Welcome to Composting Guide
Composting Systems Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
Composting Tips for the Beginner
from:Compost is an excellent additive for your garden or flower bed. It's also one of the best mulches and soil supplements. In addition, it's cheap and easy to make. Everyone has most of the things they need to make compost right in their home. There are many places you can go to find some composting tips to help you get starting making your own compost. If you've ever started a garden or flower bed for the first time, you know how costly it can be to start off when you have to be buying potting soil, top soil, fertilizer and other miscellaneous additives. Why go through all this when, with the right composting tips, you can make your own compost and save money?
If you've ever read up on composting tips, you've probably heard and read how great compost is for gardens because it increases the soil's water retention qualities, loosens hard soil and improves the texture, structure and aeration of soil. You'll have a steady supply of potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus always going into your soil with compost. You may not notice a huge difference in your garden the first year, but each year it will get better and better. Following are some composting tips you may find very helpful if you're just learning about composting.
Any kitchen scraps you have should not be thrown out but should be added to your compost pile. Most compost bins or piles are kept outdoors, although a smaller one is kept in the kitchen for convenience. When the small one gets full, it's emptied into the larger one outside. Heat, which your compost pile needs, will build better in a large pile but try not to make it larger than 3 feet by 3 feet. Make sure you have a cover on your compost bin to keep odors from entering your kitchen. Avoid throwing in bones or meat, but other foods that are excellent are coffee grounds and filter, egg shells, vegetable and fruits scraps.
Once you discover you're really interested in starting a compost pile and still have questions, the internet is loaded with composting tips such as these as well as your local library or extension office.
Make sure you keep your compost pile aerated either with a compost aerator or by hand. In order for your pile to heat up and break down, it needs to be periodically turned so it can get the oxygen it needs. Every time you add something new, you need to switch it around. Make sure your compost pile stays moist as it will not break down if it's too dry. However, make sure it doesn't become too wet, either. The more variety of bedding materials you have, the quicker it will break down so try to avoid having only one ingredient. Make a mix of leaves and grass clippings or some other similar ingredient. Hopefully, these composting tips have been helpful for you in your new hobby.
Composting Systems Specific links
Composting Systems News
Experts: A Local, Sustainable Food System Is Worth Billions - Patch.com
Experts: A Local, Sustainable Food System Is Worth Billions Patch.com By Claudia Lenart A sustainable, local food system is an economic network in which food production, processing, marketing, distribution, consumptiom and waste/resource recovery (composting) are tied to a geographic region. Screen shot from The Local ... |
Portland Increases Trash And Recycling Rates, But Tables Water - OPB News
Portland Increases Trash And Recycling Rates, But Tables Water OPB News Some of those increases supported large infrastructure projects, like the Big Pipe overflow system. Others were for administration priorities like compost systems. But the combined weight of them has infuriated some city residents. |
To reduce food waste, city to try disposals - Philadelphia Inquirer
To reduce food waste, city to try disposals Philadelphia Inquirer ... clogging pipes, and inundating already-stressed sewer systems. The industry counters that newer devices use about a gallon and a half of water a day and cost less than 50 cents a year in electricity. Biosolids are not the same as compost. |
Colorado experts say hospital environments need to be healthy too - Denver Business Journal
Colorado experts say hospital environments need to be healthy too Denver Business Journal David Essel, supervisor for nutritional services at St. Anthony Hospital, scrapes leftover food into a “food gutter,” where it is gathered for composting. Hospitals may be where people go to get well, but it doesn't mean those sometimes giant buildings ... |
Consider the 'other AD' - Materials Recycling Week
Consider the 'other AD' Materials Recycling Week This means it can be applied to compost heaps without risking complaints and planning objections from local people about bad smells. Composting also helps to improve the quality of the material as it digests the soluble nutrients so that when the ... |