Skip to main content

How About Some Compost?

At The Garden, redesigning the compost system is creeping to the top of the to-do list. In order to be prepared for when it is time to tackle that project I searched some other blogs for advice and ideas to re-vamp how we are composting, and here are the top picks of what I found.

3 Composting Techniques Everyone Should Know, is a valuable resource for an introduction to different composting styles. For The Garden the three bin style will most definitely be needed do to the bulk of our compost. The three bin style also has the benefit of faster decomposition, making more compost overall. For a backyard, the homemade garbage can tumblers work really well. I made one for my parents' house and they use it regularly. The biggest benefit comes from its portability, and that it is easy to control your proportions of brown to green.
Weird things you Did not Know you could Compost, is good to get you thinking about not so obvious household waste you could be putting in your compost. By using some of their advice you could even save on the cost of trash pickup and waste form going to the land fill!

6 Main Reasons Compost Piles Fail, and What to do, is a blunt but accurate post about problems you may have in your compost pile and some ways to diagnose those problems. In my past composting experience I have run into problems getting the right green to brown balance. Typically I have only all greens or all browns to add at a time. I am looking for ways to solve this supply problem, so if you have any suggestions could you add them in the comments below?

Tips for Winter Composting, here you will find good food for thought while building and designing your bins. I often forget about what might happen to certain aspects of the garden during the winter, especially here in central IL. I might consider blocking the air flow to my compost to keep it above freezing. Do you guys have any suggestions for keeping your compost warm during Midwest winters?

Comments

  1. Oh this is such a valuable post! Thank you for sharing it as it can be tricky to get it all right when you are trying to get composting! I will be popping over to your links! Have a lovely day! Nicole

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Weather

Finally for the 4th of July we dried out little in our Garden! This was so exciting for us because it meant our trench was dry and didn’t need to be bailed. This also meant we actually had to water out plants which has been a chore we have been able to skip most of the summer. Unfortunately our dry spell did not last long and the following week rained us out a few times. Being rained out was not all bad because we have a lot of preparations to make for our family camp coming up this month! While the weather was dry we took advantage of it though. With our dry weather we also had six little helpers in the garden. We weeded, tilled, and planted all of the plots that were still unplanted. This was so exciting for us because it has been a bit of a downer to come to the garden and not have it all planted until JULY! But it's done now. This was probably our biggest round of planting and thankfully our last. Our two largest left over plots were planted with multi-color corn and s...

About Growing Pains in Eden

My name is Charlie and I am just emerging into this world as a soon to be college graduate developing my life from the ground up. With my experiences in my back pocket I am starting an adventure in community gardening. I am currently a contractor for the summer in a church community garden (The Garden) that has a goal of getting the whole family involved from grandma and grandpa to toddlers. Part of my job at The Garden is to make that involvement happen. My two years of experience working with Jr. High youth groups and my (soon to be) degree in Business Administration has opened the door to this new opportunity. While I'm finding my way as a young adult I hope to encourage other young adults to find what they love, and live with  a purpose by sharing my growing pains and triumphs. Additionally I want to educate readers about gardening, and how little changes can reap great reward. I will be giving simple how-to steps on how to start different kinds of gardens, and ideas on ...

Square Foot Gardening

Me and my 2015 Square Foot Garden (Photo by GG)   Square foot gardening is a relatively new method of backyard gardening. It is becoming more widely used by many gardeners because of all the benefits it has compared to victory garden style rows. These benefits include: ·         Maximizing space by planting closer together, meaning you will get a larger harvest ·         Your plant roots benefit because they are getting more oxygen because you have no need to walk in your garden which compacts your soil ·         The organization of the garden that makes it pleasing to the eye also makes it easier for crop rotation to make sure each plant gets the nutrients it needs Square foot gardens are most often in raised garden beds sectioned off by the square foot. I sectioned mine off by using string and a staple gun but you could use wooden slats or rocks to mark off your ...