Sustainability tip of the Week 4

Composting

The rewards of making soil

• Reduce your waste that you are sending to the landfill
• Turn trash into treasure!!
• The most efficient form of recycling
• Create nutrient rich, organic fertilizer for your garden and yard 
• Build the diversity of your topsoil insects and detritivores

If you are going to be planting in your yard or are planning a garden, it's important to start making your own soil. Mollie and I have been composting since we moved into Snuggle Acres and it is one of the most rewarding tasks. We keep a small compost container on our kitchen counter to fill with our veggie scraps when preparing meals. 

Black Gold

We place most of our yard scraps in the compost. We do not place invasive weeds in the compost, but we still have thousands of morning glory seeds that find their way into the heap and back into the garden.  There is a saying that goes, "One year seeding is seven year's of weeding".  Home-compost heaps do not get hot enough to kill seeds (you'll read about Seymor later!). It is important to keep turning your piles to make sure your decomposers are spread throughout your piles. We have three bays to place larger sticks and items that may take longer and the other two piles we flip into each other in order to collect the soil at the bottom. It is important that your piles get wet, therefore if you go through a long dry spell it helps to go out and wet the piles down with the hose or collected rainwater off your roof. 

When you start getting rich soil place several shovel scoops in your plant holes when you  are adding a new plant or shrub in your yard. Spread as much as you can in your beds in your garden. I always mix in about a have a small wheel barrow in a bed before we plant something new in an area. 

If you have concerns about pests, dogs, birds, ect. There are many types of barrel style composters that you can buy or build. 

Seymore the pumpkin

This year we have a special guest in one of our piles. A huge pumpkin, that we have named Seymor, (From Little Shop of Horrors) He is slowly taking over everywhere behind the shop. It is going to be exciting to have several big pumpkins and we haven't had to do any additional work.