On the 9th day til Earth Day my children said to me,
“Making compost is smart & costs us no money.”
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
The Happy Gardener’s founder, Annette Pelliccio, shares the benefits of composting in this 5 minute Youtube video intro.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoLWCNYxTc0
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






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