Eco Gardeners

Why compost?
Composting is an easy, environmentally beneficial way to turn yard and kitchen wastes into a dark, crumbly, sweet-smelling soil amendment that will build your soil, increase garden production and do wonders for your landscaping. It is as easy as putting your recyclables out for pick up!
Composting will:

• Save you money by lowering garbage bills and replacing the need for commercial soil amendments.

• Increase production by improving the fertility and health of your soil.

• Save water by helping the soil hold moisture and reducing water runoff.

• Benefit the environment by recycling valuable organic resources and extending the lives of our landfills.

What is Compost?
Compost is the end product of a complex feeding pattern involving hundreds of different organisms, including bacteria, fungi, worms, and insects. What remains after these organisms break down organic materials is the rich, earthy substance your garden will love. Composting replicates nature’s natural system of breaking down materials which are slowly dismantled by the small organisms living in the soil. Eventually these plant parts disappear and humus keeps the soil light and fluffy. Humus is our goal when we start composting. By providing the right environment for the organisms in the compost pile, it is possible to produce excellent compost.

Click on the following link to watch a really cool animation of the composting process:

http://www.recyclenow.com/home_composting/composting/what_happens_in.html

What Goes in the Composter?
yard trimmings, garden debris, vegetable and fruit scraps, coffee grounds and filters, tea bags, algae, seaweed, lake moss, kitchen rinse water, cardboard, dryer lint, crushed eggshells, hair, newspaper, oak leaves, pine needles and cones. Did you know that the average household produces more than 200 pounds of kitchen waste every year?
What Doesn’t?
meat, fish, oily foods, milk products, pet manure, diseased or insect infested plants, weeds that have gone to seed, coal or charcoal ashes, lime, bones

Compost4Fun Virtual Game: this one’s fun for all ages!
Try maintaining your own virtual compost bin by exploring the house and garden, looking for potential household waste to compost. See if you can get onto the Compost4Fun scoreboard by getting the right balance of green and brown waste.

http://compost4fun.recyclenow.com

Eco Gardeners is brought to you by The Happy Gardener, which is a direct sales company committed to helping home owners and the community learn about healthy alternatives to conventional garden and lawn care methods. If you are interested in an organic garden, contact us and we’ll be glad to send you additional information and our newsletter.

Services we provide include:

• Earth-Friendly Gardening
• Educational Demonstrations
• Organic, Eco-Friendly Garden Products
• Community Service Projects
• THG Club Membership Program
• Business Opportunities for passionate gardeners

We are making a difference… one garden at a time.

The Happy Gardener encourages environmentally-friendly gardening practices through our line of organic products, educational demonstrations and business opportunities. Learn more here.

We believe that the education behind earth friendly gardening practices is just as important as the products we offer the home gardener. Our trained team of Independent Garden Consultants offer educational services through personal consultation and demonstrations.

The Happy Gardener is committed to improving community resources and is a sponsor of the Plant a Row for the Hungry campaign. We are proud of all gardeners’ efforts in this important partnership.

“We work right alongside with the Central Virginia Food Bank. A lot of times people are not aware that agencies like the CVFB needs fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs, along with their canned food products.”

The Happy Gardener is committed to finding healthy, chemical-free garden products that are safe to use around children and pets. We have developed several Foliar Feeds that also act as beneficial pest control:

Deer Control: Springtime meals for deer unfortunately consist of our beloved pansies and tulips. How to control them? THG’s Foliar Feed plus Garlic is made to repel the deer also feed your plants through the leaf spores. Your flowers and trees will look great but taste and smell awful to the deer. It stinks but it works!

Japanese Beetle Control: For those of us who dread the upcoming Japanese Beetle months, it’s a great idea to get THG’s Top Selling Outdoor Foliar Feed ready so as soon as they arrive, we can wipe them out before they have time to reproduce. Lovers of roses, fruit trees, crepe myrtles and flowering plants, these pests can’t withstand our organic blend of vegetable-based soap and sea veggies.

Ants: Everybody wants to get rid of ants. Whether they are covering our houseplants or front steps, they are a real pest. THG’s Foliar Feed plus Cinnamint repels the ants and is safe enough to use in the kitchen.

Companion planting is an effective and chemical-free alternative to pest control.

There are specific herbs and/or flowers you can plant with your vegetables, roses, and shrubs/trees to decrease particular pests that they are commonly susceptible to.

Here are some companion plants and the pests they repel:
Anise: repels aphids
Basil: repels thrips, flies and mosquitoes
Borage: deters tomato hornworm and cabbage worms

The Happy Gardener’s Outdoor Foliar Feed is 100% vegetable based, safe for use around children and pets, will not harm the ladybugs or bumble bees, but will kill Japanese beetles and aphids on contact!

Here are some creative ways to make organic simple and fun:

1. Get off to a clean start: Take a shower with soaps and shampoos made with organic ingredients. Then, serve someone special an organic breakfast in bed with certified organic orange juice, coffee, fresh fruit, cereal, yogurt and eggs. (All items available nationally at natural & conventional supermarkets.)
2. Make a donation to a local soup kitchen/shelter of some of the organic vegetables and fruits you’ve grown and harvested.
3. Building healthy soil is a key tenet of organic farming. A great way to guarantee rich, organic soil is to start composting! Contact your local library or Cooperative Extension office for composting information.
4. Release “beneficial insects” (good bugs which keep away the bad bugs) in your organic garden. Ladybugs don’t just bring good luck-they also serve as natural defenders for your garden’s plants. Green Lacewing Larvae (considered the “garbage disposal bug” of the insect world) are hardworking and hungry.

Read the rest of the Organic Trade Association’s list here. For reasons why to go organic in your garden visit The Happy Gardener.

What is Vermicomposting?

Vermicosting, or worm composting, is the process of using worms to turn kitchen waste into nutrient-rich humus that makes plants thrive. Worm compost is a natural fertilizer and soil conditioner.

How do we do it?

To get started, get your vermicomposter and at least one pound of red worms. You can find the worms at a local bait shop or at a specialty online store. One pound of worms eats approximately 3 pounds of food scraps weekly! Keep the worms in your worm bin. Be sure to keep the lid locked secure. Worms like cool, dark, moist places.

What goes in the Vermicomposter?

Bedding and Food. Bedding materials include shredded cardboard, shredded newspaper, compost, or shredded fall leaves. Fill the bottom three quarters of your bin with damp bedding. Keep it moist and “fluffy” (but not wet). If the bedding gets too dry spray with a spray bottle of water; if the bedding gets too wet add more newspaper strips. Do not use colored ink newspaper- the ink is toxic to worms.

Food for worms include vegetable scraps, fruit peelings, leftover pasta, bread/grains, tea bags, coffee grounds/filters, finely crushed egg shells. Simply add the food to the top of your worms and bedding.

Keep a sheet of dry newspaper spread flat over the top of your contents to maintain moisture, reduce odor and keep fruit flies out. If odor or fruit flies appear, it is time to change the newspaper sheet.

What doesn’t go in it? Do not put meat, bones, wood scraps, cheese/dairy, fat, grass clippings in your vermicomposter.

Will the worms get out when I open the bin to add food? Worms like the dark so when you open the lid to add food and the light gets in, the worms will immediately go to the bottom of the bedding.

When do I know when the compost is ready? You will see rich, dark soil. You can use a measuring cup to scoop out finished compost to add to your planters and garden.