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
The benefits of composting are many, such as free vegetables, healthy flowers, and the joy of knowing you are removing garbage from landfills.
Many garden tools are designed to make the job faster and easier, but an alternative usually exists that can accomplish the same task for a lot less money. Here's a rundown of six handy composting tools - what they do, why they are helpful, and the cost-saving alternatives.
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'.
Add flat cola to your compost pile. It seems to "richen" up the compost. I read this on some gardening site.
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.
Is it OK to have a composting box next to a vegetable garden? I'm having problems with insects eating my spinach and chard. I'm thinking that they are coming from the composting box.
By Ian
Raked-up leaves make great compost and are good to dig into your garden now to enrich the soil for next year's crops.
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.
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.
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.
For a quick compost container, an old garbage can with the bottom cut out will do the trick. Just toss in fruit peels, vegetable scraps and the like, and pop on the lid.
How do I compost eggshells properly so I don't add any disease to my soil? I am new to composting. I do not have organic eggshells to compost. I've read about so many eggs having disease.
If I hardboiled eggs, then I put the eggshells in the compost because the eggshells have been boiled. However, many times I use eggs out of the shells, so I have been washing the eggshells in the dishwater and rinsing them clean after I am done doing the dishes.
What is the appropriate way to handle eggshells for compost use?
By Carol Rodriguez from South Bend, IN
I just rinse them out and then crush the shells into small bits before adding them to the compost heap. Crushing them speeds the decomposition.
I hadn't thought of the disease factor, though. No-one has ever got sick from eating anything I've used compost on but we never use anything raw from the garden either. I think if you wash salad veg, and cook other veg thoroughly, anything grown in the compost you should be OK.
To enrich my compost, I save my peels as I'm cooking. I blend them till smooth and I stir them into the dirt of my compost pile. It reduces garbage and enriches my compost pile.
Every fall, we see people working very hard with leaves, putting them in paper bags for city collection. Anyone who has even a modest back yard can use an easier method.
