Duration : 0:3:19

Technorati Tags: Compost, compost bin, composting, fertilizer, garden, garden care, garden lawn, garden plants, mulch, soil

Making compost is like cooking a stew for your family. You need a recipe, the correct ingredients in the right amounts, the correct temperatures and time to let it all simmer. The end result will be a load of sweet smelling, rich dark brown loam that you can feed to your plants with pride.

Composting is the controlled decomposition of organic matter. If left to natural means this process can be extremely slow, but by following the recipe and using the correct equipment you can considerably speed up the process. The following ingredients are necessary:

Carbon

Nitrogen

Oxygen

Water

However some materials will not work in backyard composting. Most backyard systems will not reach high enough temperatures necessary to kill the pathogens and vermin present, so certain items such as meat scraps, dairy products and pet droppings are not advisable.

High carbon sources are necessary to generate heat. High nitrogen sources are necessary to allow the decomposing bacteria to thrive.

Browns are high carbon materials and may include;

Dry straw, hay and grass clippings

Fallen leaves

Newspaper – shred the papers for better results

Greens are high nitrogen materials and may include:

Green plant material such as garden residue, fresh hay, grass clippings, and weeds

Manure; such as horse, cow, chicken, or mushroom

Fruit and vegetable waste. Egg shells are excellent

Seaweed (rinse well to remove any salt)

Coffee grounds and filters

There are some types of trees such as live oak, the southern magnolia and holly trees whose leafs are too tough and leathery for decomposition, also avoid all parts of the black walnut tree as they contain a plant poison that will survive composting. Other leafs to avoid using in your compost are poison oak, poison ivy, and poison sumac.

Another ingredient which is often overlooked is moisture. Water the pile just enough to keep the contents moist but not saturated. In a couple of weeks, the pile should heat up to approximately to 160 degrees Fahrenheit. At this temperature many of the weed seeds and harmful organisms will be killed.

A compost bin or tumbler is ideal for the small garden. A tumbler will give you the quickest results due to the ease of aerating the compost, so figure at least 8 to 10 weeks for good compost to be ready to use. Spin the compost tumbler at least once a week. This will keep the compost aerated, in as much as it is necessary to provide oxygen to the mixture to achieve good results.

If at this point the temperature of the compost has fallen, turn the thermostat up by adding more nitrogen in the form of greens such as grass clippings or leaves from your produce trimmings, if manure is available it will get things cooking again. New material can always be added to the mix, although it will slow the process down.

Home composting uses several techniques, from extreme passive (cold) composting (throw everything into a pile and leave it alone) to active (hot) which consists of monitoring the temperature and turning or rotating the pile on a regular basis.

Technorati Tags: Compost, compost tumblers, composting, composting tumblers, ecology. green, gardening, green movement, organic, soil

Expert: Steve
Contact: www.myspace.com/solorganics_hydroponics
Bio: Steve is the owner of Sol Organics and Hydroponics in San Antonio, Texas.
Filmmaker: julio costilla

Duration : 0:2:1

Technorati Tags: and, bacteria, benefits, casting, cloning, Compost, flowers, gardening, gardens, germination, guano, herb, herbal, hydroponics, indoor, inoculant, light, natural, nutrient, organic, Outdoor, pest, predators, Seeds, soil, worm

Expert: Gale Gassiot
Bio: Gale Gassiot makes her own organic compost or “gardener’s black gold.”

Duration : 0:3:29

Technorati Tags: Compost, free, garden, organic, pesticides, pests, plants, soil, Vegetables, video

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Obtain a worm bin.

* These can be purchased from many online vendors or your local gardening or farm supply store.
* You can build your own. Use rubber storage totes, galvanized tubs, wood, or plastic.

Material: Rubber is cheap, easy to use and durable. Galvanized tubs are somewhat costly but will last forever. Wood will eventually be eaten, and plastic cracks easily, but either will do in a pinch.

Drilling holes to ventilate a rubber tub.

Ventilation: Your bin should be well-ventilated, with several 1/8 inch (3mm) holes 4 inches (100mm) from the bottom (otherwise the worms will stay at the bottom of the bin and you may drown your worms). For example, you can build a worm bin out of a large plastic tub with several dozen small holes drilled out on the bottom and sides.
o Size: The larger you make the container, the more worms it can sustain. Estimate 1 pound (0.45kg) of worms (1,200) for every square foot of surface area. The maximum productive depth for your bin is 24 inches (61cm) deep because composting worms will not go further down than that.
o Cover: The bin should have a cover to prevent light from getting in and to prevent the compost from drying out. Choose or make a lid that can be removed if your compost is too wet. Use a canvas tarp, doubled over and bungee-corded on, or kept in place with wood. Burlap sacks also work well, and can be watered directly.

* Use 4 old car tires: To make a four-tire wormery, create a base from old bricks or flagstones (must be flat and with as few cracks as possible). Place a layer of heavy newspaper on top of the bricks. Stuff four old tires with newspapers. Pile the tires on top of each other, with the first tire on the Sunday newspaper. Put some scrunched up paper or cardboard in the bottom to soak up any excess liquid. Fill the tire wormery with organic material (semi-composted is best). Add the composting worms (tiger or brandling species are best). Use a piece of board weighed down with bricks as a lid. The lid must be big enough to stop rain getting in. Harvest a tire’s worth of fertilizer roughly every 8 weeks (during warm months).

Shredded newspaper for worm bedding.
Prepare the box for worms. Fill your bin with thin strips of unbleached corrugated cardboard or shredded newspaper, straw, dry grass, or some similar material. This provides a source of fiber to the worms and keeps the bin well-ventilated. Sprinkle a handful of dirt on top, and thoroughly moisten. Allow the water to soak in for at least a day before adding worms. You can also use Canadian peat moss, which is more expensive but yields a loamier vermicompost.

Worms arrive.

Get worms. There are several varieties of worms that that are bred and sold commercially for vermicomposting; just digging up earthworms from your backyard is not recommended. The Internet or local gardening club is your best bet for finding a worm vendor near you. The worms most often used, Eisenia foetida (Red Wigglers), are about 4 inches long, mainly red along the body with a yellow tail. Another variety to consider are Eisenia hortensis, known as “European Night crawlers.” They do not reproduce quite as fast as the red wigglers, but grow to be larger, eat courser paper and cardboard better, and seem to be heartier. They are also better fishing worms when they do reach full size. However, with any non-native species, it is important not to allow them to reach the wild. Their voracious appetites and reproductive rates (especially among the red wigglers) have been known to upset the delicate balance of the hardwood forests by consuming the leaf litter too quickly. This event leaves too little leaf letter to slowly incubate the hard shelled nuts and leads to excessive erosion as well as negatively affecting the pH of the soil. So, do your best to keep them confined!

Feed your worms fruit and vegetable scraps and refresh the bedding as necessary.

Duration : 0:4:2

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Technorati Tags: and, bed, beets, beginner, beginners, Bin, broccoli, build, cauliflower, celery, Compost, composting, corn, diy, do, fertilizer, flower, flowers, Food, foods, garden, gardening, germinating, grow, guide, how, it, miracle, natural, organic, pile, raised, seed, Seeds, soil, tips, to, tomato, tomatoes, tricks, vegetable, Vegetables, watermelon, worm, yourself

Expert: Steve
Contact: www.myspace.com/solorganics_hydroponics
Bio: Steve is the owner of Sol Organics and Hydroponics in San Antonio, Texas.
Filmmaker: julio costilla

Duration : 0:2:25

Technorati Tags: and, bacteria, benefits, casting, cloning, Compost, flowers, gardening, gardens, germination, guano, herb, herbal, hydroponics, indoor, inoculant, light, natural, nutrient, organic, Outdoor, pest, predators, Seeds, soil, worm

Duration : 0:4:10

Technorati Tags: and, bed, beets, beginner, beginners, Bin, broccoli, build, cauliflower, celery, Compost, corn, fertilizer, flower, flowers, Food, foods, garden, gardening, germinating, grow, guide, how, miracle, organic, pile, raised, seed, Seeds, soil, tips, to, tomato, tomatos, tricks, vegetable, Vegetables, watermelon

Duration : 0:7:39

Technorati Tags: and, bed, beets, beginner, beginners, Bin, broccoli, build, cauliflower, celery, Compost, corn, fertilizer, flower, flowers, Food, foods, garden, gardening, germinating, grow, guide, how, miracle, organic, pile, raised, seed, Seeds, soil, tips, to, tomato, tomatos, tricks, vegetable, Vegetables, watermelon

Duration : 0:9:5

Technorati Tags: and, bed, beets, beginner, beginners, Bin, broccoli, build, cauliflower, celery, Compost, corn, fertilizer, flower, flowers, Food, foods, garden, gardening, germinating, grow, guide, how, miracle, organic, pile, raised, seed, Seeds, soil, tips, to, tomato, tomatos, tricks, vegetable, Vegetables, watermelon

Duration : 0:2:1

Technorati Tags: big, Compost, composter, composting, earth, ecology, environment, fertilize, flowers, Food, fruit, garden, gardening, grow, Jora, Kitchen, lawn, nutrient, organic, pig, reduce, Scraps, soil, Vegetables, waste