Composting - Organic Gardening
Jun
28
Posted by Adina
My garden grows beautifully. All I do is feed the soil with lots of organic wastes. I don’t dig, I don’t worry, I don’t fertilize plants and I don’t spray plants. All in all I would say that growing the No Till No Dig Way is an easier, more successful way to nurture a food garden.
Tags: Composting, Fungal Hyphae, Growing Organic Vegetables, Mycorrizae, No Dig Garden, No Till Gardening, Phosphorus Solubilizing Bacteria, Plant nutrients, Soil Organisms, Soil Tilth
Jan
02
Posted by Adina
The conventional approach to composting is that we should turn our compost piles. I have already discarded the conventional approach to gardening: I won’t turn the soil. It occurs to me that it is past time to re-examine my approach to composting.
Tags: Compost, Composting, No Dig Garden, No Till Gardening, Soil Organisms, The Compost Pile
Dec
30
Posted by Adina
The first thing a person wants to do when they decide to start composting is to keep their kitchen garbage out of the landfill. It is a noble purpose for sure, and kitchen garbage is an excellent addition to any compost pile. If you have grown up in the garden you will know the smell of properly working compost and what goes into it to achieve balance. If you haven’t done this before it takes just a little information and some practice, and you will be making nice compost in no time.
Tags: Balanced Compost PIles, Compost, Composting, Microbes in the Compost, Smelly Compost, The Compost Pile
Aug
17
Posted by Adina
Photos by Nan and Adina Heathcote Botanical Garden recently decided to create a community garden. I was fortunate to be at the first meeting about a year ago, and I was able to get involved with this project at the beginning. This community garden is currently focused on growing for a Sarah’s Kitchen in Port Continue reading →
Tags: Community Garden, Compost, Composting, Grow Food At Home, Growing Organic Vegetables, Heathcote Botanical Garden, Home Grown Vegetables, No Dig Garden, No Till Gardening, South Florida Vegetable Gardens
Jun
21
Posted by Adina
After I wrote the article Garden Pests: Nematodes I received a comment from Naomi. She wrote “Wow, mind boggling how many things can go wrong in a vegetable garden!” Her comment made me realize that I did not bring home the point of my article very well. While there are lots of potential problems [...]
Tags: backyard ecosystems, Balance In The Organic Garden, Composting, Grow Food At Home, Growing Organic Vegetables, Home Garden, No Till Gardening, organic insect control, South Florida Vegetable Gardens
May
19
Posted by Adina
To grow in an organic manner in such a way as to decrease the cost of your inputs, increase the health and disease resistance in the garden, and increase garden yields, a grower must focus on the soil. This focus must be on maintaining optimum populations of the microbes and the invertebrates that are present in healthy soils.
Tags: Composting, Growing Organic Vegetables, Microbes and Invertebrates of the Soil, No Dig Garden, No Till Gardening, Soil Food Web, Soil Organisms, South Florida Vegetable Gardens, Sustainability
Dec
15
Posted by Adina
Composted Cow Manure is an excellent garden amendment. In the garden we focus on the soil a great deal. We work to make great compost, and if it goes in your garden the way it goes in mine you will run out of your home made compost before your compost needs are met. Composted Cow Continue reading →
Tags: composted cow manure, Composting, No Dig Garden, Preparing for Planting
Jul
07
Posted by Adina
All joking aside this world was made to regenerate itself. When trees and plants drop their leaves on the ground they set in motion the cycle of decomposition that makes it possible for life to go on. Raking up leaves from the ground on your land is a shame. Bagging them to be taken off property is a crime. When you pick up your neighbors’ leaves from the curb you are doing your part to erase that crime.
Now go fight crime.
Tags: Composting, The Compost Pile
Jul
01
Posted by Adina
Eventually when I speak to people about their compost piles and bins the inquiry turns to earthworms, and whether they should *buy worms to add to their compost piles. I always say “Put your compost on the ground, and the earth worms will come.”. That, it seems, has always been true for me, or has Continue reading →
Tags: Composting, Earthworms, Manure
Aug
24
Posted by Adina
This is an excellent article from the Cornell Waste Management Web Site. I don’t know about you, but it makes me want to run right out and see how many of these invertebrates I can find in my compost heap. Invertebrates of the Compost Pile Written by Nancy Trautmann, Cornell Center for the [...]
Tags: Composting
