Posts Tagged ‘compost bin’

Composting Bins — Tips For Composting

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

Composting is certainly one of the easiest and most environmentally friendly things you that can do, since food waste accounts for over 25% of the waste collected in the United States. Composting is as easy as collecting left over food and yard trimmings and allowing them to decompose. This decomposed matter, called compost or humus, is also an excellent amendment to your soil. It adds important nutrients to your soil, helping you to grow healthier and more productive plants. The compost that you create may also be used for potting plants.

Composting takes place on it’s own, naturally, however if you reside in a region with composting restrictions, or if you just would like your compost to mature faster, there are several things you can do to intervene. Below are three tips to help you compost more effectively.

1. Use a compost bin. These days a great many city, towns, and municipalities require the use of a compost bin as opposed to just letting you pile up your food waste and yard trimmings. Food scraps attract rats and other animals; obviously, this is a problem. A compost bin can be a great deterrent, stopping animals from getting to the decomposing material. There are many different types available of compost bins for sale, but the most common is a black plastic bin with a lid on top for adding your organic matter, and a door at the bottom through which you can retrieve your compost.

2. No animal products in the compost. The only food that should be placed in your compost piles are fruits and vegetables ; i.e. apple peels, onion peel, carrot peels and leaves, etc. You may also compost eggshells (wash them off first to prevent the risk of salmonella) and coffee grounds and tea leaves (remove the bag first). It is very important to never include any meat or waste that has been cooked in oil or butter.

3. Layering your Compost. After adding your “green” scraps (food waste or yard trimmings) to your compost pile, you should add a “brown” layer to the bin. The layer of “brown” could be either strips of newspaper, leaves, straw, or even sawdust. Layering is necessary in order to build nutrient-rich compost. It also helps to keep the bugs and other animals down.

Using these three steps, you can easily create healthy, nutrient-rich compost at home. You will not need to buy amendments for your garden, which will save you money and help the environment. So maintaining a compost bin helps lower your expenses by decreasing the amount of money that you are spending on gardening amendments; you know precisely what is going into your garden because the elements that make up the compost comes directly from your food; and you are assisting the environment. It absolutely is like a great decision to make.

It is easy to locate compost bins for sale on the Internet. Why wait any longer? Get out there are start decomposing!

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Compost

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

It is becoming more and more obvious these days that we need to recycle as much as we can, and anyone with a garden has a head start and can make a great contribution. To many novice gardeners, including myself, this subject can be somewhat difficult to grasp; but in fact it is really straightforward – there are just a few very simple rules:

You need a compost bin, and the type you decide on rather depends on the size of your garden, but there are a couple of options:

A purpose built plastic bin purchased from a garden centre, not too expensive; and you just fill up from the top and a few months later, you can take compost from a small hatch at the base.

Alternatively, if you can wield a saw and some nails, you can make a wooden slatted enclosure, one metre square – or you can buy them ready made – and cover it with a piece of old carpet to keep the worst of the weather off.

What you can compost:

- all uncooked vegetable and fruit peelings
- teabags, tea leaves and coffee grounds
- egg shells
- dead flowers from the house
- and from the garden, soft prunings
- spent bedding plants, dead leaves, lawn mowings
- spent compost from hanging baskets or containers
- some dryer materials such as shredded paper
- rabbit and guinea pig bedding.

The only thing you have to be careful about is to mix different types of material; if you have too many grass clippings in a big mass, they will turn soggy and slimy, or if there is too much paper and prunings, it will be too dry. So keep an eye on it, especially if you are using the wooden enclosure, and mix it with a fork occasionally.

What NOT to compost:

- all meat products and bones; bread, cooked food – these will attract vermin
- dog or cat waste
- woody material – which takes too long to compost
- weeds – these can ‘infect’ your compost with their seeds
- anything that is non-biodegradable.

And because you won’t always feel like taking a trip to the compost heap when it’s wet or cold or every time you peel vegetables why not keep a lidded container by the back door which you can fill up and then make the trip to the compost bin every one or two days?

Over a period of time – 3 months to 1 year, depending on conditions – all this matter will have broken down into lovely dark brown crumbly compost, which you can fork into your beds and borders. It makes an excellent soil conditioner and can be used as surface mulch, helping conserve moisture and discourage weeds.

You can also convert fallen leaves into wonderful compost. Rake up any leaves from your lawn – you may have to do this several times over the autumn – and collect them from the borders. Put them all into a black waste sack, sprinkle with water, put a few holes around the sack with a fork, tie the top, and leave it in a corner for about a year. What you end up with is known as leaf-mould.

Read more about planting a vegetable garden and vegetable gardening issues by visting http://www.gardeninghelp101.info/

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How to Make a Garden Compost. Part 2

Monday, January 28th, 2008

Where do I put all this ‘stuff’?

You have a number of choices, here. A compost bin, box, tumbler, trench or heap – all will work, its a matter of personal preference. Let us look.

Compost Bin.

This can be made out of just about anything; discarded 44gal. drums are good, provided they are clean of petro-chemicals; plastic cherry-bins are ideal. For the most part, it needs to be big enough that you could climb into it. Cut off the top and bottom – keep one of these for the lid.

Make a number of ‘breathing-holes’ around the shell – these can be either cut or drilled through. A plastic rubbish bin will do. Once again, cut off the bottom, make holes in the side – then turn it upside-down, so that the wider opening sits on the ground. The idea of no bottom, is to allow the insects, worms and micro-organisms which help degradation of your waste materials the freedom to migrate into and out of your compost.

Compost Box.

This can be made out of anything you have to hand, be it old pallets, bricks, or spare lumber. Bales of hay work quite well – the hay ultimately becoming compost itself.

Plastic Composters.

There are a number of plastic composters available, stand alone units and tumblers. These are made of a special grade plastic that ‘breathes’. A tumbler, is a compost bin, turned on its side; and with the aid of a crank handle, is turned a quarter turn every couple of weeks or so – effectively mixing the compost for you. The is one draw-back with these, though – the tendency to turn it too often, or really crank-it-up; then you end up with this glutinous ball, not much good for anything.

Trenching.

This is quite an old-fashioned way of composting, but certainly worth discussing. A trench is dug, about double spade-width, the soil left on the side of the trench. All your waste is placed at the start of the trench, without spreading it out – the soil left on the side, is then back-filled over the material you have just placed in there. Then, the next-time you have more material, it is placed at what is now the start of the trench; and back-filled again.

When you have run out of trench – start a new one. This is actually a good way to revitalise vegetable gardens, ordinarily made in bed-rows. An entire row is dug out and becomes the trench, filled with organic material, back-filled; and left to its own devices for about 6 months – then turned over and made ready for planting again.

Compost Heaps.

A compost heap, is just that – a heap of compost material. However, the whole process will work much better, if it is managed a bit. By this I mean ‘caging’ it. Using 4 to 6 stakes or pickets hammered into the ground, in a vague circle; chicken-wire, sparrow-wire, or arc-mesh is then formed around them, creating an open-ended cage.

Large sheets of cardboard can be used; and will eventually decompose, too. Black sheet plastic can also be used as a surround, but it tends to deteriorate and tear, fairly quickly – then you have to get rid of it some way. Back to the dump, oh,dear.

The basic idea of all these designs can be seen here.

Worm Farms. An alternative to composting in the traditional sense is vermi-composting or worm-farms. These use a special kind of worm to break down kitchen scraps producing a fine compost-like material from their casts, or leavings; and a nutrient filled liquid plant food which is ideal for feeding indoor pot plants. If you have a greenhouse, or have a lot of houseplants then a worm-farm may be the best choice for the disposal of household waste. These can be constructed by the home gardener, or store bought. There are some marvelous small, neat units quite suitable for people living in apartments,too.

There is a unit suitable for outside gardens shown here

Part 3: How Long Will it Take to Become Compost?

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