Worm Composting

Worm Composting: "How does worm composting differ from traditional composting?

Like traditional composting methods, worm composting (sometimes called vermiculture) is a way of recycling food and other organic material into a dark, earthy material called compost that can be used to enrich the soil. The largest advantage of worm composting is that it can be done both indoors and outdoors, affording apartment dwellers and others the opportunity participate in a valuable recycling effort.
How do I go about setting up a vermiculture system?

There are three main concerns when starting a vermiculture system - the container, the bedding, and the worms."

Tips To Really Get Your Compost Heap Cooking - Gardening Articles

Tips To Really Get Your Compost Heap Cooking - Gardening Articles: "
1. Turn your heap over, exposing it to air, watering if dry.
2. If your heap dries out it will stop breaking down. Water the heap every few days in summer if conditions are hot and dry.
3. Add ingredients that are as small as possible. Use a shredder, mulcher or lawn mower to chop up larger ingredients such as prunings and larger leaves.
4. To speed up the composting process add lots of nitrogen-rich ingredients such as clover, manure laden straws, herbal activators (see below), washed sea-weed or fishmeal.

Herbal Compost Activators - some herbs are well known as particularly impressive compost activators. Add them to your heap to speed up your results.

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) is rich in calcium, nitrogen, phosphates and potassium. It has large hairy leaves that break down very quickly.

Dandelion (Taraxacum sp) also accelerates the breaking down of materials in the heap. It is rich in copper, potash and iron, all valuable goodies in your compost.

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) has a reputation for attracting earthworms to the compost heap. It's leaves are also rich in minerals.

Yarrow (Achillea sp) can have the most dramatic effect in your heap, even in small amounts. It will enrich your compost with nitrates, potash, phosphares and copper, so is a very valuable addition.

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) has the ability to concentrate potassium from the soil where it grows. Adding Tansy to your compost means adding potassium.

If you have the room, it's best to have two or more compost piles on the go. One that you are preparing by gathering materials, one that is semi-matured and one that has already turned into that gorgeous, black, earthy plant tonic - ready to use.
One more tip is to make sure air can get to the middle of your heap, especially if you don't plan to turn it often. Place garden stakes or pvc pipes through the middle of your heap so that you can 'jiggle' them every few weeks allowing air to the centre.
Try some of these tips and I'm sure you will speed things up for your compost heap and you will be topdressing your veggies with your own compost in no time. "

How to speed up your compost heap.

How to speed up your compost heap.: "Compost piles must hold a minimum of organic material before they will maintain rapid decomposition.
So the pile should be at least 3-feet-by-3-feet and 4-feet tall. Naturally piles can be larger.
Moving leaves to the pile, then chopping them up with a lawn mower or leaf shredder before they go on the pile aids composting considerably, as small particles decompose faster than large ones.

There are other things we can do to accelerate composting and make it more efficient.
As slightly wet leaves decompose quicker than dry ones and rain may not penetrate the pile center, I'd dampen dry leaves before adding them. Ground limestone may also be scattered in if we add a bunch of oak leaves and we're concerned about the acidity they may generate in our pile. Scatter about a pound of lime for every five leaf layers. But do not use lime if your compost will be given to acid loving plants such as mountain laurel, blueberries, azaleas, rhododendrons and potatoes.
Adding lime to compost is an option rather than mandatory. "

How to Compost Autumn Leaves | eHow.com

How to Compost Autumn Leaves | eHow.com: "In order to have an efficient compost pile the ratio of brown (dried leaves, etc.) material to green (fresh mown grass, etc.) material should be around 50/50. I start a new compost pile in the fall just for leaves and end-of-the-season grass. The brown and green material is layered with a little garden dirt and watered if need be, and turned every time I add new material--about once a week. When I have far more brown material than green, I get lawn clippings from the neighbors (they think I'm nuts), but I always have the best compost on the block.

My old compost pile is made of material I have collected all spring and summer with the addition of kitchen scrapes. Again, no meat, fat or milk products of any kind. I made three wire bins which enables me to fork each pile into an empty bin (much easier and efficient than 'turning'). During the winter I cover the piles with a tarp t"

Composting: I’m A Leaf Thief And A Composting King

Composting: I’m A Leaf Thief And A Composting King: "I’m A Leaf Thief And A Composting King
By Anthony Tripodi

Every autumn, home owners rake up their leaves, place them in bags and put them out on the curb. Every autumn I gas up my mini-van, drive around my neighborhood and steal them. I’m a skilled leaf thief and can usually fill the van two or three times in a weekend. Unlike regular thieves, I don’t fence the goods on the black market because the leaves are more valuable to me and to my garden. Leaves are a great ingredient for making compost and gardeners can’t get enough of them.

A person becomes a leaf thief because you can only produce so much yard waste on your own. You rake up your leaves, mow your lawn, clean up your flower and vegetable beds and it just isn’t enough yard waste to make compost for a moderate sized garden. Remember that after it’s decomposed it’ll be a lot smaller. So when I see people throwing out this excellent garden resource I have to take the law into my own hands."

BBC NEWS | England | Leicestershire | Machine turns zoo poo to compost

BBC NEWS | England | Leicestershire | Machine turns zoo poo to compost: "A zoo has invested in a £150,000 machine to turn into compost the manure produced every year by its animals.

Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire has about 1,000 mammals, birds and reptiles which produce about 800 tonnes of waste each year.

The Hotrot in-vessel composting system converts waste into compost in just more than two weeks.

The zoo plans to use the compost on its flower beds and to help grow crops which would be fed to its animals.

Buying the machine means that Twycross will no longer have to send waste to landfill.

Keepers said the attraction's elephants were the biggest contributors to the process.

Zoo conservation officer Claire Pipes said: 'We buy the food, feed it to the animals and it comes out at the other end.

'We collect it up, compost it, grow stuff for the animals which then goes back into their mouths."

HotRot in vessel composting systems, UK

HotRot in vessel composting systems, UK: "Organic waste is often disposed of to landfill, where it takes up space and contributes to problematic leachate and methane gas emissions. Landfill in the UK and Ireland is becoming increasingly expensive and unacceptable, with EU legislation restricting diposal of organic waste via this process.

HotRot's unique odour-free in-vessel composting system offers large scale composting solutions to a wide array of globally relevant issues:

* Large scale composting
* Municipal waste composting
* Food waste composting
* Composting of animal by-products (ABPR)
* Treatment of sewage residuals
* Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (generating carbon credits)

Organic waste is a potential resource of both nutrients and organic matter that can be used as a compost to replenish soils under pressure from traditional agriculture. Composting offers a method of biological stabilisation that eliminates odours and pathogens and renders a product that is safe and pleasant to use."

The Science of Composting - Sustainable Gardening Australia

The Science of Composting - Sustainable Gardening Australia: "What on earth is the Carbon/Nitrogen Ratio?

Good compost is a balance of different ingredients, but essentially it comes down to the all important, but oft misunderstood, carbon/nitrogen ratio. So, what's it all about? Well, let's call carbon 'Brown', and nitrogen 'Green'. We need a good balance of brown to green, generally 30 brown to 1 green. Sounds complicated I know... but it's not.

Brown materials include things like paper (the shredded Sunday paper minus the super glossy magazine bit is perfect), sawdust (from untreated timber only), dried leaves and oaten hay. Green materials are things high in nitrogen, including lawn clippings, fresh manures (cow, sheep and chook only!), vegetable scraps and (shudder) urine.

Now, I reckon the best way to get this right is to add one bucket of 'Browns' for every bucket of 'Greens'. So, when I lob my bucket of silverbeet into the compost heap, I also whack in a bucket of shredded newspaper (I find the Herald Sun the best... because I quite enjoy ripping it up!). Because of the different make up of these products, it gets the C/N ratio just right!"

How to make garden compost to gladden the hearts of a worm 1

How to make garden compost to gladden the hearts of a worm 1: "Look at making compost in a different way. Your compost heap is a large bacterial and fungal culture. What you should aim to do is keep these microbes as happy and plentiful as possible. It is bacteria and fungi more than anything that break the plant material on your compost heap down.

If you've ever made yogurt, then the principles are the same,

good starting material + correct bacteria + correct conditions = pleasant end product

What you need to do to obtain nice, dark brown, crumbly compost is to keep happy a varied community of bacteria and fungi. Horrible slimy, smelly stuff that takes forever to break down is a result of too much of one or a few kinds of decomposer or having poor conditions for them to grow in."

How to make garden compost to gladden the hearts of a worm 1

How to make garden compost to gladden the hearts of a worm 1: "Garden compost is wonderful stuff and a joy to behold, it improves the texture of just about any soil it is added to. If you're a plant, compost added to soil is like a nice clean flannelette sheet and duvet cover on your bed just as it's getting cold in winter. - It's like having ice, lemon and a cherry in your gin and tonic instead of it being served on its own and warm - it's like finding that there's butter and a choice of jams and marmalade after a week of dry toast for breakfast."

Composting Tips - BAAG

Composting Tips - BAAG: "As most of us are well aware, compost is a fantastic supplement to every garden. As an addition to existing soil, compost will add nutrients, but its main advantage is that of improving soil structure. As a result, compost should be viewed as a soil conditioner, rather than a straight fertiliser. 'Healthy soil means healthy plants', so using compost to improve the soil is better than just adding fertilisers to get plants going. Compost adds body and water holding capacity to sandy soils; and opens up clay soils, especially when added in conjunction with gypsum."

Build a Compost Heap | Healthy and Green Living

Build a Compost Heap | Healthy and Green Living: "Pick a site near the garden so the finished compost will be
close at hand. Whenever possible, place the heap under the
branches of a deciduous tree so there will be shade in hot
weather and sunlight to thaw the heap in spring. A site
near the kitchen makes it convenient to add kitchen scraps.
Access to a hose is handy for those times when the heap
needs extra moisture. If the site is uphill from the garden,
the heavy work of wheelbarrowing loads of compost will have
gravity on its side."