Organic matter is the result of decomposition. Composted materials are organic matter. Humus is the stable endpoint of decomposition for organic material. Not a lot is known about humus, chemically. It is incredibly variable, so it’s hard to analyze. Basically it is the remaining resistant bits leftover after all of the easier to rot stuff […]
Author: Steve Solomon with Erica Reinheimer Copyright: 2013 Publisher: New Society Publishers Buy from Amazon: <br />
Trench composting is done by using a rototiller or cultivator. Build a trench with plywood walls, or any other type of non-composting material, the width + 2 inches of your cultivator. Run the cultivator through it to aerate & turn.
The Rodale’s wrote the book on organic gardening. They also happen to publish the magazine, “Organic Gardening”. This is an in-depth resource on Composting. They go over the many different methods and plans for building them, along with their advantages and disadvantages. This book also does a good job with explaining the science behind composting. […]
Humorous attempt at a guide on composting. Very readable, with good coverage of approaches and how decomposition works. Good illustrations, diagrams and sketches. Author: Stu Campbell Copyright: 3rd ed. 1998 Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC Buy from Amazon: <br />
Okay, so the fruit flies were REALLY bugging me. They started up when we started collecting our kitchen waste that was compostable on the kitchen counter. No duh – I should have seen this coming. We were using a metal mixing bowl to collect our vegetable scraps, open to the elements…and bugs. The solution was […]
Easy Composters You Can Build (Paperback) This pamphlet is a quick guide on building the most common composting structures, as well as an introduction to composting in general. Nick Noyes (Author) Storey Publishing, LLC (January 10, 1995) <br /> ISBN-10: 088266350X ISBN-13: 978-0882663500
From my research, it seems that there are as many different methods for composting as there are types of tomatoes to grow. All composting methods are classified based on the temperature at which the pile works. The hotter the pile, the shorter it takes for it to be finished. There are hot methods where the […]
Composting…there are a million ways to do what the earth does naturally in your own backyard. The problems faced by the backyard composter are the limited materials you have available to compost, the space available for composting, and the lack of machinery or equipment that ease the labor of quick compost methods. But even with […]
I’ve been reading a lot about garden ecology these last few months. Garden ecology focuses on the biology of each zone of the garden: deep soil zone, root zone, rhizosphere, leaf zone, outer environment. The healthier each of these zones are, the better your plant grows. What I’ve come to learn is that healthy soil […]