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
Are the balls good to put in my compost pile?
By Bill
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
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.
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.
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.
How can you get a very large pile of grass and horse manure to break down quickly?
Hardiness Zone: 4b
By Margaret from Omaha, NE
Keep it wet, for more info go to-how to compost, good luck.
Turn it several time a week and keep it moist but not dripping.
It takes oxygen as well as water to get the compost bacteria multiplying quickly. You'll know it is finished when it no longer is as hot when you turn it.
I compost my kitchen scraps, grass cutting, and leaves in pots. I don't have room for composting bins or a space in the ground. It works fine, I have tons of worms and the kitchen scraps are devoured very quickly. I was attending a gardening class at one of our local nurseries and we got on the subject of using compost. The person leading the class said not to use compost in pots, as it is too high in nitrogen and will burn the plants.
I generally mix the compost with soil and have had good luck with growing my vegetables in pots, but wondered if I should be concerned? I am trying to not have to buy potting soil and was hoping that by mixing the compost with my regular dirt I could create a healthy soil for my container plants. Am I causing more damage to the plants and good? Please help.
Hardiness Zone: 10b
By Janice from CA
The below link is a similar idea to yours, but they use a small portion of ground to bury in the compost bin:
www.peoplepoweredmachines.com/
Burying a portion of it in the ground would be best. But if you plan to keep it in pots I would make sure your compost is getting plenty of oxygen by drilling small holes in the pot. Also moving the stuff around in the pot every couple of weeks would be good too. Add some moisture every now and then (but not too much moisture or it will start to decompose into a moldy mess which is not what you want. Mold can be very harmful to the respiratory system, you should use a dust mask when mixing compost anyway). Make sure your bin has a lid to keep the mold and other pathogens from entering your home! Keeping it outside or possibly in the garage would be best.
You may want to introduce some beneficial microbes like BOKASHI into your compost bin as well:
www.squidoo.com/
www.gaiam.com/
Some of the best things to put in your soil besides composted fruits and veggies is composted animal byproducts like fish emulsion, bonemeal, composted chicken crap etc. You would not want this in your compost bin but these things are very beneficial, probably more beneficial than composted veggie scraps from your kitchen.
Also, you will want some trace minerals in there. Azomite Powder and or Limestone Powder adds organic trace minerals to soil.
Hopefully all of this will insure a very large reward in your near future! Good luck!
I see many references at various compost related info sites, where I often see, "no meat or animal products", but rarely an explanation as to why. Finally saw one response in your site, "because it gets smelly".
Is that the only reason? I thought maybe it might have something to do with such products (meat and meat products) cultivating an undesirable bacteria or something like that. Can anyone enlighten me on this?
By Annuity - Victor from San Francisco, CA
Such products also draw unwanted critters to paw through your compost pile, such as skunks, opossums, and rats.
The meat also contaminates the soil with e-coli germs and other really bad bacterias. This gets into your vegetables or fruit and makes you very sick. Just stick to vegan scraps and a little bit of lawnmower cuttings and you will have a good compost pile.
Rats! Trust me, you do not want an infestation of rats! So no meat or meat byproducts.
I don't put any meat products in my compost AT ALL and still have a very fat mouse living there! I guess he/she likes lettuce and carrots!
What I learned was that in order to compost meat you need a compost pile to reach really high heats. Since a home compost pile usually can't reach the high heats of commercial pile can, it is not safe to compost meat.
The only reason I know of is Parasites and e-coli. And trust me, you don't want them!
It's because it attracts animals, not because it foments especially bad bacteria. We always composted all household garbage except poultry by the "sheet method". Rotating the spot every year, we'd simply spread the garbage over the ground and leave it. Next spring, we'd till it under. We would use any poultry carcasses to feed the crabs in the salt-water creek nearby, ensuring a good harvest of those as well.
We were out in the country with plenty of dogs around so the wild animals didn't bother the composting area, but the dogs sure liked a good roll. After which, someone would be detailed to take the dogs onto the dock and throw them overboard. Wait for them to swim ashore, catch and repeat a few times, LOL. Got the dogs clean, but scared the crabs away for a day or so each time. Using this composting method, our gardens (on a site which had been used for gardening since the 1600's) have always been amazingly fertile, not needing much amendment except lime, occasionally.
On the other hand, now that I live in a town with neighbors close by, I compost in a bin and discard all animal products in the trash.
