In our house, we are lucky enough to have a kitchen that has a window directly over the sink that heads to the backyard. So we just toss all out kitchen scraps right out the window directly into the compost pile.
If you make your own compost, you know its always fun to get rid of the kitchen scraps.
There are so many ways to get all those leftover banana peels turned into the nutrient rich compost that adds value to the soil. For starters, keep your grass clippings (im talking to those of you who do not add any pesticides or herbacides to their lawn) and throw them into the compost pile or toss them on top of some newspaper around your plants to use as a mulch.
Build your compost pile with all the organic material you can find. But there are a few things to note about making compost.
1. If you add seeds to your compost you will get surprises! I can vauge that too many squash seeds in the compost heap will most certainly sprout many MANY squash seeds the next year. We let it grow and boy did it flourish, and with many varieties of squash, some hybrids it seemed.
2. No bones, or animal flesh. I dont know why, but I dont do it.
3. Try and get a balance of green material (grass clippings) , brown material (mulched leaves and tree bark) , and kitchen scraps.
4. The amount of compost you get 6 months down the line of so will be a third or so of the size it started as, but it will be so full of nutrients for the upcoming crops and full of beneficial soil micro-organisms.
5. Keep your compost moist to ensure there is enough heat to maintain optimal conditions for matrial breakdown.
6. Dig around somewhere moist and fertile and get some earthworms. Introduce them to the compost pile and they will reproduce and work their magic as only earthworms can do.
7. Don’t add citrus peels to the compost. Im guessing its because they are too acidic. But I throw them under the pne trees (which love acidity) and hope they are doing good over there.
This article about compost will be updated periodically as helpful information becomes available.
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7 responses so far ↓
1 Prepping for Garlic | Long Island Gardening Community Resource Prepping for Garlic // Nov 2, 2007 at 8:03 pm
[...] the garlic. I just wanted to loosen up the gound a bit so I can work in some organic matter and home-made compost.  Because I heard that garlic likes to breathe, I worked in a bit of the straw that I had [...]
2 Welcome 2008 - Planning This Years Garden | Long Island Gardening Community Resource Welcome 2008 - Planning This Years Garden // Jan 23, 2008 at 11:07 am
[...] if you can. I am certainly guilty of not testing the soil. I figure if I keep adding my amazing home-made compost I don’t need to, but really I think I should. Also I can get it done for free because I [...]
3 Garden Preparation- Things To Think About- Some Basics | Long Island Gardening Community Resource Garden Preparation- Things To Think About- Some Basics // Jan 23, 2008 at 11:30 am
[...] if you can. I am certainly guilty of not testing the soil. I figure if I keep adding my amazing home-made compost I don’t need to, but really I think I should. Also I can get it done for free because I have [...]
4 tangela // Nov 24, 2008 at 1:03 am
about that compost…i have a compost structure in my backyard …3 years ago when my family (a husband and 2 adolescent sons) asked me what i wanted for christmas i surprised even myself by saying a compost thing..somewhere i can recycle all my scraps and then use my beautiful wonderful smelling worm loving soil for tomato plants, etc.but i find that i am really the only one who obsessively guards the scraps,even slapping the hands of our guests as they innocently place apple peelings into the garbage can. i can’t help myself. i stop at starbucks and pick up their beautifully packaged coffee grinds they save for me..and purposely leave them in the car for extra days for aromic pleasure-then carefully tear open the silver packaging and so enjoy pitching it into the compost, imagining all the lives of people the coffees were made for, just as i imagine the egg shells recycling into my soil becoming one day the soil of another mother or son or sister lovingly composting for the next generation…maybe i need to shut up and go to bed
5 admin // Nov 26, 2008 at 12:21 am
nice tangela! glad to hear you are having fun with compost. i feel it is a calling in my life – to compost, as strange as that sounds.
6 tangela // Nov 26, 2008 at 6:53 pm
yes, i know what you mean and it does not sound strange to me, as stange as that may sound…for me it represents hope and immortality, with which i am drawn to b/c of death thoughts that creep in during the day…trying to crush my fun ….composting changes all that…do you hint a bit of jealousy? ever wish you were an egg shell?
7 Stop Getting Phone Books, its 2009. | Long Island Gardening Community Resource Stop Getting Phone Books, its 2009. // Mar 10, 2009 at 4:44 am
[...] I look out my window about 4 times a year to see large yellow pages books in plastic bags thrown onto my lawn. I just let them sit there for about, ohhh, two months or so to see what will happen. They get a bit moldy and soggy and I’m sure if I left em there long enough they would become compost. [...]
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