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  Composting

  In "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Saving the Environment", a chapter is discussed on composting. I'm learning now, and I'm committing to the process. Has anyone else out there tried it? Are you doing it now? Got any tips?

  Jacks started this discussion 1 year ago. ( reply )

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  Cathy B 

  I composted in the basement once. Took a large metal trashcan and put little nailsized holes in the bottom and set it atop a tub. Put kitchen scraps inside that had been pulverized in the blender with some water. The juice went down into the tub. After a few months, I watered the house plants with the juice and they looked really perky for about 30 minutes. Then they collapsed in dead heaps. All of my carefully grown from cuttings for several years plants. But I think they died happy. My advice is to dilute the compost juice before using it.

  posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

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    Katydid 

    Maybe some metals leached out of the aluminum garbage can into the juice and poisoned your plants. I know that cooking acidic foods in aluminum pots is a bad idea if you plan to let the food sit for a while (like tomato soups/sauces that simmer slowly). Was the bottom of the trashcan sitting in the juice?

    posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

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    Cathy B 

    I hadn't thought of that! Poor plants.

    posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

• Sharon Fawcett 

  I have composted before in a heavy plastic bin that stood outside. I had to "stir" the scraps around to aerate the pile and then dig/scoop the compost out from a hole in the bottom. It was kind of awkward. This year I'm starting a vegetable garden again and buying a new compost bin. This one looks much easier. It's round and you turn the whole bin with a handle. You can even put biodegradable garbage bags in it and they are decomposed in 4 weeks I think. The compost is much easier to access and compost tea is collected in the bottom of the bin/contraption. This tea is a natural pesticide and great nourishment for plants.
  
  Now, I just need some tips for keeping the deer away from my precious veggies!!! They are very brazen in these parts.
  
  

  posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

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  Jacks 

  It's so great you guys are giving it a try. I'm doing the awkward "hole in the bottom" bin this year because I'm using what I had on hand while I'm still figuring it out. Now with Tennessee's new cold snap, I'm worried all the worms I put inside it are going to die (I just used the ones I found as I cleaned up yard waste).
  

  posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

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    FlowerFly 

    The garden area at our house has been neglected for at least a decade. I have just started composting to, hopefully, build up our soil so we can have some good growth next year.
    Here is a good extension pub: http://www.ag.uidaho.edu/mg/publications/CIS1066.pdf
    Next spring we will get chickens so they can eat some of our household scrap and we can have fresh eggs!

    posted 1 year ago. ( reply )

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