Easy Green DIY

Getting ready for our vegetable garden today, it was time to open up the compost bins from last fall. Time to get out all of the “black gold” that will nourish and protect our plants for an entire growing season. Time too, to empty the bins to make room for the next batch of free organic fertilizer. I love compost!

It feels good to compost. To use up all of the yard waste, cardboard, paper, sawdust, food scraps etc. and make something that helps feed our family for FREE.

Beautiful, New Compost

Home made compost doesn’t look like what you get out of a plastic bag. It’s got more texture. It may have a few stay pieces of twigs, etc. But it’s beautiful. Dark, rich and FREE.

Home made compost seems “healthier” than what comes in a plastic bag that you’d buy at a store. Healthy compost contains beneficial microbes that combat the harmful microorganisms found in garden soil. How do microbes live in a sealed, plastic bag?

We spread our compost over all of our garden beds and around our trees and shrubs. It’s an organic food/fertilizer. It can be used as mulch. And it bolsters our soil. Look how rich it is compared to last years soil.

Adding fresh compost to our raised bed gardens.

After  adding compost to each bed, we’ll spread it out and work it into the soil. There are several schools of thought on this:

• work it in an inch or two
• rework the whole bed with the new compost (turn it all over)
• leave it on top so that the soil balance is maintained (good soil bacteria and microbes are left undisturbed.

We work our organic matter into the top layer of existing soil. That works for us with the type of soil that we have and with our climate. Regardless of the method that you choose, the compost will improve and nourish your plants.

After sharing how to build your own compost bins, I wanted you to see what the reward is…. Compost really is our first crop of the season and it will make the rest of the season that much better.

It’s that time of year again. Daffodils have pushed through the cold ground and remind us that there is life after winter.  It’s time to get your yard and garden ready, check on your compost and plan for the new season.

The benefits of composting at home:

• Never waste food again. I don’t feel as bad as I used to when I discover a science experiment in our refrigerator. We don’t throw it out. We feed it to our worms!
• Compost enhances your soil with nutrients.
• Helps soil retain more water so you use less.
• Adds beneficial microbes and bacteria to your soil
• It makes the soil lighter and less compacted, which promotes drainage and plant root growth.
• It’s an easy way to be green. Your waste won’t wind up in plastic bags in the land fill.

Compost can be used in many places:

• in the vegetable garden
• in the flower garden
• mixed into the soil when planting trees
• as a mulch
• house plants
• and more

At our house, we compost in three ways:

• closed bins – used for food scraps that would draw pests if left in the open bin
• open bins – yard waste
• Vermicasting – worms!

Some people compost by dumping yard waste in large piles too, but we like the faster, more organized approach to creating garden gold.

Build your own compost bin:

make your own compost bin - drill some holes

Dark plastic bins are ideally suited for composting. Drill holes into the top and sides so that the compost can breath and take in water when it rains, but not drown it. We place food waste in the bins and keep a brick on the top to keep out pests. The dark color absorbs heat from the sun and cooks the mix faster in the cooler months. The handles make it easy to shake up the mix if you don’t want to use a shovel. One year, we used a large trash can. The compost was beautiful come spring, but it weighed a ton! The bins are more manageable.

Open compost bin

As you can see in this photo, we built our compost bin out of  left over yard pavers, some lattice and 2 by 6 wood. The pavers make a solid floor that can handle all the shoveling and turning of the compost material. The lattice lets the pile breath.  And, the 2 by 6 wood gives the bin stability and form.

We built a worm bin using similar bins and drilled air holes as in the previous example. It works okay for the worms, but I wasn’t crazy about having to separate the worms from their castings (worm poop compost). We bought a commercial worm condo which I find much more manageable. It has a faucet near the bottom of the condo where we can drain the liquid from the worm bin which is called compost tea. I use it on our house plants all year long and in the garden during the growing season.

All kinds of food and yard waste can be compost material:

• grass clippings
• small twigs
• Chipped up branches
• saw dust
• food waste (not meat or dairy)
• card board
• shredded paper (I don’t use any paper with color inks)
• leaves
• house plants that didn’t make it
• last seasons garden plants

Beautiful, black gold - compost.

Composting yard and kitchen waste is the green thing to do and saves us money on fertilizers and saves space in our landfills. It can be used instead of traditional mulch (which actually robs your plants of nutrients). And, you”ll feel less guilty that something turned into a science experiment because it won’t go to waste (you know what I mean!).