be detrimental to your safety.

Wash your hands frequently

After composting, you need to wash your hands. This may seem like a no-brainer, but most enthusiasts who get too absorbed with their activities forget the dangers of poisoning. This may not concern you directly, but children and siblings who are not oriented to the dangers of composting chemicals may not really be privy to washing their hands after contact. This is also a good motivation for you to secure a close lid for your composting heap.

Inspect your active compost frequently

A frequent inspection will ensure that there are no weeds or unwelcome creatures inhabiting in your compost pile. Make sure that your compost pile remains a compost pile and not a breeding ground for harmful animals that can endanger you in your backyard. The active compost is quite dynamic in nature so you can be ensured that you will not be bored to death or forced to watch a dull pile of manure.

Orient your friends and family about your composting activities.

Getting your family and friends involved or at least amply oriented will help you be able to relay your activities to them effectively. It will also help them become aware of certain things or objects you are using in the backyard (in cases where you do your compost heaps in the backyard), and will not be inclined to hit themselves with it while taking a leisure stroll.

Keep the compost aerated

The danger to compost is when it loses air and becomes more poisonous to the soil than helpful. Make sure that even when your compost heap is in a closed bin, there is still more than enough air for it to continue circulating. The aeration process helps enhance the composting process, and then it also prevents the organic materials from turning into an amorphous poisonous blob that you would not want to get your hands at.

Familiarize yourself with the machinery (for industrial scale compost heaps)

If you are dealing with composting on a larger scale and it may require some machinery, you must really exercise caution in using the machinery. Also, make sure that you are familiar with all commands, well-versed with worst-case scenarios and troubleshooting techniques for the equipment you are using.

This is more dangerous since you are talking of a composting heap on a larger scale. So make sure that you are familiarized, as well as the people around you who will be assigned to work with you on the industrial composting process.

---

---

Compost Smells: This and Other Composting Myths

Photo: Pxhere

Composting is a natural and simple process and yet it has been complicated by machines, fallacies, misinformation, myths, and misunderstandings that came out due to erroneous publications and aggressive commercial marketing approaches. Some of these misinformed facts have been passed around so many times that the general perception has become truth. An example would be the seemingly accepted fact that all compost smells. But before we go into that, let’s discuss some other composting myths first. 

Myth: Composting requires a lot of work

Truth: Composting is a natural process which involves basically the elements of nature doing the job for you. All you need is to gather all the materials, lay it on, and let nature do her job. Composting is a low maintenance activity as well. You only need to turn the compost file every once in a while to keep the air flowing to quicken the decomposition process and that’s it. You practically sit and wait for the compost to finish. 

Myth: Composting is limited to farms and wide open spaces

Truth: On the contrary, people living in urban areas who have no luxury for space can create their own composting bin from a trash can. How much space would that take up? Also, there is another technique which you can use, the so-called vermicomposting which involves the use of red worms in a contained bin where you feed them table scraps. 

Myth: Composting needs precise measurements

Truth: Even though composting ideally would be best achieved with the right combination of greens and browns elements, having the exact measurements is not that necessary. Estimates work just fine. And those neatly piled up layers of composting piles you see in commercials, books, pamphlets and brochures of composting products, those are all for the show. You don’t need to copy those, composting works the same way as you pile them up haphazardly. 

Myth: You need specially formulated chemicals as starters or activators

Truth: Well, despite the claims of commercially available products that applying them to the compost pile will speed up the process of decomposition, buying them is not really necessary. It is often the practice to just throw in some finished compost into the newly formed compost pile and that itself will serve as the activator to get things started. There’s no need to buy that expensive stuff. 

Myth: Adding yeast will boost the compost’s performance

Truth: This is not true at all. What you’re doing is just wasting your money by adding yeast to the compost pile. Yeast does not do anything to the compost pile and neither does it affect the performance quality of the compost. 

Myth: Animals are attracted to composting piles

Truth: Yes, this to some degree is true. Composting piles do attract the occasional cat, dog or raccoon. Small critters will likely go for open compost piles and for piles that have kitchen scraps like meat, fat, dairy products, bones and pet manure to the pile. 

Myth: Compost smells

Truth: Compost should not smell. If you find bad smelling compost, then the maker did a poor job picking the materials for the compost pile. 

Other composting myths exist and it would be best to do your research first before accepting them as truth.

---

---

The Greens and Browns of Composting

Composting - Photo: Wikimedia

Imagine yourself as a chef of a fancy restaurant. To cook a delicious meal, you carefully measure the ingredients and combine them to create wonderful dishes. The same can be said when creating composts. This time, however, instead of the people in the restaurant as your customers, you will be answering the needs of your plants. And just like cooking, you are given the task of putting together in equal amounts the “greens” and “browns” of composting. 

 “Greens” and “browns” are nicknames which are used to refer to the organic materials used in creating compost. The major differences between these two elements are not so much on the colors of the organic matter themselves but rather on their basic components. The Greens are organic materials rich in nitrogen or protein. Meanwhile, Browns are those organic matters that have high carbon or carbohydrates contents. 

Because of their high nitrogen and protein contents, Greens allow microorganism in composts to grow and multiply. Also, the Green components generate heat in compost piles. The Brown elements, on the other hand, contain the energy that most soil organisms need. Furthermore, because of their high carbon contents, the Browns function as a big air filter, absorbing the bad odors that emanate from the compost pile. The carbons also help prevent organic nitrogen from escaping and also aids in the faster formation of humus from the compost. 

In case you’re stumped whether an organic waste or material belongs to the Greens or Browns variety, one of the easiest way to test it is to wet the material. If you find the material to stink after a few days then it belongs to the Greens variety. Again, remember not to be fooled by color. 

For example, although leaves come in green, brown, red, etc. colors, they are classified as Browns. Leaves are high in carbon. The evergreen leaves, for example, have higher carbon contents than any other leaves. However, there is always an exception. Oaktree leaves do not fall under the Greens classification. Oak leaves contain high amounts of nitrogen which makes them fall under the Greens category. 

Other examples of Greens include animal wastes, grass clippings, and that leftover food from your kitchen. As long as you don’t use harmful chemicals like inorganic fertilizers and pesticides on your grass, then the use of grass clippings It is okay. Meanwhile, papers, wood chippings, sawdust, bark mulches, and other wood products are most often than not fall under the Browns classification.

Sugar products are also classified under Browns. These include molasses, syrups, sugar, and carbonated drinks. You could use these sugar products to activate or increase the activities of microbes in your compost pile. 

Some other Greens include vegetable and fruit wastes, eggshells, as well as coffee grounds, filters, and tea bags. For the Browns, they have hay, straw, and cornstalks. Pine needles fall also under the Browns category. However, it is suggested that using too much pine needles on the compost pile will give the Browns too much of an advantage. 

One can achieve a successful compost with the correct ratio of Brown and Green components. Ideally, a “Browns” and “Greens” of composting ratio of 3:1 would ensure a successful compost.

This means you will have three parts or the pile made of components high in carbon (Browns) and one part of it made up of nitrogen-rich ingredients (Greens).

---

---

Getting to Know Your COMPOSTING Equipment

Green Waste - Photo: Pixabay

The equipment you use in your composting will help make or break your pursuits of building your compost. If you are really bent on making the most of your composting goals, a good familiarization of the tools that will help you achieve your goals is very much appropriate. The tools will not necessarily be in the form of objects, because there are also elements of place and space that are in play when it comes to obtaining the optimum performance of your compost. 

A Good Composting Site

The site of your composting activity is the primary consideration and one of the best tools you need to master before you do any composting activity. The place must be free from obstruction and well capable of obtaining the right temperature needed for your composting. Aside from this, you also need to be thoroughly familiar with the site which you chose for composting. In addition, you also need to be able to access the site frequently as composting requires a lot of monitoring on a frequent basis. 

Compost Bin

Your compost bin must serve the functions of the particular type of composting you intend to have. If you are up for the industrial level of composting, you may need more than one compost bin to satisfy your objectives. This compost bin needs to be cleaned every once in a while and must be of the right size depending on the number of materials you are to put.

Be sure that you are able to manage the compost bin you choose, and for beginners, it is often recommended to start small and then branch out once you get the hang of it or at least get comfortable with what you are working on. 

Thermometer

Composting requires you to maintain a specific temperature. So a thermometer may come in handy for you as you do your daily rounds of inspection on your compost pit. You need to make sure that the thermometer is properly calibrated. Some shops also sell thermometer that is tailored to suit the needs of compost owners, so you can also check these out. The specifically tailored thermometers may prove to give a better advantage for you. 

Garden Fork

The garden fork has a great variety of uses. In the aspect of composting, it will really help you mix your materials 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 compost mix. For a garden rake, you must choose one that is optimum for the size of your composting operations and with a complete manual and warranty so as to maximize its usage. 

Other Containers

You will not only need a compost bin but if you are a sucker for combining and categorizing your materials, you may also need additional containers that can help you manage your compost materials. In cases where you need to monitor your Carbon and Nitrogen ratio components in the mix, you have to make sure that you are adding the right type of materials to maintain the right temperature, mix, and ratio needed. 

Room for Growth

The spatial aspect of composting involves having more room for growth should you decide to pursue higher levels of composting. Your area must be spacious enough to accommodate your present composting needs, but at the same time, it must be able to hold in expansions, should you decide to increase the capacity of your compost pit.

---

---

Worm Farming: A How-To Guide

Worms - Photo: Flickr

Often times when someone hears about worm farming for the first time they think about how it could easily generate revenue with little effort.  Perhaps the thought of having a personal supply of nutrient-rich soil for the garden or flower beds sounds appealing.  Either way, it's important to know how to set up a proper worm farm your specific reasons.  

To understand how to set up a worm farm, the benefits worms provide must first be established.  Worm farming provides nutrient-rich soil yielding a higher growth rate for vegetables, flowers and other plants.  A natural technique for composting with worms is beneficial to the environment as it helps eliminate the overfilling of landfills.  Some worm farms are established for the purpose of providing live bait to fishermen, exotic pet owners, and even aquarium fish owners.  

With the purpose of the worm farm in mind, the set up can begin.  Worm bins are readily available for purchase on the Internet.  Various sizes, shapes, and colors add to the selection.  Current large-scale worm farmers will often sell small setups for a comparable price.  

Other than purchasing a unit online or through a commercial worm farmer, setups can be made at home out of a number of household items.  Plastic tubs or large wooden boxes can be altered and provide a perfect home for these working worms.  

Multiple layers are needed to provide a space for the liquid at the bottom.  The liquid will run off the soil above and can be drained via a tap or hole at the bottom of the container.  Within the upper layer of soil, the worms can move about towards the material to be composted.

The numerous models that can be purchased are also available for indoor use for those with limited or no outdoor space.  Worm bins can typically be stacked for adding more worms later on.  

Appropriate bedding will need to be provided for the worms to ensure a healthy lifestyle.  Peat moss or coconut fiber containing a small amount of compost material is well accepted.  Bedding should always be moist for worms.  Many prepackaged worm bins come complete with bedding and set up instructions.

Location of the bin is important as well.  Worms are unable to tolerate extremes in temperature.  A location where the temperature can be controlled between 72 - 75 degrees Fahrenheit, or choosing a fully insulated system, will help keep the worms healthy and happy.  The level of moisture within the bin can be affected by location too.

When a unit is chosen and prepared, the worms will need to be added to start the farm.  Various worms are readily available.  Red Wigglers are the best choice for composting farms while European Night Crawlers are best for live bait.  

When worms are purchased, they typically come with acclimation instructions. An important step is to be sure the bedding and unit are fully prepared before the worms arrive for placement within the farm.  

Feeding the worms is the fun part.  They can consume any number of items to be used as compost including fruit and vegetable scraps, eggshells, paper products, cotton rags, soaked cardboard boxes, leaves, dirt, and hair.  Items should be cut down to manageable sizes.  Fruits should be sliced into strips for easier consumption by the worms.  

Provide a layer of items to be consumed on the top layer of the soil.  To avoid overfeeding, only add more food when most of the previously fed food has been eaten.  

Worm castings can be found in the bottom layer of the soil.  This natural fertilizer can be added directly to flower beds and gardens.  A liquid fertilizer can be made by adding water to castings for plants and flowers that prefer to be fed directly at the roots.  

Worm farming is relatively low maintenance.  If the habitat is less than desirable, the worms will often simply crawl away in search of better living conditions.  Keeping the temperature constant, moisture at an appropriate level and food readily available will help ensure a healthy and happy supply of working worms.  

---

---

Composting Problems

Composting Tomatoes - Photo: Flickr

There are five problems that can arise when you are composting.  All of the issues are relatively easy to troubleshoot and fix.  During your routine monitoring of the pile keep a look out for signs of a  problem and try some of the suggested solutions listed below.

If you see a swarm of flies around your compost bin chances are you have not put enough brown food (leaves, twigs, hay) on top of your kitchen scraps.  The kitchen scraps are very inviting to fruit and house flies, make sure you don’t leave them exposed.

Your compost bin has a bad smell.  The most likely cause is not enough air is getting through to all parts of the compost.  Give the compost a good turning and add a bulky substance such as woodchips or sawdust.  They are bulky and create pockets where the air can move freely.

If you find that your pile is very dry, add some moisture in the form of water.  You should not soak the pile, just enough to get it wet.  If the pile is continually drying outlook at other factors such as location and what you are adding – you may have to move the bin to a less sunny location or add more wet scraps (fruit and vegetable waste).

Your compost pile seems to be working (it is moist and warm) but only in spots.  Either your pile is not large enough or you are not rotating it enough.  Make sure you are regularly adding new scraps and are rotating the pile every second day.

Like the problem of flies, if you have pests visiting your pile you need to make sure you are covering all kitchen scraps thoroughly.  Moreover, do not add any animal products such as meat or bones.

---

---

A Simplified Look at COMPOSTING

Materials in a compost bin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

That of course is the general idea behind this article. There’s a lot of materials out there about composting and compost and the last thing you need is another one that explains the technical aspect of the process and the scientific basis behind the importance of using composts.

Although, I’m not denying the fact that technical explanations such as those are necessary as well, but it would be nice to hear or read something more of layman’s approach on the subject. Well, that’s something that this article would like to do, anyhow. 

Compost is an organic substance that is added to the soil which functions more than just being a fertilizer. It is a mulch, a soil conditioner, and something that will help the soil give the best nutrients and minerals your plants need. With compost, the soil also is able to hold more water, which is also beneficial to your plants. 

There are several composting methods which you can employ or use. The so-called “no-turn” composting method seems to be the easiest. Like what the title of the method indicates, you don’t need to turn the pile of compost at least once every week to quicken the process of decomposition. In this “no-turn” technique, all you need to do is add a lot of coarse materials to your compost.

Adding a lot of straw would do just fine. What the straw does is to create air pockets and allow the pile to be aerated. You can expect your compost to be developed at the same rate as when you employ the traditional “turn-over” composting technique. When you use this composting technique, be sure to get your compost from the bottom of the pile. Just add new organic materials on the top keeping in mind adding coarse materials as well. 

If the only available composting materials in your yard are piles and piles of leaves, then don’t worry. Creating composts from leaves alone can be done. You just need a couple of things and some very simple techniques. Select a place where you will make your compost pile. For the leaves, the place ideal would be a well-shaded area which will help keep the pile damp or moist. Also, keep in mind that the pile should not be packed tightly. Keep it loose to allow the air to circulate.

In four or six months, the compost from leaves should be finished and ready to be applied to the soil. Take a mental note, however, that the compost created from the leaves does not contain enough nutrients and microorganism to function as a fertilizer. The finished compost, however, is great as a soil conditioner. 

When composting, you will need materials rich in carbon and nitrogen namely fruits and vegetable scraps and other table scraps except for leftover bones because they attract a number of pests and animals. Other products include eggshells, grass or shrub clippings, pine needles, seaweed and kelp, coffee grounds, wood ash, tea leaves, cardboard and shredded paper, corn stalks, wood chips, and sawdust. 

To discourage fruit flies and other pests from grouping together on your pile, it would be best to cover the pile or add lime or calcium over the top or whenever you add new materials to your compost. The lime and calcium also help neutralize the odors from your pile. 

I hope you were able to have a simplified view of the composting and got some useful and simple tips from the article. Just remember that composting is difficult only if you want it to be. 

---

---

---

Worms for Vermicomposting

Worm - Photo: Pixabay 

Now that you have decided vermicomposting is for you, you need to get some worms (a lot of them).  

For a standard size composting bin you will need two pounds of worms for every one pound of raw material you add.  The earthworms you will need (known as red wrigglers) do not go very deep underground so your pile or bin should be between 8-10 inches deep.

You may be tempted to go to your backyard and start digging up some worms, but you really should invest in the proper kind.  The worms in your backyard are not the recommended breed for composting.  You will need to buy worms that bear the name of red wriggler (also known as redworms) or brandling worms.

Redworms or brandling worms can be purchased from a bait shop, some local gardening centers or by mail order.  An average worm can eat its own weight in the material in 24 hours; keep this in mind when you are determining the size of your compost bin and the number of worms you will need.

With the rate at which the worms consume the food waste, the timeline of getting from raw organic material to mature compost is relatively short.  The same principle applies as for regular composting – you need a good mix of green food and brown food (this can be in the form of shredded newspaper).  The finished compost is known as worm castings, worm humus, worm manure, and worm compost.

If you are using a hot or active composting method and it is in the maturing stage, you can add redworms or brandling worms to speed up this last step.  You will most likely see quite a few more helpful critters in your compost as it matures too – centipedes and millipedes to name a couple.

---

---

To Compost or Not to Compost

Composting - Photo: Wikimedia

Well, there’s no doubt about it, composting is a good practice that any self-respected gardener should learn to do. But the question really is what materials we could make into a compost and which ones we cannot. We have been told that composting can be done with any organic material. Well, in theory, that may be true, however, in real life, it may not be always so.

There are several organic materials that should not be included in the compost pile unless you know how to do it properly while there are other materials that should not even be attempted even by the experts. To compost or not to compost, that is indeed the question. And let’s see if we can provide the answers.

For home composters like you and me, we have a number of materials available inside our own home and even our own backyard. The big, industrial composters have a little advantage over us.  They can compost more materials than us because they have the facilities to divert, mask, or absorb the odor that may come out from composting a lot of organic stuff. We don’t have the same luxury. We don’t want our neighbors organizing a protest rally against our composting in our own backyard, now do we?

Don’t let this worry you though, there are still a lot of materials that we could include in our compost pile. Let’s begin with something our front lawn is always dying to dispose of excess grass. Yep, grass clippings from our lawn can be put to better use like for the compost file in our backyard. In situations where you have hay instead of grass clippings, that could work as well.

Using hay for composting is often practiced by farmers. You will find that farmers are more than willing to dispose of that hay. And when it comes to using hay for composting, be sure to pick the greener ones. Green hay means it still has a lot of nitrogen in it.

Others include kitchen wastes such as vegetable peels, fruit rinds, tea bags, eggshells and coffee grounds. These substances contain high levels of nitrogen. Make sure, however, to keep pests away from your kitchen wastes. Some would prefer to prepare a compost bin intended for their kitchen wastes. Others would prefer burying these wastes in eight inches of soil. And because they precisely attract pests, it would be best to stay avoid including scraps of meat, milk products, and leftover bones.

Wood chips, wood shaving, sawdust, paper, and other wood products are generally good to include in your compost pile. However, be sure to stay away from chemically-treated wood products. Arsenic is one of the highly toxic chemicals that is sometimes used to treat wood. Using sawdust from such treated wood products is a no-no since the chemical will leak into the soil causing more harm than good.

---

---

Speaking of no-nos, there are other things that you should not include in your compost. Plants that died due to a disease should not be included. There is still a possibility that the disease the caused the death of the plants might infect your future plants.

And similarly, human, dog and cat wastes are not used as composting materials as well precisely because they contain organisms that could cause disease. Such disease might cause people to be sick or might affect your plants.

Even though grasses can be used for composting, it would be best to avoid weeds like morning glory, ivy, sheep, and kinds of grasses that could grow in your compost pile. The weeds seeds also can survive the composting pile which can be carried to your new garden.

So going back to our earlier question: to compost or not to compost? Composting is something that is ideal for your garden. However, choosing the right materials will determine how successful your compost pile will be.

Helping Nature by Composting

Food scraps compost heap - Photo: Wikimedia

If you still find it hard to understand the nature of composting, it can actually be simplified. It can actually be compared to recycling. Instead of throwing out all your waste and garbage, or at least what you consider as garbage, you can sort that out. In recycling, you need to pick the things that can still be transformed into other materials so that you can use them for different purposes.

The more popular things that are being utilized in recycling are the pins on soda cans. These are said to help out in making aluminum. Other containers can be used as pots or vases. Used clothes can be turned into mats or rugs. The idea here is that while there are things that can still be useful in your everyday lives, most of the recycled materials are being implemented as decorative elements.

With the products of compost, you will not pick things out of the garbage pile to be able to come up with other things that will be useful to you in your everyday life. No, the process will not come up with an exotic looking vase or a picture frame made out of shells or bottle caps. You can leave those thoughts to recycling.

Composting entails the recycling of the materials that can be found in nature. The popular samples of this would be dried leaves, grass clippings, vegetable or fruit peelings, animal manure, sawdust, among others. How would all these be useful? Unlike the practical applications of the product of recycling, this, in turn, will mostly be for gardening purposes. 

This will be especially helpful if you are into organic gardening. This method requires the use of organic materials. That means that you cannot turn to synthetic products, especially for the purpose of fertilizers and pesticides. And it is possible. Your compost can make the soil for this type of gardening healthy and happy. As a result, it will produce healthy crops and chemical-free plants.

Organic gardening may sound complicated to the novice ears. But if you put your heart into it, you will find out that all the hard work that you will spend doing this will all be worth it. But this doesn't really mean that you have to do it, especially if you can't afford to because of the time consideration and other factors.

But even if you don't have time to do organic gardening, you can still try your hand at making compost. This can also apply to people living in the urban zones. Even with such situation, you can still do a little gardening trick by having your plants in pots. No, you don't need to go organic all the way. Nobody's telling you to do so. But using the products of your compost as a fertilizer can actually engage you with the project and may start your curiosity towards the real organic gardening thing.

Besides, everything nowadays seems to be marketed as organic. Look at the grocery aisles. There are organic food, organic soap, organic tissue, cloth and everything. This seems to be a trend. And nature is definitely not complaining.

By going out of your way to do composting, consider nature sending out her appreciation your way. And may this inspire you to do other things to help with the causes of Mother Earth.

---

---

What is COMPOSTING?

Composting is recycling your kitchen waste and lawn trimmings and turning them into a valuable resource for your garden or houseplants.  This is done by speeding up the process that the materials you use to compost go through on their own – decomposition.

A picture of compost soil (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Compost is not soil.  It is a common misconception that the end-result of composting is the dirt that you find in the ground.  It is a substance that acts as a fertilizer (enriching the soil) to grow hardier and healthier plants.

Before you begin composting there are choices to be made – what type of container and style suits your project, what you will be putting into your compost bin, and the location of your bin.  But regardless of these decisions, how you convert your waste into compost happens the same way.  It is a breakdown of waste materials as they are digested by microbes (bacteria and fungi).

The microbes are the workers of the composting equation.  They need air, water, and food to do their job and it is up to you to supply it to them in the right amounts.  If you have heard that having a compost bin or pile creates a foul odor it is most likely the result of not enough air circulating throughout the waste material.  Without air, the material will still breakdown but it will be done by anaerobic microbes (organisms that do not need oxygen) as opposed to aerobic (ones that need oxygen).  So if you do have an unpleasant smell coming from your compost bin or pile you can rotate the material to let in more air or add a substance to create more room for the air to circulate.  Wood chips or hay are good for this.

Composting is good for the environment and your garden – it eliminates the amount of waste you throw away and enriches the soil your plants grow in.

---

---

Beginners Guide to Home COMPOSTING

Composting your kitchen and garden waste is a great way to reduce the amount of waste you dispose of in your rubbish bin.  By composting your waste you can generate a free source of rich compost to help improve your garden, and also help to reduce global warming in the process.

Compost bin
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

How does home composting help to reduce global warming?

When sent to landfill organic waste is compressed under tonnes and tonnes of other waste types.  The organic waste therefore does not have enough access to air, which restricts the waste from being able to decompose properly.  Instead of decomposing, methane gas is produced which contributes to global warming.

The Compost Bin

The first step to start composting at home is to get a compost bin.  You can either purchase a compost bin or you can make your own.  Compost bins can be bought from the majority of garden centres.  The government funded Recycle Now Home Composting Campaign also sells discounted compost bins.

The next important step is to decide where to position the compost bin, which can affect the overall quality of the compost that is produced.  For best results place the bin in a well drained area which has good access to sunlight.  The drainage will enable excess water to drain out of the compost and placing the bin in a sunny spot helps to speed up the composting process.

What waste items can I put in my compost bin?

There are lots of everyday waste items from your garden and kitchen that can go into your compost bin.  These are broken down into ?Greens? and ?Browns?.  Greens are the type of items that provide moisture and nitrogen and are quick to rot.  Items classed as Greens includes:

Grass cuttings

Vegetable peelings

Leaves

Fruit

Tea bags

Weeds

Browns are waste items that take longer to rot but provide pockets of air, along with fibre and carbon.

This includes items such as:

Cardboard boxes

Newspapers (scrunched up)

Toilet roll tubes

Egg shells (crushed)

Shredded paper

Twigs and hedge clippings

How do I make a good quality compost? 

To make a good quality compost it is important to use a good mix of both 'green' and 'brown' wastes.  It is simply a case of monitoring the compost and adding more waste depending on the look of the compost.  For example, if it looks too dry add more ?green? waste, and if it looks too wet add more ?brown? waste.  Every so often it is also a good idea to mix or turn the contents of your compost bin to add air.

How long will it take for my compost to be ready to use?

This will vary depending on the mixture of waste that is placed into the compost bin, the surrounding conditions and the weather.  In general it should take between 6 and 9 months for your finished compost to be ready to use.

---

---

Common Materials for COMPOSTING from Your Own Home

In composting, you need not look too far to be able to obtain a viable set of materials to keep it up and functioning. the good thing about composting is that it completely transcends locations and resources because you can literally derive your composting materials from basically anything.

When you are at home, the best way to be able to get a hold of the best composting materials is by neatly categorizing the different parts of your home and sequestering all the possible candidates for composting. this will help you sort out which part of your home has the best resource for your composting and in cases where you need to activate your compost at the time that it grows more passive, you know exactly where to look. 

Kitchen

Vegetables and fish that have been burned by the freezer can still be put to good use, as well as any container or bag made of burlap which you cannot find any good use for. even the ignorable lint that you find behind your refrigerator may be used for composting! Old condiments or spices may also be included, not for flavoring, but for organic purposes.  

Dining Area

Paper napkins are the first thing that come to mind when you are trying to secure composting materials in the dining table. Leftovers at the dining table may also be classified as appropriate composting material. 

Composting (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Study Area

There is definitely a better way to make use of your Post it notes than putting them on a shredder after you have scribbled all over them. In your study area, all sorts of paper materials, including your colored and used Post it notes, are viable composting materials. In cases where you are unable to resist bringing food in your study area, you can also use the leftovers from your study area to help fill up the compost pit you have created. 

Pet Kennels and Cages

Do you find pet hair irritating? The thing is, you can also use pet hair as part of the organic materials that you can use for your composting pursuits. Wood chips from your playful pets can also be collected and put in the compost bin. If you are dealing with a bird cage, even their used-to-be despicable droppings may be used to your advantage. 

Backyard Garden

The backyard is one of the richest places with which you can find organic material like bee droppings, hay. Pine needles, match residues, leaves, herbs, chicken manure... the list just goes on and on. all you have to do is acquire some observant eye and a huge bag with which you can store the various discoveries you can find in your garden or backyard. 

A Word of Caution

Despite the wide variety of items that can be considered for composting, there are still exceptions to organic materials. Never include diseased plants in your compost pit, as well as any form of weed. Also part of the list of things that you are not supposed to include as composting material include dead animals, feces of your pets, bread, meat parts, dairy products, grease, grains, cooking oil or any derivative of it.

Another thing to consider is the size of your compost and the ratios you need to be mindful of to make your compost alive and kicking all the time. This way, you will never have a dull moment in filling up your compost bin. 

---

---