How to Make Compost Compost is the ultimate ingredient for building fertile soil. If everyone composted their kitchen and garden waste, the world would be a cleaner place, and we would all enjoy more productive organic gardens. Some folks are intimidated by this unfamiliar and seemingly mysterious process — but have no fear! Composting is so worth the effort. Compost also vastly improves soil structure, allows the soil to hold in moisture better and improves friability (workability). After surveying hundreds of MOTHER EARTH NEWS readers and checking out what our Facebook community had to say during Compost Awareness Week 2012, we were blown away by the many answers to the question of how to make compost at home. Many households compost using multiple methods, and the techniques described here are a distillation of strategies employed by MOTHER EARTH NEWS readers. Composting Techniques “To keep from feeding critters, our kitchen waste first goes into three black compost containers until unrecognizable.
6 Tips for Building Soil for Your Raised Garden Beds and Planters When my wife and I first started gardening in earnest, the results were discouraging. The seeds we planted would sprout and begin to grow, but soon the rate of growth would slow and produce undersize vegetables. Some would succumb to damage from insect pests and slugs, and even when we purchased healthy seedlings for transplanting, they failed to grow to the size we expected. During our first few seasons of gardening we spent more time weeding than anything else. Over time we learned what most successful gardeners know: building soil is what gardening is all about. With hopes of sparing you the mistakes we made, here are some tips for building productive soil for your garden beds and planters. 1. We purchased a half-dumptruck load of soil to develop a perennial bed for blueberries. 2. It is common that new gardens do well in the first year, even without additional soil inputs. After one or two crops have been grown in a garden bed, we plant a ‘green manure’ cover crop. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Referencing - The Harvard System Department of Lifelong Learning: Study Skills Series (Download pdf version) Introduction As a student, it is important that you identify in your assessment when you are using the words or ideas of another author. The following guide tells you why you need to use a referencing system, shows you how to insert references in the text of your assignments, and shows you how to compile a reference list. Why you should use a referencing system As a part of an academic community, it is important that you show the reader where you have used someone else’s ideas or words. Plagiarism can have disastrous consequences for students. On a more positive note, referencing is important for reasons other than avoiding plagiarism. Collecting all the details: Accurate referencing In order to have an accurate record of what you have researched and therefore an accurate reference, it is important that you write down the details of your sources as you study. For books, record: For journal articles record: Conclusion
Soil survivor: An interview with urban farming legend Will Allen Will Allen. (Photo by Growing Power.) In his new autobiographical book, The Good Food Revolution: Growing Healthy Food, People, and Communities, we see a different side of MacArthur Genius and urban farmer Will Allen. But The Good Food Revolution is much more than a how-to guide. We spoke with Allen recently about the book, the obstacles it chronicles, last year’s gift from Walmart, and the legacy he hopes to pass on. Q. A. When I was first starting out in urban ag many years ago, I would go and work in communities and people would ask me, “Why are you doing that slave’s work?” Q. A. But I also think young people seeing me — a person of color — involved in growing food has helped many of them want to do what I’m doing. Q. A. Q. A. Growing food is all about the soil — especially when you’re doing organic farming. Q. A. These farms will be necessary in the future because many cities don’t have a lot of land mass. Will Allen on the Colbert Report. Q. A. Q. A.
Composting Techniques for Anyone Compost bins can be made of repurposed materials, like these pallets. Composting doesn’t have to be difficult, nor does it require a strong back, large acreage, livestock waste or expensive bins. Even apartment-dwellers or those with physical limitations can put their kitchen waste to work. The easiest method of using kitchen waste and thin paper goods is to bury them. If digging is out of the question, use your blender. The next step up is cold composting, which is throwing your biodegradable waste into a stationary, closed compost bin. If your compost bin is a tumbler, meaning that the barrel that holds the compost can be externally turned, then you should have hot compost. The next, more difficult type of composting requires a shovel. Then there is the three-bin composting technique, which requires regular turning. Besides being a little taxing on the back, this method of composting, or any open-air method, releases methane into the atmosphere which contributes to global warming.
Composting with Worms An Introduction on The Worlds Best Compost: A Fair Overview This guide of The World's Best Compost is brought to you by FaceLube, your best source for Best Face Moisturizer for Men and the Best Male Grooming kits. While you are here, don't forget to see FaceLube's amazing broad spectrum anti-aging sunscreen and happy customer compliments on Amazon. Video Summary: Learn to compost with worms. Video goes over selecting a container, starting a worm bin, caring and troubleshooting An Introduction on The Worlds Best Compost: A Fair Overview Would you prefer to discover a way to feed your plants in a natural way that might make them the tastiest food you have ever had? The thing that makes soil healthy is extensive amounts of microbial action, which in your own garden can be achieved with the use of colloidal humus compost. An Introduction on The Worlds Best Compost: A FairOverview You could discover the path to dropping excess pounds and improved health through this book.
Recycling by product Products made from a variety of materials can be recycled using a number of processes. Building and construction waste[edit] Aggregates and concrete[edit] Concrete blocks in Germany. Asphalt and tarmac[edit] Asphalt including asphalt shingle can be melted down and in part recycled. Gypsum, plaster and plasterboard products[edit] Because up to 17% of gypsum products are wasted during the manufacturing and installation processes. Bricks[edit] Intact bricks recovered from demolition can be cleaned and re-used. Batteries[edit] Some batteries contain toxic heavy metals, making recycling or proper disposal a high priority. Lead-acid batteries, like those used in automobiles, are relatively easy to recycle and many regions have legislation requiring vendors to accept used products. Biodegradable waste[edit] Kitchen, garden, and other green waste can be recycled into useful material by composting into leaf mold and regular compost. Electronic waste[edit] Electronics disassembly and reclamation[edit]
Redefining Progress - Genuine Progress Indicator How We Measure Progress The GPI starts with the same personal consumption data that the GDP is based on, but then makes some crucial distinctions. It adjusts for factors such as income distribution, adds factors such as the value of household and volunteer work, and subtracts factors such as the costs of crime and pollution. Because the GDP and the GPI are both measured in monetary terms, they can be compared on the same scale. Measurements that make up the GPI include: Income Distribution Both economic theory and common sense tell us that the poor benefit more from a given increase in their income than do the rich. Much of the most important work in society is done in household and community settings: childcare, home repairs, volunteer work, and so on. Crime Crime imposes large economic costs on individuals and society in the form of legal fees, medical expenses, damage to property, and the like. Resource Depletion Pollution Long-Term Environmental Damage Changes in Leisure Time top of page
Screen Compost Now to Make Your Own Seed Compost for Spring If you make a plentiful supply of good compost, you can screen it to remove large particles and be self-sufficient in seedling and potting compost. In the summer months, compost piles work fast. If you can set aside some time before cold weather to screen the amount of compost you will need for seedlings in the spring, you can then have unfrozen compost ready to use when you need it in January or February. Even better, if you put the screened compost into some kind of bin, bed or box in your greenhouse, you can transplant lettuce into it, and the watering to keep the lettuce growing will help the compost organisms to mellow out the compost over the winter. Worm eggs will hatch out, the lettuce roots will make air channels throughout the bin, and you can harvest the lettuce before you need to sow seedlings. Making Compost Screens There are two basic styles of compost screen. To make a flat compost screen, cut two sets of battens and make two frames that will sit on top of a wheelbarrow.
Garden compost making. How To Compost With A Compost Pile - Pictures And Description Custom Search When you think of garden compost - what comes to mind? Warm sunny days spent planting a vegetable garden... only to be spoilt by having to plunge your gardening fork into a smelly mass of slimey, rotting vegetable matter. Well, if that is your experience, you're just not making compost correctly. Vegetable gardening and garden compost making are like Laurel and Hardy or Morcombe and Wise - I added the second pair because they`re more my era and I don't want you thinking I'm that old... get my drift! Garden Compost - Getting Started It is tidier to make your compost pile in a bin or compost container. Locate your compost bin in a sheltered, level area of the garden - where there is good drainage and access if it is possible. Garden Compost - How/Where To Use Garden Compost Your compost can be used at any time of the year but for maximum impact it should be applied to the existing soil in the autumn or spring. How Do You Make Garden Compost? How To Make A Compost Pile Home Page
Mass Production | EBSCO Sustainability Lean manufacturing is a business tool designed to eliminate waste at every stage of the production process. Most companies misuse their resources in ways that are not immediately obvious. The waste might be in the form of equipment that is not in top working condition or employees that do not have what they need to perform their jobs most effectively. Using lean manufacturing principles, companies first identify their sources of waste and then redesign their processes to eliminate them. Toyota pioneered lean manufacturing with the Toyota Production System. The concept of lean thinking exploded in 1990 with the release of The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production by James T. Given the series of recalls recently announced by Toyota, lean manufacturing is under some scrutiny. For a free trial of EBSCO Sustainability Watch click here. Read Full Post »
Easy Lean-To Makeover: Our New Coop We needed a new coop. Our flock had just continued to grow over the last few years but, sadly, our coop hadn't. I love the little coop that I built three years ago for our original six chickens, but it was now literally bursting at the seams. I wanted to buy a ready-made coop in the $2,000-3,000 price range...but my husband insisted that I could build one instead for a lot less money. We compromised and I got free rein to convert an old lean-to attached to our barn (and conveniently butting up against the back of our existing run) into a new coop. I know, not too inspiring! Here's how I tackled this lean-to makeover project: First I cleaned out all the junk, cobwebs and miscellany and we made a trip or two to the dump. I realized that the openings under the eaves, front and back, would make for excellent ventilation so I covered them with 1/2" hardware cloth to keep predators out instead of boarding them up. Furring strips around the edges secured the floor to the walls. Cost of our New Coop
Build a Worm Tower To Spread Compost Over Your Garden A worm tower not only enables worms do their work at composting, but it also helps them spread out and distribute the compost in your tank garden. This is such a low maintenance way of keeping nutrients cycling in your garden, and easy to put together. All you'll need is a 3 or 4 foot piece of PVC piping (or a 12" concrete pipe) and a flower pot. According to Ecofilms, be sure to use a food grade PVC pipe to avoid any chemical contamination - and the concrete pipe often works best. Once you've got your pipe, the next step is to bury the tower half way down in your garden with half of the pipe sticking out the top. Then, add some manure, compost worms (it's important to use compost worms), and secure with a flower pot lid. via Eco Films
Practical self sufficiency through food skills.