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A Garden Perpetually Bursting With Life

This article will show you how you can start to have such a garden full of edible plants with only 8 to 10 hours of work per YEAR, no digging, fertilizers or pesticides.

Now is just the right time of the year for people living in the northern hemisphere to start preparing to have their own organic vegetables on the table coming spring. That is a start to becoming self-sufficient, which by the way, is the only way to weather an economic slump; and it's common knowledge that organic food improves overall health. When you are healthy, you don't have medical bills to pay. That's another big saving, apart from saving on your food expenses.

The secret for a nonstop growing vegetable garden like this is first of all the soil. If you inspect the soil in natural woodlands, you'll see it's moist, loose and crumbly. You want to have this kind of soil for your garden to have it perpetually bursting with life. If you cannot collect it straight from the woods, you somehow need to produce it yourself. This actually is very easy and real cheap. You need to have constant supply of compost, which doesn't take much effort or a big investment to produce yourself.

You can start right now with composting.

Compost is the best and cheapest soil conditioner you can get. You don't have to buy compost unless you want to start your ecologically sustainable vegetable garden immediately.

First get two composting bins at a hardware store, preferably those you turn, or take any old containers with a lid and poke some drainage holes into them.

Use one for the breaking down of the materials, the other to fill with the broken down material. Also buy some manure if you don't have access to stables, dairies or chicken farms

Then start collecting all organic material that you normally throw into the waste. Organic material is anything that is or was once living or came from a living thing such as: fresh and dry grass clippings, kitchen scraps, shredded newspaper and leaves. Even meat that's gone bad, can be composted, although it takes longer to decay.

Thirdly: put the organic material into the compost bin in about 6 inches thick layers, varying the different materials. During dry spells you may have to moisten your breaking down materials, otherwise you just leave it to break down for 4 to 6 weeks, turning everything once or twice. That's it, real easy to make your own compost. Once it's ready, use it as top layer in your vegetable garden; don't dig it in.

Summing up this article:

Once you have soil like in natural woodlands, organic vegetables and fruit can be grown perpetually right through the year without any digging or weeding, since weeds don't like compost. A rich soil also does not need to be watered as much as poor soil. Composting is the start for ecologically sustainable gardening.

By implementing your own vegetable garden you not only advance your health, but can save a bucket full of cash on a monthly basis.
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Ecologically Sustainable Gardening

Hanne-L du Plessis has implemented her organic vegetable garden successfully in Namibia, a semi-desert country, to improve her own health and supply a balanced, organic diet to 35 exotic parrots. Her vision is self-sufficiency and living in harmony with nature. She was actively involved in Nature Conservation before retirement. Now she does her little part to save endangered species from extinction, provide a safe home for unwanted pets and teach the poor to become self-sufficient.

For a Healthy Garden Start a Composter Program

Composting is really just a way of giving back to the soil or mother nature as it were what it has given you. There is a cycle that things go through in order to grow. Making sure that the soil is healthy is the beginning of a good garden.

A compost program is good for the planet because it cuts down on the amount of waste that is sent off to the landfill. It is amazing to watch things that were once considered refuse to be recycled and put to good use.

Compost has many other functions besides just being good fertilizer for the earth. It also acts as a soil conditioner, a mulching agent Soil that has the proper amount of compost retains moisture better and that is beneficial for the plants.

Composting is a very old strategy and is practiced all over the globe. It is used on a large scale for farms but backyard gardeners can benefit from the effects also.

Every day materials that you gather together from your home and parts of your yard will be converted into a black substance, somewhat fragrant, and crumbly. This will become the compost material.

The materials in soil bacteria and fungi can survive and multiply as they break down. The bacteria is the key to a good compost. The bacteria will act as a converter for all the other materials so they need to be in a proper environment.

To begin a compost program gather as much of the green and dry elements as you can from around your garden. Collect grass clippings and green weeds, they have a lot of sugar elements and protein and will decompose rapidly.

Leaves should be added to the greens when they are decomposing. This type of material takes a long time to break down as they have little nitrogen.

You do not need to be a pro to start a compost program. All you really need is a love of nature and a desire to learn.

S W Allen
Kitchen Composter Blog
http://www.kitchencomposterblog.com/

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Todays enlightened gardener recognizes composting as a simple, efficient way to create nutrient-rich soil for plants and reduce waste. Made of 100% recycled plastic, our simple-to-use bin traps solar heat to accelerate the production of compost. The Garden Composter includes adjustable air vents, easy-open hinged lid for adding materials and sliding bottom door for compost removal. It snaps together in minutes without using tools and includes a guide to successful backyard composting. 40" High, 23" Wide, 10.2 cubic ft capacity. This composter also has a five-year manufacturers warranty. Made in the USA.

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Adjustable air vents

Easy open lid snaps shut so nothing tumbles out

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Includes a user guide and tips for successful first time, every time composting

Everything comes in one convenient recycled corrugated box which can be composted. Just shred the box and include it with your browns.

Use & Care:
The Garden Composter is shipped unassembled. Snap-together assembly requires no tools.

Remove the drum from its shipping position. Snap the cradle into the drum bearings (big end first). Install the shaft and handle. Put 4" bearing end in place. Secure the drum in place by installing the drum cap. Put optional rollers in place.

Natural compost should be central to your eco-responsible garden. A significant portion of the variety of nutrients that your garden loves is generated right in your kitchen. Many different kinds of kitchen waste can be very beneficial to your garden soil, once the waste has broken down. The Garden Composter from Gaiam is made from 100% recycled materials. Its practical, easy to use and keeps your raw composting material tidy and odor-free.

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The Compost Specialist: The Essential Guide to Creating and Using Garden Compost, and Using Potting and Seed Composts (Specialist Series)

In our ecologically aware times, composting is one smart way to minimize our carbon footprint and help the earth. This new entry in the highly successful Specialist series gives gardeners all the guidance they need to start making, storing, and using their own compost. It offers Information on different types of compost and their ingredients, advice on constructing a compost bin, and detailed explanations of wormeries, green manuring, and seed and potting composts. There’s no better or easier-to-follow guide for the eco-smart gardener!

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Composting Recycles Vegetable Garden Wastes

To make next year's vegetable garden even better than this year we have a few chores to do in the fall. If you take care of things at the end of the growing season, you'll have less disease to worry about and starting off next year will be easier. When the tomato plants stop flowering and when their foliage turns brown, they're done. This is the time to harvest the last tomatoes and dig out the dying plants. Hopefully, all your hard work paid off in abundant and tasty fruits. But what do you do with the leftover plant parts?

The old foliage and bad fruits can be burned, especially if disease is suspected. Do your tomatoes have an off-color? Maybe they're black or just spotted with black. Are they rotting on the vine? Do the leaves have a mottled look or are they spotted with brown or black dots? In any case burning the old foliage from your garden at the end of the growing season is one remedy for starting disease-free in the spring. Viruses and bacteria and all kinds of blight problems can be taken care of by burning the dying vegetation.

Of course, some neighborhoods won't allow burning and sometimes it's just not practical, so instead try composting. Compost temperatures can get high enough to kill disease-causing bugs. Many closed system compost bins are available on the market in case you don't have room for a great pile of decaying leaves and garden wastes. These tumbler-type bins really speed up the composting time and as an added bonus they keep the smells inside.

The worst way of getting rid of garden vegetation is to bag it up and place it at the curb for trash pickup. Does that stuff in the bag go into a landfill? What a waste of time and effort, not to mention petroleum products in the bags and to fuel the trash pickup truck. Why waste all those good nutrients? With all the money spent on plastic trash bags and trash pickup fees, one could easily save up for a compost bin.

Compost has been called black gold because it is so valuable to the vegetable plants in your garden. If you haven't tried composting your vegetable garden wastes, please give it a try. You'll be surprised at the results and you'll be helping to reduce your dependence on petroleum, too. Once you set up a composting system you can use it all season long to take care of kitchen scraps, plant trimmings, yard waste and leftovers from the garden.

Be kind to the environment by composting your garden wastes. Instead of putting those excess nutrients in a landfill where they will likely never be useful again, help nature out by recycling those old plants into compost. Blending compost into your garden soil will add nutrients and boost the fertility of your soil for next year's garden.

Mary Petersen is an organic gardener who loves to grow vegetables and flowers right in the front yard. While tending her garden Mary can be seen using her http://bestcompactbinoculars.com/ to look at butterflies and other cool insects. Visit her latest gardening adventure at http://usethatherb.com/ and learn about using herbs.

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Composting To A Successful Garden

Have you ever had really great soil for gardening around your house? Few do. In my case, the clay-like soil prevented good water drainage and was difficult for cultivating new plants. At other times the sand content was too high, providing the opposite problem - water retention. Additionally, a proper soil nutrient for great plants was missing. One could replace all the soil - a very expensive time consuming process, build raised beds or work to improve existing conditions. To do this, composting is the answer.

Composting is the decomposition of plant remains and other once-living materials to make an earthy, dark, crumbly substance that is excellent for adding to houseplants or enriching garden soil. It is a great way to help the environment. Composting is nature's process of recycling decomposed organic materials into a rich soil known as compost.

Composting is a lot like cooking, and the easiest compost recipe calls for blending parts of green or wet material, high in nitrogen and brown or dry material, high in carbon.

Materials - Materials that are excellent for composting are kitchen waste, like coffee grounds, wastes, things you might throw down the garbage disposal. Meat, bones, eggs, cheese, fats and oils are not recommended for backyard composting because they attract animals. Composting materials are divided into two types, green and brown. Green materials include green leafy plant residues like weeds, grass clippings, vegetable tops and flower clippings. Brown materials include fall leaves, straw, sawdust, wood chips and shredded newspapers. To speed up decomposition, use two-parts green material to one-part brown material. For best results, mix materials high in nitrogen such as clover, fresh grass clippings, and livestock manure with those high in carbon such as dried leaves.

Compost Bin - First, choose a location for your compost bin. Place the bin at least 20 feet away from the nearest house. Avoid placing the bin against a tree or wooden building; the compost could cause the wood to decay. Bins can be built from scrap lumber, old pallets, snow fence, chicken wire, or concrete blocks. When building a composting bin, such as with chicken wire, scrap wood, or cinder blocks, be sure to leave enough space for air to reach the pile. Usually when building a composting bin, one side is left open or can be opened to facilitate turning the materials. Once your bin is in place, you can begin immediately to fill it with yard wastes and kitchen scraps. While a bin will help contain the pile, it is not absolutely necessary - some prefer to compost in a large open area.

Process - Basically, backyard composting is an acceleration of the same process nature uses. If left alone, these same materials will eventually break down, decompose and produce soil rich materials. Eventually, the rotting leaves are returned to the soil, where living roots can finish the recycling process by reclaiming the nutrients from the decomposed leaves. Home composting provides ideal conditions to greatly reduce the time it takes

Cooking refers to the process where the compost heats up and breaks down, which is necessary before you can use it as soil additive in the garden and on your house plants. The cooking process takes about 4-8 weeks once you stop adding to the bin. Don't be surprised by the heat of the pile or if you see worms, both of which are part of the decomposition process. If you want to accelerate the process, turn it every four days, but more frequently than that is not recommended.

Carbon - Carbon and Nitrogen are the essential elements of a compost pile. Carbon rich materials are referred to as "browns". Carbon-rich, relatively low-nutrient material are slow to decay. The rate at which breakdown occurs depends on several factors - oxygenation, temperature, water content, surface area size, and the carbon to nitrogen ratio Soak high carbon materials with water before composting. Alternate six to eight inch layers of high carbon materials such as leaves and other dry plant debris, with layers of high nitrogen material such as grass clippings, kitchen waste or manure.

Nitrogen - Nitrogen is the most important food nutrient, because a nitrogen shortage drastically slows the composting process. Brown materials composted alone require supplemental nitrogen to feed the decomposing bacteria. Greens are quick to rot and they provide important nitrogen and moisture. Add one-quarter to one-half cup nitrogen fertilizer per bushel of brown material. If you are low on high-nitrogen material, you can add a small amount of commercial fertilizer containing nitrogen. In other words, the ingredients placed in the pile should contain 25 to 30 times as much carbon as nitrogen. Some ingredients with higher nitrogen content are green plant material such as crop residues, hay, grass clippings, animal manures.

Manure - Manure may be used to increase your compost piles nitrogen supply. Animal manure should only be collected from vegetarian animals, such as horses, cows, sheep, poultry, etc. Sheep and cattle manure don't drive the compost heap to as high a temperature as poultry or horse manure, so the heap takes longer to produce the finished product.

Moisture - Moisture and oxygen are important factors in the composting process as both influence temperature. An active compost pile will be warm - frequently between 75 - 85 degrees. Every time you add fresh grass or kitchen waste you add some moisture retention to your compost pile. Moisture is provided by rain, but you may need to water or cover the pile to keep it damp. To test for adequate moisture, reach into your compost pile and grab a handful of material and squeeze it; if a few drops of water come out, it's probably got enough moisture, if it doesn't, add water.

Eliminate Odor - The most common problem is unpleasant, strong odors. To prevent this ensure a good flow of oxygen in the compost, don't overload the pile with food waste so that the food sits around too long, and if the bin contents become too wet add in more dry materials.

Home composting is both fun and easy to do, and does not require large investments of time, money and effort to be successful. Composting is an inexpensive, natural process that transforms your kitchen and garden waste into valuable food for your garden. Composting is a way to reduce the volume of organic wastes and return them to the soil to benefit growing plants. Your garden will love you for it.

Robert Schpok is an avid gardener who has used his gardening skills to greatly enhance his culinary techniques and ability to create great new recipes. Gain valuable gardening [http://www.got-eats.com/gardening.html] insight and make cooking fun at his newest site Got-Eats [http://www.got-eats.com/].

Stone In The Garden

The use of stone in the garden is becoming more popular, pebbles especially with the wide range of shapes and sizes lend them selves well to the home landscape. If you have been thinking about the use of stones in your landscape I have a couple of suggestions on how to incorporate this attractive and durable material into your landscape.

Gravel Drives And Paths
A very attractive walking path or driveway can be made with the use pebbles.The heavier the traffic the more work that is involved. If you are going to receive a lot of use on a drive I suggest excavating down 10 to 12 inches and removing the soil then start with a layer of road fabric followed by a 3? layer of CA6 gravel. Compact the gravel with a vibratory roller then add a 2nd layer of the CA6. Compact this layer as well.Finally one more layer of the base material vibrate and rolled and you are ready for your 2? deep top layer of pebbles. Small pebbles or crushed granite work well the pebbles should be small and irregular shaped and not smooth. Be sure to really roll and vibrate this layer well to make sure you get a hard durable surface for you to drive over.

You will follow basically the same method for a path as the drive above but the excavation need only 6? deep with 2 layers of base 2? deep than the top layer of stone or pebbles. When installing a walk you can also install flagstone or stepping stone and use the gravel around them.

One important thing is a sturdy border to hold in the gravel so that it stays in place. Steel edging is the best it is easy to install and holds up well.

Mulch Your Beds With Pebbles

A great use for pebbles is mulching your planting beds. If done correctly not only will you have very attractive beds but it will reduce the number of weeds that will germinate substantially . The important thing is to level the area after you have prepared the sight and lay down a heavy commercial grade landscape fabric. Once it is place use ground pins to hold it in place. Now you are ready to plant. Lay out the plants and arrange them the way you want them. Pick up each plant one at a time and cut a big x in the fabric , fold the fabric back and install your plant. Now just fold your fabric back around your plants. Once everything is planted use a blower to make sure that there is no soil on top of the fabric. This is the most important step. Once the area is clean spread at least 2? of pebbles over the area. Now you will not only have a beautiful bed but very few weeds will germinate in the pebbles and they few that do can easily be pulled out.

Build A Japanese Garden

Japanese Gardens are tranquil and peaceful retreats. This type of garden relies heavily on the use of rocks plants and water to create a calm environment. Using specific plants and style usually a small garden it is a part of the overall garden plan. These are meant to be a small and secluded area. With a little research I am sure that you can come up with a design that will fit your site. Just remember that these gardens are not overly planted but everything is in balance.

Decorative Pots And Urns

When using decorative pots and urns in the garden you can highlight them and make them stand out by placing them on a base of decorative stone or pebbles. Choose colors that complement the colors of the pot or urn to blend into the surrounding garden. This is also a great way to feature your urns and to call attention by placing stone that contrast the color of the urn thus drawing the eye towards the urn.

Another great idea is to place a large urn on a bed of pebbles and use it as a water feature. There are many urns set up as water features available at most good garden centers that include a small recirculating pump and base to hold the water as well. The sounds of water in a garden lend a feeling of peace and harmony to any garden and if placed close to a bench or seating area invites visitors to stay and enjoy the garden.

When choosing stone or pebbles for your garden be sure to wet them to see what there true color is. Most stone has dust on it due to the way it is handled and packaged. By wetting the stone you will get a true vision of what it will look like once it is installed and washed. You will truly be amazed at the colors that are found in rocks and pebbles and will really get excited over their use and possibilities of decorative in your garden.

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Fall Garden Tasks

Gardening in the fall is a great time to look back on your garden success, but there's still time left for most of us to do some last minute garden maintenance. Fall gardening takes advantage of cooler temperatures and less bugs. Putting the garden to bed isn't nearly as hectic as waking it up in the spring. Here are some tasks to do now, to make next year's garden even better.

1. Enrich garden beds with compost or manure.

2. Collect dried seed from open pollinated flowers & veggies.

3. Clean bird feeders to get them ready for use.

4. Gather herbs, seed heads and flowers for drying.

5. Clean out cold frames for winter use.

6. Cover water gardens with netting to keep the falling leaves out.

7. Keep trees and shrubs well watered until the ground freezes.

8. Cut back most perennials. Definitely cut back diseased perennials and remove all foliage. Don’t compost.

9. Clean, sand and oil garden tools before storing them for the winter.

10. Take cuttings.

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