Creative Gardening

Posts Tagged ‘Food Waste’

Composting is absolutely one of the easiest and most environmentally friendly things you that can do, since food waste accounts for over 25% of the waste collected in the United States. Composting is as easy as collecting food remnants and yard trimmings and allowing them to decompose. This decomposed matter, called compost also known as humus, is also an excellent amendment to your soil. It adds important nutrients to your soil, helping you to grow healthier and more productive plants. You can even use compost as a potting medium.

Composting takes placeon it?s own, naturally, however if you residein an area with composting restrictions, or if you are looking to have your compost to mature faster, there are a few things you can do to expedite the process. Below are three tips to help you compost more effectively.

1. Use a compost bin. Today numeroud locations require the use of a compost bin rather than just allowing you pile up your food waste and yard trimmings. Food scraps attract rats and other animals; obviously, this is a problem. You can prevent animals from getting at your compost by using a compost bin. There are many different types available of compost bins for sale, but the most common is a black plastic bin with a lid on top for adding your organic matter, and a door at the bottom through which you can retrieve your compost.

2. No animal products in the compost. When we talk of food waste to be composted, that means the waste from fruits or vegetables; i.e. apple peels, onion peel, carrot peels and leaves, etc. You can also include eggshells (wash them off first to prevent the risk of salmonella) and coffee grounds and tea leaves (remove the bag first). It is critical to never include any meat or waste that has been cooked in oil or butter.

3. Build your Compost Pile. After putting in your ?green? scraps (food waste or yard trimmings) to your compost pile, you should add a ?brown? layer to the bin. The layer of ?brown? could be either strips of newspaper, leaves, straw, or even sawdust. Layering is an important way to build nutrient-rich compost. It also helps to keep the bugs and other animals down.

Using these three steps, you can easily create healthy, nutrient-rich compost at home. This will eliminate the need for costly soil amendments and will help to save the environment. So maintaining a compost bin helps lower your expenses by decreasing the amount of money that you are spending on gardening amendments; you know exactly what is going into your garden because the elements that make up the compost comes directly from your food; and you are helping the environment. It absolutely is like a great decision to make.

You can find compost bins for sale on the Internet. What are you waiting for? Get out there are start composting!

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Sustainable organic vegetable gardening can only happen if people know how to use and prepare organic matter.

This is because it improves the soil and prevents it from compacting and crusting. It increases the water?s holding ability so earthworms and other microorganisms can aerate the soil and it slows down erosion and in later stages of decay so that organic matter is able to release nitrogen and other nutrients which help the crops grow.

Such a technique is old but is now making a come back because the conventional method of using synthetic materials like fertilizer and pesticides have ruined the soil and depleted it or organic matter so this cannot be used for replanting.

So where do we get this organic matter? Believe it or not, the best form of organic matter comes from animal manure. The fresher the better because you can apply this directly to the soil but this should only be done in the fall and plowed down to give it adequate time for sufficient breakdown and ammonia to release before the planting season begins.

If you don?t have access to fresh animal manure, you can use the dried version that is being sold in nurseries and garden stores.

For those who don?t to use manure, you can use compost instead. This can be made from lawn clippings, leaves, food waste and other plant materials. It is cheap but its nutrient content is very low.

There is another kind of manure better known as green manure You don?t use any waste by animals here but rather growing a cover crop in your garden and then plowing it under so you are adding organic matter to the soil. The best way to maximize this is for you not to use the garden for one season.

You can also seed the green manure in the fall and then turn it under with a plow or a large tiller in the early spring. That way, you can use your garden normally while at the same time building up the soil.

Annual ryegrass is a good example for green manuring and covering. THIs should be seeded 1 to 2 feet per 1,000 square feet. If this is not available, you can use seed rye or wheat and place it 3 to 4 feet per 1,000 square feet. This helps prevent weeds from growing and in order for this to be effective, wait at least 2 weeks before you start planting.

Sewage sludge is also a good source of organic matter. There are two types namely digested sludge and dried activated sludge.

The first is relatively low quality. It contains from 1 to 3 percent of nitrogen and should only be applied during the fall. But you should be careful when you use it because it sometimes contain metal ions that are not good to use on vegetable gardens.

The second which is the dried activated sludge has been separated from coarse solids, inoculated with microorganisms and aerated. This is better than the other one because it is filtered, dried in kilns and screened. It contains 5 to 6 percent of nitrogen and 5 to 7 pounds can cover an area of 100 square feet.

Take note that these two types are different from raw sewage. That being said, never use that to garden any soil.

Sustainable organic vegetable gardening can only happen with organic matter. Now that you know this, choose from manure, compost or sludge.

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Organic vegetable gardening is easy. But to help you, here are some tips you should know.

The most important thing to do is to decide what you want to grow. There are so many vegetables to choose from but keep in mind that certain vegetables cannot be grown because of the climate so take that into consideration as well.

So you want have a hard time taking care of it, choose those that are well adapted to the soil, temperature, sun and shade exposure.

If you live in an area where droughts are frequent, make sure you are planting drought resistant vegetables since it does not eat up that much water and can withstand dry weather.

You should determine how much space you have. This will make it easy for you to plot on a sheet of paper the layout of how you want your vegetables to grow.

You should mulch your vegetables with organic material. This can be made from food waste, dead leaves or grass and manure. This helps conserve water, adds humus and nutrients as well as discourage weeds from growing.

The best part is that you don?t have to dig deep to put these in because 85% of the vegetable?s roots are found in the top 6 inches of soil.

Aside from compost, you can also use natural fertilizers and organic material to help the vegetables grow. They also encourage native earthworms that are nature?s tillers and soil conditioners.

The biggest threat that could destroy your vegetables are pests. To get rid of them, you should use other insects, birds, frogs. If your crops though have been infected, spray infected stems and leaves with dilute soapy water and then clear water that is very effective.

If you decide to buy vegetables that are grown instead of using seedlings, most of these come in plastic containers. Be careful when you remove them so you avoid tearing the outside roots especially if these have grown solidly inside the container.

When planting vegetables, don?t stick with just one but plant many different kinds because this invites insects to take up resident in your yard.

Believe it or not, only 2 percent of the insects in the world are harmful. This means the rest are beneficial. Some examples of these include ladybugs, fireflies, green lacewings, praying mantis, spiders and wasps since they eat insects that try to eat your vegetables. Another thing they do is pollinate the plants and decompose organic matter.

Don?t forget to remove weeds that come out in your garden. You can pull these out by hand or spot spray it with a full strength of household vinegar. Best of all, it is safe for the environment.

Practice crop rotation. This will make sure that the soil is always fertile. When planting the new vegetable, avoid regular deep cultivation as this will damage the roots, dry out the soil, disturb healthy soil organisms and bring weeds to the surface that will soon germinate.

If you follow these tips, you will surely be able to have a successful organic vegetable garden. You can plant and harvest them all year round so you don?t have to buy these goods anymore from the supermarket. That is assuming of course you have a huge parcel of land to work with.

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