Compost in Your Backyard
How to Compost in Your Backyard. The idea is as simple as the execution: Put a few worms in a worm box, then proceed to feed them table scraps (no dairy, fat or meat).In a couple of weeks, drain off the excess liquid for a powerful fertilizer. Or, wait a couple of months, and use the new soil created by the composted material in your garden. Worms are also good in the garden, because their excrement is high in nitrogen, plus they aerate soil by tunneling. That improves tilth and allows water and air to get to plants' roots. How to Make a Worm Bin.1 Get a big plastic tub (not see-through) with a lid.Shoot for a tub 30 gallons or larger. 2 Drill holes along the sides. You'll want these to be about 1/4 inch from the bottom for drainage. Poke some air holes near the top. 3 Put in about a 4-inch layer of shredded newspapers. Spray the papers with water until they are damp but not soggy. 4 Add about three or four handfuls of garden soil. 5 Mix in about 1 cup of chopped food scraps. Chopped foods decompose faster than bigger pieces. 6 Now add the worms. Red wigglers are the best. You can usually buy them at garden centers. (Don't use nightcrawlers, the worms sold for bait.) 7 Add more table scraps weekly. Keep the soil moist but not wet. (If it starts to smell, it's too wet.) To keep flies from laying eggs on them, be sure to cover scraps with soil. Also add more paper or yard scraps each week. 8 Store your worm-and-food-scraps bin in a shady place. A basement or a garage work well for this purpose. When you're ready to add the final organic product to your garden, separate the worms out first so they can continue to compost for you. The easiest way is to spread the contents of the box on a plastic garbage bag on the driveway on a sunny day. Cover half the soil with a box to shade it. The worms will crawl to the shady part. (Because your box is sitting on lumpy soil there are small raised areas for the worms to, well, worm their way out.) Get more great ideas on composting at Savor the Rhubarb.com. Ready to get started composting? Here are a few items you might need:  Custom Search Prefer to Compost Without Worms? Here's How to Make It Happen
|
Go Bare: Bareroot Roses
Go bare this winter by planting the venerable bareroot roses. Here's
how to plant bareroot roses
this winter.
Making Compost Happen
Here's how to make
compost happen
in your backyard.
Bad Bugs: Know
The Dirty Dozen
This dirty dozen bad bugs are the guys you don't want hanging around your plants this winter. Here are the
the bad guys you'll want to send packing this winter.