Katherine asked:


In Toronto, we have city recycling programs, and a Green Bin program for organic waste. Some items can go in either, such as paper towel. I have been putting them in the recycling bin, since I figured it was more environmental to constantly repurpose items, but my husband thinks it’s better for it to be composted.

Which one should I put it into?

By: Chris Dailey

People that live in the cities are more than likely not going to believe that they have the option of growing their very own compost from within the confines of their home. If gardening is a hobby of yours, yet you believe that you could not garden from your apartment or house, let me help you change your mind. By purchasing a few containers at your local convenience store and creating your very own home composting system that can be set up in your closet, you will be well on your way to achieving your gardening dream in your urban area no matter where you live. Here is a simple solution that will show you how to create a composting system in your home.

The first thing that you will need is some kind of a space in your house that you do not regularly access that can be used for storage of one or two containers. These containers will be like large Tupperware containers, about 1 foot tall, by 18 inches high, by two feet in length. In these containers you will place a sizable amount of dirt, some composting material which we will talk about later, newspaper, water, and some red worms.

The other thing you will need is an ample source of organic material that either comes from your neighbors across the hallway or street, or, if you have a large family, right from your kitchen table. If you are a coffee drinker, all the better. You can use coffee grounds, your uneaten food scraps, and your daily newspaper to get yourself started.

The first thing you will need to do is line the bottom of your large containers with some newspaper. Next, you will need to add some soil or bedding makes with some kind of organic food scraps and perhaps a little peat moss. This should come up about halfway to the top of the container. Next, you will want to add to red worms. Make sure they are covered slightly by a layer of wet bedding and then on top of that add your organic waste. You will also want to add supplemental moisture if the bedding is too dry (it should resemble a wet, wrung out sponge) and mix the soil up a bit with your hand in order to get proper aeration throughout the soil for the worms.

Before you take your containers into your storage area, make sure that you have punched holes in various areas of the container near the top and on the lid so that the worms have air. You already ran your fingers or some kind of instrument through the soil to loosen it up so that the aerobic breakdown of organics may begin. Once you have done that, take your container or containers into the room you have created for them, and let the process began.

The type of organic waste you should put on top should be something like egg shells for calcium, beans for protein, and common vegetable scraps that you could not finish. You should never add any kind of dairy products such as cheese or yogurt and never add any meat products, oils, and fats. Allow two to three weeks for the worms to process the food and add some more at that point, always remembering to aerate the dirt.

You will notice after a few weeks that bedding and scraps have begun to change into a soft and moist consistency and that after a few months, depending on your worm population and initial amount of worms, you should be able to process a sizable bag of worm generated compost that you can use in your garden or containers that you have purchased if you have decided to grow more food in your home. This would make sense because you are creating fertilizer within your home and this would simply be a process of waste transformation.

Once done, you may notice that you have a few more worms. Over time, you may want to increase the size of your home composting system and upgrade to four containers to produce twice as much. Using the same set of guidelines, do the process over again. The only thing you will need is an excess source of organic waste in order to perpetuate this process.

Home composting can be done outside but then it would not technically be composting within your home. By using portable bins that are easily stackable, you could utilize an unused room of your home and actually begin your own composting business. As the process continues, it will not have any negative effects because nothing smells bad and everything is processed in an aerobic manner if done properly.

More than likely, the home composting idea has limitations based upon the amount of space you have and your goals as far as growing crops or plants within the home. You will probably only need a few bins to sustain enough compost for yourself on an annual basis and therefore it is more of a hobby than a business.

If you decide to expand your home composting into a monetizeable scenario, you will definitely need to move everything into the garage and make sure that the temperature stays around 70 degrees so that the breeding and processing that the worms must do may continue outside of the confines of the home. Either way, it is a fun activity that helps the environment and will also generate excess compost or cash for you.

By: Chris Dailey

Compost is basically organic matter that has broken down any sufficient manner that the mineral and nutrients with in the compost can be readily absorbed by the plants that you are attempting to grow in your organic garden. Organic gardeners from all over the world have used similar practices in order to stimulate the growth of their plants by naturally enriching the soil. Here are a few tips on how to create and use the best organic gardening compost for your garden.

Composting is a very complicated process in and of itself, but for everyone that tries to do it the first time, it will be a very easy process. What is difficult is the process that we cannot see underneath the tarp or in the bin. Tiny bacteria and an assortment of mites and, if we are using worms, red worms will work together to create compost for you.

Doing this can be summarized in a few words. Taking your remaining organic waste and placing it in a container or under a tarp will start the process. You have a few other items to mix in, such a grass clipping from your weekly mowing or it can be newspaper and a touch of saw dust from a project that you may be doing on the weekend like fixing your home. If you work at a place such as a saw mill that creates an abundance of material each and every day, you can use that as part of you bedding in a sparing way. Or if you are a restaurant owner, or know someone in the business, even a coffee shop, you will have enough free organic material to make this work in no time.

Overall, you just add a pile of waste together and the magic begins. There is much more to the process, but to make it simple at first is a good way to draw you into or sell you on the idea that it will not take much of your time and that it will help you and the environment. Each person, by doing their share, and not using materials that can cause environmental harm, are helping fix our world. Now, here is a bit more on the composting process.

As a rule of thumb, what ever soil you may be trying to grow your organic garden in, it can never get enough compost because soil can only be improved by the addition of organic matter. Compost is basically organic matter that has broken down any sufficient manner that the mineral and nutrients with in the compost can be readily absorbed by the plants that you are attempting to grow in your organic garden. Here are a few tips on how to create and use the best organic gardening compost for your garden.

Organic gardening compost can be purchased locally or you can create your own kind of compost by using the left over food that you have on a daily basis. By purchasing a composter bin or simply creating an area where your scraps can be thrown, this material will decompose over time and can be used as fertilizer for your organic garden.

Typically, an ideal blend for any kind of organic compost would be equal amounts of soft and green material such as maneuver and leaves that are readily available at most households. Additionally, hard and brown material such as dead leaves or chopped up twigs can be used to help balance your organic gardening compost mixture. A simple things such as taking the clippings from your lawn and the pruning sprung your tree can add to your compost pile quite quickly.

The ideal size of a compost pile could be anywhere from three to 4 feet high unless of course you are using and organic compost bin. The key is to make sure there is significant air for aeration of the compost. Using a large stick or a pitchfork to continually aerate were pile will help the organic composting process along quite nicely. Other people have used PVC pipes to help aerate larger compost piles with great success.

A nice bonus to creating your own compost pile is that the high temperatures that will occur will help sterilize many of the diseases brought by spores or other pests that may be lurking in the compost itself.

To accelerate the decomposition process of your compost pile, you can add some of it to the garden soil. Basically, the more scraps from your home, the more trimmings from your surroundings that you add, and the more aeration that the pile receives, all of this will help accelerate the decomposition process. Other possible additions could be peat moss, seedless weeds, and even fruit and vegetable peels from your household. All of this will help create a magnificent organic gardening compost pile in no time at all.

By: MIKE SELVON

Building up sustainable soil for organic gardening starts right after the garden soil testing has been completed. The testing of the soil helps to identify the additional fertilizers and conditioners that can be added. When attempting to garden organically, testing, maintaining and improving the soil is a constant process and one that is well worth the effort, according to those who advocate organic farming and gardening.

Creating sustainable soil for gardening organically means that you have to be able to replenish the topsoil of the garden. One of the best substances to have for keeping the soil rich and healthy enough for an organic garden is a good supply of compost. In addition to compost, it is good to have enzymes, earthworms, and beneficial microbes available to add into the soil mixture as well.

In most cases, when the garden bed has been established with great quality soil that is able to support and sustain organic gardening, it can then be maintained by simply adding home composting on a routine basis. This can easily be done by replacing a layer of the garden soil with a layer from your compost.

Backyard composting is a terrific way to improve your soil structure and also enhance moisture retention. In the average compost heap there are billions of bacterial organisms that will grow, feed, reproduce and die. Through this life-cycle of the microorganisms, the organic waste material that has been added to the compost pile will be recycled into a robust organic fertilizer and effective soil conditioner.

Many people say that composting is truly the ultimate in recycling because it benefits the soil in so many ways and supports organic farming and gardening in its highest and best sense. In addition to improving the structure of the soil and the moisture retention ability of the soil, composting also provides excellent aeration, full fertilization and nitrogen storage. Composting also creates a beneficial pH balance in the soil, releases a stream of nutrients and supplies food for the beneficial microbial inhabitants in the earth.

Shredded alfalfa hay is one of the best types of material that you can add to your compost heap, and some say it is “the” secret to a great compost recipe. Worms really thrive on alfalfa, making worm composting even more effective and faster, and it provides excellent mulch and soil additive components for your soil.

When you want to get your compost ready for your organic gardening undertaking, you should make the compost pile about four feet high and also about four feet wide as well. It needs to be located in an area that allows for good drainage and it should be surrounded with chicken wire so it will have proper air circulation. After about three to four months, your compost will be ready to mix in with the soil and begin working wonders for your garden.