By: Julie Williams

If your attempts at composting seem to take forever to break down to a useable product, try building your next compost heap with straw bale. Remember to get organic straw bales if you have an organic garden.

The idea is to use bales of (organic) straw as the external structure of your compost heap – it will hold your composting ingredients. The straw bales allow air to flow through your heap and because they are organic material themselves they contribute to the heating up process of the heap. Eventually you can use them as ingredients in a future compost heap.

Step – by – Step

1. Wheat or pea straw are the best types of bales for composting. Start by building one compost pile, then if you have the space you can create a row of composting “bins”. Build the structure two bales high, with three sides, covering your joins with the second row for strength. Leave the front section open and have the working area about 1.5m square.

2. Layer organic materials directly on the bare soil base. Build with alternate layers of nitrogen rich materials such as animal manures, grass clippings, comfrey or yarrow and high carbon materials such as kitchen scraps, straw, shredded paper etc.

3. To allow better air flow you need to place a pvc pipe into the middle of your heap, on an angle as you build. Your heap will start to compact with the breaking down process. You can jiggle the pipe every week or two, to let in more air, then remove it after about four weeks.

4. Continue layering ingredients around the pipe. Make sure you water each layer (unless it is really wet already) as you go to help speed up the composting process. Always include as much variety of ingredients as possible for an excellent final product, including generous amounts of animal manures.

5. When your layers have reached the top of your straw bale structure, cover the whole thing with biscuits (small sections of a bale) of straw. This will further help retain heap which give you a fast-burning heap. Give it another good watering.

6. To generate more heat enclose the front of your structure with more bales. Water twice a week during dry or windy weather. When the ingredients start to collapse (about four weeks) you can remove the pipe.

You can quickly create compost that will enrich your soil, improving the health and vigour of you plants.

By: Larry Volwiler

Even in a secluded, fenced backyard, your dog’s life could be in danger. Many pet owners are unaware of the hidden dangers in their own backyard that could harm, threaten, or even take the life of your four-legged friend.

A backyard that appears to be a dog’s oasis can still be full of all sorts of dangers, especially for rambunctious puppies. Puppies are energetic and tend to explore everything they encounter. Their natural urge to chew can be deadly in a dangerous backyard.

The most common age for dogs to fall victim to harmful backyard dangers is between the ages of one and six months. Some breeds of dogs, like Golden Retrievers, have a tendency to chew and gnaw all throughout their lives.

What Are Backyard Dangers for Dogs? To protect your dog, it is best to eliminate all dangers in your backyard regardless of your dog’s age or breed. According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, ASPCA, the most common backyard dangers to watch out for are:

Citronella candles that repel mosquitoes and contain chemicals that could poison your dog Mulching around trees, plants, and shrubs that contains cocoa Compost bins and garden or grass fertilizers Traps designed to catch snails or slugs and contain metaldehyde Fish ponds or decorative fountains that contain blue-green algae Insects, toads, snakes, and other animals that may leave behind harmful toxins Chemicals and supplies for swimming pools or hot tubs Azaleas, grape vines, sago palms, and other plants that are known to be poisonous Fly repellents and traps with metonym

Dog owners must play an active role in protecting their puppy from these dangers, as well as other common perils, both inside and outside of their home. Keep chemicals, lawn equipment, and gardening supplies secured and out of your dog’s reach. Make sure garbage cans and other containers are closed tightly at all times.

Always use fertilizers, pesticides, and other harmful agents exactly as instructed and heed any safety warnings on the labels. There are many organic and natural products that can be used in the place of hazardous chemicals for complete canine safety. Your vet or landscaper may be able to recommend quality pet supplies products.

By: Lee Cameron

Vegetable and fresh food gardens are the rage this year. With all the focus on green living and organic foods, it’s not surprising there is a push towards growing our own food. If you’ve ever eaten a fresh picked tomato, you’ll know that the flavor just doesn’t compare with store bought. In fact, most people probably don’t realize how good vegetables are supposed to taste.

For those of you who have never attempted growing anything beyond a few token geraniums or hanging planters, food gardens are not that difficult. If you devote some time to planning, you’ll be shocked at how easy it is.

Your first consideration should be in the type of plants you want to grow. One tomato plant can yield as much as 10 lbs. of fruit, so you don’t need many to get a good return. Plus, depending on the type of plant, allows you to harvest throughout the season. Other plants such as carrots, radishes and corn produce only once.

The varieties you choose will have bearing on the size of your garden and vice versa. You can use a regular plot, or build raised beds, or even fill a balcony with containers of edible plants. Most vegetables require a minimum of 6 to 8 hours of full sun. Much less and they won’t be as hearty as well as being susceptible to disease. You can budget your sunny space by placing some vegetables in part sun such as peas, lettuce and spinach.

Your garden will have to be watered regularly, especially during dry spells. You may want to consider using soaker hoses or a sprinkling system set up on a timer.

Good soil will produce a heartier crop of more nutrient rich plants so it’s worth spending some effort in this area. Use a moist, well-drained soil that has been fortified with compost. A good way to test it is to soak a small area of soil, wait one day and then dig up a handful. Give it a good squeeze, and if water streams out, you may have a drainage problem that would require adding additional compost or peat moss.

If, when you open your hand, the soil falls apart, not forming a ball, then you may have too much sand. If the ball holds together and doesn’t come apart easily, you may have too much clay in the soil. Adding organic compost or peat moss will solve both of these problems. Ideally, you want the soil to form into a ball and break into crumbs when you disturb it.

Garden Design

There are two basic design when planting in the ground versus raised beds or containers – row cropping and intensive cropping.

In row cropping, you have number of plants, single file in long rows, with room for walking in between. Although most people automatically plant this way, this style is generally used in large gardens where room is required for large equipment. This design, tends to use up a lot of space for walking paths and this eats away at your planting room.

Intensive cropping is where planting is done in wide bands up to 4 feet across. Since this design reduces the space needed for walking, the planting bands should not be any wider than you can reach to weed your garden.

Another version of intensive cropping, divides the garden into small zones (about 4 x 4 feet), throughout your yard. Depending on the size of plant at maturity, you can use one, four, nine, or 16 plants. If you leave part of the area unplanted, then you can add a second planting when the first is finished. It’s common to plant lettuce, radishes, green onions, carrots and beans several times a season.

Raised beds are an excellent planting method, especially if you have poor soil drainage. They also help to keep the weeds down and restrain your plants from creeping into other areas of the garden. An easy way to create the bed is to place your frames right on existing lawn, line with plenty of newspaper and top with soil. The newspaper will break down, and attract worms which will provide plenty of natural fertilizer.

No matter which method you choose, once you’ve loosened the soil, rake it, water it and let it rest for a few days before planting.

By: Paul Hata

If you are still find it hard to understand the nature of composting, it can actually be simplified. Compost is an organic substance that is added to the soil which functions more than just being a fertilizer.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 on 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 on 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 in making compost. This can also apply with people living on 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 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.

iga k asked:


I have finally started composting! I am using a plastic storage container with a lid, and am dumping tea, coffee grounds, vegetable, and fruit waste. I also put in either potting soil, or hummus about once a week. ( Just sprinkle a layer on top.)

I have been doing this for about 2 months. I just went out to turn it ( I have not turned it in about two weeks), and I noticed these large larvae things in it. I am guessing that they are some kind of fly larvae, but they are larger than any I have seen, being about an inch long and about as big as a pinkie.

I worry that I might not have enough carbon material, but other than that I think that I am doing what I am supposed to do.

I would just like to hear from my fellow composters – hopefully with more experience than I!

–Just want to make sure that I am not creating a health hazard, or breeding some kind of mutant creature.

Does anyone know what these things are? Everything seems to be decomposing okay.