I have some bad news. All that time you spent raking grass as a kid? You didn’t need to do that. You could have been off riding your bike or playing video games while the grass was turning into grass compost. Sort of, anyway.
Category: Composting
In the articles below, learn everything you need to know about composting at home in your backyard, kitchen, or barrel.
Composting is the best and most cost-effective way to create nutrient-rich soil for your garden, though it does come with its challenges. For example, if you compost diseased vegetables or plants, they’ll spread to your garden. If you aren’t turning your compost, it can become unbalanced, smelly compost, and attract critters.
Though, if you do take care of your compost, it’s much cheaper than buying it and certainly easier than hauling it. Creating your compost also gives you ways to reduce food waste by putting it back into the earth instead of a plastic trash bag.
Composting certainly comes with the stigma that to compost, you’re either a farmer or living off the grid, but if that were true, there wouldn’t be so many barrel-turning and countertop composting appliances available to buy. Everyone from gardening hobbyists to apartment dwellers is composting for their backyard, patio, and balcony gardens. Food gardening is most definitely mainstream, and composting comes with it! If you want some luscious, healthy soil for your garden, that is!
If you have a little bit of land, it’s easy to create and tend to a compost pile. But composting can seem elusive for apartment dwellers and those in more urban areas without a lot of space. In the last several years, a number of approaches to easy composting at home have emerged, and you don’t need a lot of room for them to work. A small patio or a spot on your porch is all the space you need to compost. In some cases, your compost bin can fit on the back of your kitchen counter!
In the articles below, we dive into all of these approaches to composting, and you can learn more about gardening and composting in our How to Grow a Vegetable Garden: 10 Things Every Gardener Needs to Know Before Starting a Food Garden freebie. Enjoy!
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Ways to Make Compost Break Down Faster
I know the feeling. You’re excited about your compost pile; you’ve tried to keep the mix right between browns and greens. Finally, you’re ready to get some finished compost and work it into your garden, so your plants have plenty of nutritious soil. And you can’t use any of it because the compost break down […]
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Composting with Paul the Opossum
I am very late to composting. For years, it was something that I considered doing but never quite got around to. There always seemed to be a reason. The kids were too young, so having one more thing to do in a day was overwhelming. The yard was small; where would I put it? What […]
Are you tired of your garden looking like a desolate wasteland? Are your plants struggling to survive despite your best efforts? Well, have no fear, dear food gardener, because composting is here to save the day! But wait, you may be thinking, “Composting? Isn’t that just a fancy way of saying throwing food scraps in […]
Compost, that black gold of the garden, has a very intriguing inner life. Bacteria, fungi, microorganisms, chemical reactions, and fascinating transformations are all present in the midst of our compost pile. The most common way is through an aerobic process, meaning with oxygen. But there’s another way to get that super-rich source of garden nutrients: […]
Did you know that, according to the EPA, the United States produces more than 42 million tons of food waste every year? That’s 210 cruise ships filled top to bottom, stem to stern, with food. Or for something more relatable, that’s how much 9,333 Ford F-150 pickups weigh, or 14,000 Toyota Priuses. Indeed, learning how to make natural compost isn’t going to eliminate that kind of waste.
As you might be able to tell by the name, hugelkultur comes to us from Germany. The word translates to “hill culture,” and it is a very environmentally friendly and efficient type of raised bed gardening. Hugelkultur (pronounced Hoo-gull-culture) is sustainable, low-maintenance, drought-resistant, affordable, and can vastly improve the nearby landscape. Better yet, it’s easy […]
Ah… the sweet sights and sounds of spring. It’s the time of the year when robins are plucking worms from the grass, tulips and crocuses are in bloom, our radishes and peas are ready to harvest, and our spring composting work is well underway. But what is that exactly? Isn’t composting just a matter of […]
If there is a magic formula to a bountiful vegetable garden, compost has an honored place in the mix. Good compost is rich in the nutrients your plants need to grow. In addition, compost can double as mulch, it’s environmentally friendly, and the process of composting is pretty darn easy. That said, some compost ingredients […]
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A Guide to Composting in Winter Months
Most of us here at the Food Gardening Network love composting. Composting is a great way to deal with waste, the finished compost is super nutritious for your garden, and you don’t need any special equipment. But since the decomposition process requires heat, can you keep composting in winter? Yes. Your compost pile won’t move […]