Do not throw out your tea bags with the trash. Save them in a dish and then empty them around your garden plants and shrubs. Makes a good substitute for peat and will add plant goodness and save you cash.
By alan julier from Cradley UK
Once in a while, we forget to eat a certain fruit or the fruit becomes moldy. Instead of tossing the fruit in the trash, you could cut the fruit into pieces and feed to your fruit trees. The bees will suck the natural sugars from the fruit giving them energy to go about pollinating your trees and helping to set fruit.
I'm reminded of a joke Redd Foxx told. He said two maids were discussing their employers' garbage. One said, 'You wouldn't believe the good stuff they throw away'.
I am very new at gardening. I am growing tomatoes, papaya, corn, peas, peppers, etc. I have started collecting all the the peelings from my fruits and vegetables in jars.
How long do I have to wait to mix it into my soil to add to my potted plants?You probably want one big container v. many little ones. YOu also have to put a certain layer of dried plant matter/dirt interspersed with the fruit peels,etc. YOu also want to cut the peels as small as possible and avoid puting in citrus peels and any sort of animal waste - except egg shells are good.
it takes weeks or months under the right conditions for a compost to work.
It takes a few months of hot weather to decompose. You will know when it's ready when it looks like thick black mud.
I have a bucket in my kitchen next to the trash can, I call it my slop bucket. In it we rinse out food containers and cans, put in leftovers we don't end up eating, rinds, peels, sweeping the floor it goes in, vacuum bag, and hair cuttings.
Composting makes great fertilizer for my garden and reduces waste. I have tried a number of ways to avoid walking to compost pile every time I have compostable kitchen waste, veggies, fruit, paper napkins, plates, etc. Everything I tried, even fancy counter compost containers, left me with fruit flies.
Are the balls good to put in my compost pile?
By Bill
I use plastic 4 gallon buckets with lids to store my compost in by my back door. When they are full, I take them to the compost pile and dump them.
I put eggshells in a tray at the bottom of the oven. They get baked and brittle every time you use the oven. Just keep adding to the tray until it is full.
Add flat cola to your compost pile. It seems to "richen" up the compost. I read this on some gardening site.
I really should have asked the question before now, but this is the question or problem. I started to make compost for my organic garden, I used carrot shavings, potato peels, apple cores, banana peels, and whatever veggie scraps I had at the time. I threw in some dirt and a little water and made sure I stirred it up.
Now here is the problem, its been raining and more water got inside the little bucket of compost. The mixture has turned into mud and with the extra water it smells bad almost like someone took a dunk in it, but I thinks its the potato peels that stink. I still see part of the apple core, it's black.
My question is: Can I still use the bucket of mud as compost. Should I drain the water out of it. Or should I put more dirt in it, or just dump it in the garden. What should I do?
By Angie
What you really need are some leaves or grass clippings. From what you listed, you have lots of greens but not a lot of browns. You want a ratio of 2 to 1 or at least 1 to 1, browns to greens. So at least the same amount of browns (grass clipping, leaves and other yard waste) as greens (kitchen scraps). To get rid of the muck, you can drain the water and add some dry dirt, then try to find some good yard waste to complete the recipe.
Drill holes in your composting bucket to let air in and excess water out.
I garden on what some people consider to be a large scale (to me it isn't). I also compost, I have been doing it for over 40 years.