BUNguyenI asked:


In terms of speed of production, efficiency and cleanliness/smell, quality of compost, and most of all, safety, which is better, composting with worms, or letting it decompose via thermophilic bacteria?

abbyjay asked:


Hey anyone know of any link for buiginners concerning at home composting? And can dog poop go in there???

By: Jenny Styles

In Today\’s exhaust group, there is absolutely no hardship to go out and grasp mulch relevant for your patch, unless it is for the particular aesthetic appearance, \”The Look,\” sake of the mulch relevant.

Were you informed that there are several mulching materials that you can attain from around your own district that are open, and some of which can even be even delivered to you for nothing as well.

Impossible you might say. Well I mulch my gardens fairly sturdily, and I never pay a cent for the mulch facts. As an affair of fact, most of the mulch is willingly delivered to my home for nothing. As the beyond owners are only too delighted to see the back of it, as it would rate them money, time and force to find other customs of getting rid of it.

I also combine these faint sources of mulch with my own muck, weeds and other organic issue varied through to achieve a great effect in my patch, and so all that it expenses me time and work.

So what am I chatting about? While some of the below roll is delivered limitless, other matter I tool up myself, depending on time, circumstances, importance etc.

Grass Clippings from other people in the question or from lawn-mowing contractors.

Wood shavings from resident covert turners and carvers, ( Do not use shavings from treated timber).

Small amounts of firm plug from links who are excavating. This is to help in raising backyard beds, in my inherent dirt soil.

Light prunings from bushes which is tattered by me or put totality into plot

Heavier brushwood and kindling, which are crooked into lattice, plot stakes, patch edges, seats, frames, log planters etc. while they gradually decay.

Newspaper, cardboard, non-rubber carpet underlay, and even carpet and carpet squares. Which is put under other mulch to inhibit grassland and tidy regrowth

Animal manures sometimes assorted with straw from seats like Racetracks and Showgrounds, Pony Clubs, Stables etc. I dealings them well beforehand to see if any is unfilled.

To this I also add my own weeds, throwing away some which can still be a latent question, or burying them below the foot most layer of mulch fabric to prevent them regrowing.

Another piece I add is any old potting mix from deceased plants or, when repotting plants.

Being a fairly lazy gardener, I fling the data around a bit at a time, as they are presented, and let spirit mix them for me. On a link of occasions I have usual a bit too much timber shavings so these became lane gear between some of the backyard beds, with a pouring underlay of newspapers. People even tell me that it looks and feels good underfoot.

Never put a large total of moist animal compost on any plot, as it will burn any deposit around it. Be extremely sparing or let it age first for a few months before applying it to the plot.

I have been living in my new house for about fifteen months, and the mulch layer in all my gardens (there were no gardens originally), is about 10 cm or 4 inches deep. None of which I have rewarded for, and little that I have had to even prize up for myself.

People are even opening to expansion on how quickly the plants in my gardens are upward in the citizen weighty black dirt soils, and they are amazed when I tell them that I have never worried to fertilise the plants. The object for this is that the earliest laid mulch objects, is now damaged down into hide nutrients and is now feeding my plants as the works nutrient soup aided by the soil life which has swiftly happening appearing in my gardens.

Another benefit that has happening to arrive in the last few months is the arrival of insect eating animals into my garden. Predatory insects and birds are now visiting my gardens on a steady heart, where I saw none this time last year. Bees and butterflies are also original to vacation many of the plants, which have come into flower for the first time this year.

So what can you do to outset locating your own equipment of unbound mulch pertinent, well here are several suggestions.

Put a little symptom near your gate, something similarly -OR similar to \’Organic mulch essential\’, or \’Lawn clipping hunted\’. There are trusty to be several limited people who are throwing theirs away in your society or even kinship topic. Never mulch solely with grassland trimmings as they form an impenetrable layer that air and water cannot get through. Always mix it with other things to prohibit it \’thatching\’, just like a roof over the soil.

See if you can get into contact with narrow people who are into woodturning and statue, or even district sawmills. And come to some arrangement about unpreserved wood shavings.

Check the native phonebook for district showgrounds/racetracks/stables etc, to find out if any have constant or dung ravish to give away, for people keen to pluck them up

In other terms, surprise chatting around the place that you are after mulch materials and they will shortly lead eminent to you.

The only caution with using other peoples weaken stuff is the option that you might also import other peoples vermin and weeds. I have seldom found it a dilemma because of gloomy mulch on mulch routines. Nevertheless it is doable.

One stage because when you first establish applying mulch to your garden you may see some nitrogen deficiencies happen in some plants. This is because the organisms that are breech down the mulch material are using up all the offered wealth of it during the initial breakdown. Once you have gotten past this time the old composted material grant more than enough nitrogen for eminent processes. Another thing to be vigilant of is not to conceal or mulch up against the stems of sought plants, as it may root advance problems for your plants in rot problems around the collar of the stems.

So get out there and break around the community, find the contacts, trust it or not they will be as thankful as you to elucidate their particular problems of ravish cutback. As well as that, you may outset making some new friendships out of the agreement; I know I have.

Kerr asked:


I am going to compost this year. Any suggestions? Also, where can I get an inexpensive container to keep outside??

By: Chris Dailey

One of the major costs when delving into the fun filled hobby or profession of organic gardening is the cost of maintaining the proper levels of nutrients in your soil each year that you grow your food. Healthy organic vegetables are a mainstay with many people and those obsessed with good health will often start their very own organic garden. One of the best ways to maintain sizable crops that are full of robust and healthy food is to make sure that you add nutrient filled compost on a regular basis. By purchasing a worm bin and raising worms which will in turn create compost for your garden is one of the most economical and smart ways of creating one of the best gardening experiences of your life. Here are a few tips on how to make sure that you can provide the best organic compost for your garden using worms and worm bins.

The first thing that you are going to need if you are going to begin to in essence to grow your own organic compost is to find an affordable worm bin. Worm bins can range from about $50-$150. You could use old wine barrels (not made from oak due to their acidic nature) or a more modern choice would be the plastic containers that have lids that come in different shapes and sizes. One thing you should consider is making sure that your worm bin is not too tall. Often times you will see pictures of them and assume that taller and larger is better whereas in reality unless you are going for worm cocoons which are often laid on the top level of the soil and compost with in the bin, you would be better off to get a short one, more like a bucket that holds five to 10 gallons, which will consolidate the worm’s efforts for creating compost and through consistent rotation generate far more compost than large worm bins ever will (think surface area not volume).

Just like an organic garden that you are growing, where drainage is a necessity for the excess water in your soil after watering, worm bins also need to have drainage holes at the bottom and also several holes that will allow air into the bedding within the bin. Depending upon the type of material that your worm bin is made of, you could probably take a power drill and bore five to 10 holes about a quarter inch in diameter around the perimeter near the top and also, if there is a lid, holes in that is well. By having proper aeration for your worms, as well as proper drainage, it will create a habitat that is conducive for optimal worm breeding as well as compost creation.

Remembering that the worms are the producers and generators of the compost that you need for your organic garden, you should know a few things about worms to make sure that they stay healthy and happy in their compost producing environment. Worms of course are made of about 80 percent water and if you let the soil within the container get to dry, they will actually begin to excrete water from their bodies in order to maintain the proper moisture balance. This of course will cause damage to the worms and they will inevitably die. Therefore, in order to make sure that their habitat stays in balance, there are a few things that you should add to the soil such as biodegradable bedding.

Biodegradable bedding can be things like dry grass, cardboard, peat moss, or even horse manure that has been heated to over 140 degrees to make sure that any bad bacteria was killed off. Using these types of bedding which have anywhere from a mildly acidic to a mildly basic p.h., help regulate moisture content within the bin and almost act like a sponge maintaining a moisture level that is adequate for the worms on a consistent basis.

Once you have the proper amount of moisture, it is time to feed your worms. Taking into account that worms are typically photo phobic to almost all kinds of visible light, make sure that some of the food scraps that you place in the bin for the worms are somewhat buried which will act as a beacon for them to crawl up and begin to eat their food. With the addition of the lid over the composting mixture, the worms will come to the top and begin feeding in a frenzy which is exactly what you want because the more they eat, and more compost they will produce. Worms love to eat most any vegetable scraps. You can also feed them bread, most grains, but always avoid dairy products and fatty foods which will actually cause the typically fragrant odor found in most worm bins into a rancid smell that you will regret later.

The end result will be a composting mixture that is rich in many necessary nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and of many other trace minerals that create one of the best organic fertilizers on the planet. By adding worm bins to your repertoire of organic gardening necessities, you will create for yourself not only an extremely productive organic garden but a vermiculture factory that will provide you with the best compost you could ever add to your garden’s soil.