By: Abhishek Agarwal

Fall is normally the time for harvest as well as planning for the following year. While keeping busy with the fall season, gardeners make it a point to buy tools, bulbs, supplies, gardening stock etc. to prepare for the next season.

Tools : Tools are essential equipments that are required for leaf cleanup process in the fall season. One can also employ leaf blowers to ease things up. However, if you find the noise produced intolerable then you can initiate the kids into a raking party to clean things up amicably. The fall leaves make wonderful compost if put into a compost bin and allowed to rot during the winter season. In case you are not in possession of a compost bin, fall is the most appropriate time to go shopping or it. There are many types of compost bins like round barrels and wooden boxes available in the market.

Bulbs : It may be necessary to pluck out few tender bulbs that may not be able to withstand the winter frost. Other kinds can be planted during the fall to give them ample time throughout the winter to go dormant. So, both digging up and planting of bulbs essentially happens during the fall. You should ideally start with picking out whichever bulbs you may feel necessary and then follow that procedure up with planting the others with the help of special tools designed to make the task easier and quicker.

General Supplies : Fall is also the right time to get the lawn ready for the next season. It is quite common to subject the lawns to fertilizer sprays with weed killers that can assist the lawn to put up with the winter cold and curb the weed growth as well. Many gardeners seed the following years lawn in the fall season itself. To get on with this process, general supplies like tool, bulbs, supplies, gardening plants etc. are required along with some lawn care goods as well.

Garden Maintenance : Once the necessary tools, bulbs, supplies, gardening materials have been purchased, it is imperative to go around he garden and trim the dead plants. If neglected, it can result in deadly plant diseases. Mulches also need to be purchased along with the fall gardening products to get the beds for following spring ready and help the plants to retain their moisture levels during winter. After getting through with all these processes, one should clean, sand and oil the tools prior to taking them away for safekeeping.

Making purchases of the essential items like tools, bulbs, supplies, gardening materials etc. can be a tiresome process due to many other simultaneous activities in the fall season. However, if planned properly, one can do justice to all of them in a satisfying manner.

bbaffs asked:


This is mostly the kitchen scraps that have this problem

By: Vicki Duong

Before you start on your first composting project of the year, have you thought about what you were going to place your compost in? I don’t mean, “In my garden,” or even, “In my houseplant’s soil,” those are all moot points. I mean, have you considered whether you were going to compost out in the open for anything and everyone to see, or perhaps in a compost bin or compost tumbler? After all, these are important points to consider and they may hold the key to a successful composting project.

There are quite a few methods when it comes to composting; some use the open composting method by building a pile of compost out in the woods or yard, others use compost tumblers and bins. I prefer the compost tumbler method out of all of them mainly because I lead quite a busy life and can’t commit to watering down my compost constantly if it’s out in the open in addition to turning the pile on a regular basis. However, that’s not to say that a compost tumbler is better than open composting; both methods produce the same amount of compost in the same amount of time so long as you keep your compost heaps aerated.

Moving forward, compost tumblers have a lot of great benefits, the most obvious being that if you’re a busy person all you really have to do is toss all your food scraps and/or yard waste into your tumbler, turn it or flip it (depending on the design) about every few days and you’re good. Tumblers of course, keep your compost aerated which is very important; you never want your compost to stay stagnant because that would bore the little microbes in your heap. They should be actively eating and decomposing all the matter in the tumbler or bin!

Another reason I prefer tumblers over other methods is that it keeps animals and rodents away from your compost. Your pile will stay securely in the tumbler until it’s ready to be removed, which can be easily done. But the big reason why I like compost tumblers is because they’re fun! Sorry to the folks who have open compost heaps, but I don’t find using a pitch fork to turn my compost appealing at all. Something about spinning or flipping my compost tumbler while on a steady axis sounds easier. Call me lazy or what have you, but know this: my compost heap is still just as good as yours!

By: Warren Peters

What is vermicomposting? Vermicomposting means using worms to make compost. This is very easy to do and needs just a little bit of garden space and you can even do it in your basement or your garage. This is one great way to use up your kitchen waste and not let it go to waste. Let’s show you how easy it is. All you need to do is follow these very easy steps.

First of all, you need to get yourself a storage bin, a plastic one is best. If yours is a family of six, you need a size that’s around 1′ x 2′ x 3.5′. At the bottom of the bin, drill around 10 holes, each one to facilitate drainage and place a tray underneath the bin to hold the drainage.

Now put in some nylon mesh at the bottom of the bin so the worms don’t escape through these holes. Now you need some bedding and for this, you will require some newspaper. Shred them and wet them well. You should make sure they stay moist and don’t get dry.

Now add the worms to the bin, preferably red worms which are thought to be the best as far as composting is concerned. These are the most common worms you are likely to find in most gardens and lawns so you can just collect them from your garden or order them from a gardening store.

Make sure the bedding and the worms are on one side of the bin and put in vegetable peels and other kitchen waste, taking care not to put in any meat or fat products. Don’t put in too much or you’ll find that the stuff tends to rot. Now keep the bin in a cool, dark place.

It should take around 3 months for the worms to turn the waste and the bedding into compost. Now put in the bedding and more waste on the other side of the bin. The worms tend to migrate to the new food supply. Put the bin out in the sun and the worms will go right into the bedding and you can take out your compost from one side of the bin. You can put it for your plants or save it for later.

Now how do you use this compost that you have made? Compost is organic matter that is really great for your plants. You can add it to your lawn, your plants in the garden or your potted plants. You’ll find the soil improving with better aeration and moisture-holding properties.

This is where your plants will get their nutrients from and thrive. You can also use it as mulch, spreading it on top of the soil after mixing it with a bit of topsoil. You’ll find compost helps prevent many diseases.

You’ll find in your garden that all the organic matter does decompose eventually. However, vermicomposting hastens the process and gives you garden soil that is fertile, moist and rich in nutrients. So your plants grow better, look better and survive better. All it takes for organic matter to decompose are ideal conditions in which earthworms, bacteria, fungi and bugs can work.

They need moisture, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen. So if you were to mix in nitrogen-rich substances like grass clippings or manure from livestock, you’ll find decomposing happening quicker. Carbon can be had from leaves and twigs. Or you could fling in a handful of lawn fertilizer which will provide the carbon-nitrogen needs.

Do remember to water it a bit in case it doesn’t rain and the mix gets dry. A bit of turning around once in a while gives it the oxygen it needs. Just a little bit of care and you are well on your way to great compost!

By: Chris Dailey

Organic compost is a potent resource for nutrients, however, because of this, there is something that needs to be said regarding its use with bulbs and how much compost to use with these plants as you carry them over into the next season. Typically with plants that are used in the springtime such as an Amaryllis, there is a certain process that must be done prior to a successful planting so that they can bloom in the spring season. Here are a few tips on how to use organic compost in a proper way in order to prepare your plants with bulbs to bloom in a healthy way.

There are many examples of what to do with bulbs and how to have them successfully treated so that they can almost on autopilot bloom when the right time comes. Let’s say for example that you acquired bulbs that flower in the spring, but you did not get them all planted in time so that the process can occur. What you want to make sure happens is that you have enough organic fertilizer in the pot prior to the cold season where the bulbs will sit for weeks in order to allow the roots of this plant to absorb enough nutrients in order to be ready for a fresh bloom the following season.

What will happen is that a plant that does not have enough nutrients will have a bulb that will not root and therefore will not grow or bloom successfully. Sometimes a good avenue is to wait until the following season, but the problem is that initially nutrients were not stored. This is where using organic compost, whether purchased or created from a worm bin, can be used in order to ensure that each season your blooms are successful. Here is the process.

Remembering that most roots need temperatures above freezing but no more than 35 or 40 degrees in order to prepare them for the growing season in spring, you need to expose the roots, once it has finished blooming, to the right amount of water and fertilizer throughout the winter in order to properly treat the bulb. In what I would call a resting season, a period of about seven to eight weeks, once the leaves have died back and the plant is growing no more, stop adding new fertilizer and only used a trickle of water until springtime reoccurs. Doing so will ensure that the bulb has time to rejuvenate and be ready to bloom in the spring.

What you want to be careful with is how much fertilizer you use. If this is regular fertilizer you can use a normal amount in proportion to the plant that you are growing and also the space and amount of dirt that you are using. Obviously you would not mix half fertilizer and half dirt as this may have a burning or adverse affect on the root system. If using pure worm compost, you could actually grow a plant in this with no dirt with no adverse effect to the plant, however in that we are focusing upon bulbs, the period of time where the plant is dying back, compost needs to be used in small amounts as you also decrease the water supply. This gives the bulb the opportunity to die in essence and be reborn in the spring.

One other thing to consider with this system is the container that the plant is in. Make sure that the bottom of the plant has ample drainage. Do not use stones or pebbles at the bottom of your container and if you can make sure it is not a plastic pot or container but one that is made of clay which dries out much faster than any kind of plastic. What you want to be sure of is not getting root rot in the last few days prior to the plant dying back because this will affect the nutrient flow into the bulb which will have fill effects in the springtime season.

To conclude, compost is a necessary ingredient in all planting, whether you are using it on a large scale farm or on a small scale in your home with a few plants. Be careful of the type of fertilizer that you use. If you are using straight worm compost, this is a safer bet in bad you can actually grow plants in your warm fertilizer without an adverse effect to the plant. Make sure that you back off on the amount of composting material you used in the dirt weeks prior to the plant dying off. This will be signified by losing its leaves and flowers at any.

Finally, bring almost all watering and composting efforts to a standstill before you clip the plant and store it in a cold covered area to be ready for the next spring season. In this way you can create a healthy and predictable replanting of your bulbs while safely energizing them for the next season with your organic compost.