GUEST POST by Jennifer Iseli
Compost is like GOLD to gardeners! It’s like free fertilizer and soil amendments all rolled into one! (no pun intended, lol)
Plus, when you’re not putting all of that stuff in your trash bag, think of how many fewer trash bags you’ll use!
Composting can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.
I have just recently started my composting adventure so I don’t exactly have a complex system set up yet. I simply dump all of my “scraps” into a pile in the corner of the yard. I have a few different piles and plan to spread them out on my garden spot as they decompose.
Ideally, you could build or buy a compost bin where you ‘turn’ your compost. You will get results much quicker this way!
What can be composted?
For the most part, anything that was ever alive or came from a living body can be composted. Here are some ideas:
- Any fruit and vegetable scraps
- Paper napkins & Paper towels
- Old Bread
- Old spices
- Tea Bags
- Egg Shells
- Old Pasta
- Q-tips (only the ones w/ cardboard sticks)
- Coffee Filters
- Liquid from canned vegetables & fruit
What can NOT be composted?
- Chemically treated wood products: some of these may contain arsenic, chromium and copper
- Diseased plants: you don’t want to re-infect next year’s garden
- Meat, Bones and Fatty food wastes: Very attractive to pests & can be quite slow to break down
- Weeds: some can re-sprout from seeds, roots & stems in the compost pile
- Pet Waste / Animal Manure: May carry diseases that can infect humans.
If you’re interested in composting, here are some websites that will help:
www.mastercomposter.com
www.composting101.com
http://vegweb.com/composting/
Do you have any experience with composting?
Hi Oxana. In our city, everyone composts. We have a weekly pick-up for it with the recycling and trash. Some choose to use it on their gardens instead of putting it at the road, but since we own a nursery, we are able to use compost pellets, which are all ready to go. The roadside pick-up is great because it forces you to compost everything on the list and have much emptier garbage bags. That reason alone, is beneficial.Thanks for sharing your tips!
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ReplyDeleteThis is so much help. I am a "baby" gardener, if I may say so. Because, as of experience, I just started gardening last year and I didn't know that there are a lot of my compost materials that are not really healthy to turn into compost.Thanks for this wonderful information.
ReplyDeleteOh. Nice information there. I didn't know that leftover food is not a good compost material. I used to do it but after reading this pots, I am going to retract it from my compost list. Yeah, I am more like melanie too.
ReplyDeleteHere in our area, most of the people used compost soil. They are really giving time and attention to there compost to rotten and make it as their fertilizers. They say that it is better if you put worms in your composting area.
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