How to Make and Use Compost

How to Make and Use Compost
Author: Nicky Scott
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2021-02-04
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 0857845462

The world of compost and how it relates to healthy soil is a fascinating, complex story. Compost helps to create and maintain healthy soil – the foundation of growing organically. It is also cost-saving, easy and fun, and a fantastic way to learn and connect with nature. Most importantly, composting is really beneficial for the environment as it massively reduces the amount of noxious methane gas generated from burying food waste in landfill. In How to Make and Use Compost, composting expert Nicky Scott reveals why making compost is so important for healthy soil and the environment, how it works and how to make your own compost. He provides clear guidance on the most appropriate system for your site, whether you're composting in a garden or a kitchen, and explains how different composting systems work, including cold composting, wormeries, bokashi and hot boxes. This practical book features an A-Z guide to what you can and cannot compost, composting techniques, common problems and their solutions – from Activators to fertilise the soil with microbial food sources, to Z for Zoo poo if you're lucky enough to live near a wildlife sanctuary! It also details how to compost food waste on a large scale for hotels, restaurants, cafés and other establishments, and shows you how to plan a school or community compost scheme. An extensive list of resources, including websites, organisations, books and where to buy equipment, is also included. Beautifully illustrated with photographs throughout, this handy guide is ideal for gardeners as well as those who want to become more sustainable.

The Ultimate Guide to Soil

The Ultimate Guide to Soil
Author: Anna Hess
Publisher: Skyhorse
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2016-07-19
Genre: House & Home
ISBN: 9781634507707

Grow twice the fruits and vegetables in half the space on the farm, in the backyard, or in your window! Have you noticed the extraordinary flavors and yields emanating from even a small garden when the soil is just right? If you’ve ever been envious of your neighbor’s dirt or just curious about homesteading, then The Ultimate Guide to Soil is perfect for you. The book begins with a personality test for your soil, then uses that information to plan a course of action for revitalizing poor soil and turning good dirt into great earth. Next, you’ll learn to start and maintain a no-till garden, to balance nutrients with remineralization, and to boost organic matter with easy cover crops. Don’t forget the encyclopedic overview of organic soil amendments at the end. Old standbys like manures and mulches are explained in depth along with less common additions such as bokashi compost and castings from worms and black soldier fly larvae. Learn when hugelkultur, biochar, paper, and cardboard do and don’t match your garden needs, then read about when and how to safely use urine and humanure around edible plantings. With an emphasis on simple techniques suitable for the backyard gardener, The Ultimate Guide to Soil gives you the real dirt on good soil. Maybe next year your neighbor will be envious of you!

The Rodale Book of Composting

The Rodale Book of Composting
Author: Deborah L. Martin
Publisher: Rodale
Total Pages: 296
Release: 1992-01-15
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 9780878579914

Explains what composting is and how it works, provides instructions for making and using compost, and offers ecologically sound solutions to waste disposal problems

Compost Everything

Compost Everything
Author: David The Good
Publisher: Good Books
Total Pages: 166
Release: 2021-07-08
Genre:
ISBN: 9781955289030

If you're ready to throw out the rule book and return as much as you can to the soil, Compost Everything is the book for you. It's time to quit fighting Mother Nature and start working with her to recycle organic matter and create lush and beautiful gardens with some of the most extreme composting techniques known to Man!In this inspiring composting guide, you'll learn how to??brew your own fish fertilizer with a few easy ingredients?quit turning piles and make compost the simple way?avoid roasting your garden with chemical-laced manure?discover the Native American trick for concentrating fertility and growing in lousy soil?squeeze every ounce of fertility from your compost?deal with grid-down sanitation?stop filling landfills and start enriching your yard?turn "trash" into treasure...get rid of unwanted bodies.Learn to compost like you've never composted before with expert gardener and master composter David the Good.

The Complete Book of Composting

The Complete Book of Composting
Author: Jerome Irving Rodale
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1022
Release: 1960
Genre: Gardening
ISBN:

Compost is the heart of the organic concept of gardening. This book is a compilation of material, facts, features, experiences, research, letters, questions and answers about compost that have appeared in Organic Gardening and Farming magazine for eighteen years.

The Living Soil Handbook

The Living Soil Handbook
Author: Jesse Frost
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2021-07-20
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1645020274

Principles and farm-tested practices for no-till market gardening--for healthier, more productive soil! From the host of the popular The No-Till Market Garden Podcast—heard around the world with nearly one million downloads! Discovering how to meet the soil’s needs is the key task for every market gardener. In this comprehensive guide, Farmer Jesse Frost shares all he has learned through experience and experimentation with no-till practices on his home farm in Kentucky and from interviews and visits with highly successful market gardeners in his role as host of The No-Till Market Garden Podcast. The Living Soil Handbook is centered around the three basic principles of no-till market gardening: Disturb the soil as little as possible Keep it covered as much as possible Keep it planted as much as possible. Farmer Jesse then guides readers in applying those principles to their own garden environment, with their own materials, to meet their own goals. Beginning with an exploration of the importance of photosynthesis to living soil, Jesse provides in-depth information on: Turning over beds Using compost and mulch Path management Incorporating biology, maintaining fertility Cover cropping Diversifying plantings through intercropping Production methods for seven major crops Throughout, the book emphasizes practical information on all the best tools and practices for growers who want to build their livelihood around maximizing the health of their soil. Farmer Jesse reminds growers that “as possible” is the mantra for protecting the living soil: disturb the soil as little as you possibly can in your context. He does not believe that growers should anguish over what does and does not qualify as “no-till.” If you are using a tool to promote soil life and biology, that’s the goal. Jesse’s goal with The Living Soil Handbook is to provide a comprehensive set of options, materials, and field-tested practices to inspire growers to design a soil-nurturing no-till system in their unique garden or farm ecosystem. "[A] practical, informative debut. . . .Gardeners interested in sustainable agriculture will find this a great place to start."—Publishers Weekly "Frost offers a comprehensive, science-based, sympathetic, wholly practical guide to soil building, that most critical factor in vegetable gardening for market growers and home gardeners alike. A gift to any vegetable plot that will keep on giving."—Booklist (starred review)

Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, 35th Anniversary Edition

Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades, 35th Anniversary Edition
Author: Steve Solomon
Publisher: Sasquatch Books
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2015-12-01
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 1570619735

The ultimate bible for organic vegetable gardening in the Pacific Northwest, featuring extensive updates and new material on soil health, natural pest control, and more Now in its seventh edition, this complete guide to organic vegetable, herb, and flower gardening addresses issues of soil, seeds, compost, and watering. Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades has evolved from a self-published pamphlet into the master guide to organic gardening over the past thirty-five years. Steve Solomon, who founded the Territorial Seed Company, was one of the early proponents of organic gardening, and the first to codify and refine the best practices of small-plot vegetable gardening in the Pacific Northwest. The approaches to understanding and preparing soils, composting, chemical-free fertilizers, efficient uses of water, and garden planning are universal to any climate or region. Solomon gets specific in his extensive advice on growing specific crops—from tomatoes and beans to kale and turnips—in the gentle maritime Northwest climate. This new and updated edition includes: • A new formula for complete organic fertilizer and how to tweak it for different soil conditions • How-to sections for herbs and ornamental plants • New organization for better usability • Updated sources for appropriate seed suppliers • Information about natural pest controls

Easy Compost

Easy Compost
Author: Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Publisher: Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Total Pages: 118
Release: 1997
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 9781889538037

Includes information on composting's history; tips on equipment; tips for difficult climes; composting indoors; making humus in small spaces; and using compost in the garden.

Bokashi Composting

Bokashi Composting
Author: Adam Footer
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Total Pages: 177
Release: 2014-01-01
Genre: House & Home
ISBN: 1550925490

The safe, clean, and convenient way to compost all your food scraps. Bokashi is Japanese for "fermented organic matter." Bokashi composting is a safe, quick, and convenient way to compost in your kitchen, garage, or apartment, using a specific group of microorganisms to anaerobically ferment all food waste (including meat and dairy). Since the process takes place in a closed system, insects and smell are controlled, making it ideal for urban or business settings. The process is very fast, with compost usually ready to be integrated into your soil or garden in around two weeks. While bokashi has enjoyed great popularity in many parts of the world, it is still relatively unknown in North America. From scraps to soil, Bokashi Composting is the complete, step-by-step, do-it-yourself guide to this amazing process, with comprehensive information covering: Background-the history, development and scientific basis of the technique Getting started-composting with commercially available products or homemade systems Making your own-system plans and bokashi bran recipes using common materials and locally sourced ingredients Growing-improving your soil with fermented compost and bokashi juice. This essential guide is a must-read for gardeners, homeowners, apartment dwellers, traditional composters, and anyone who wants a safe, simple, and convenient way to keep kitchen waste out of the landfill.

Weedless Gardening

Weedless Gardening
Author: Lee A. Reich
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2000-01-08
Genre: Gardening
ISBN: 0761172025

Garden like Mother Nature, with an organic system that’s good for plants and good for people. Say good-bye to backaches and weed problems! Lee Reich’s organic Weedless Gardening eschews the traditional yearly digging up and working over of the soil. It’s is an easy-to-follow, low-impact approach to planting and maintaining a flower garden, a vegetable patch, trees, and shrubs naturally. "If you love to knock yourself out digging beds, buy a better shovel. If you're looking for a no-nonsense alternative, buy this book!" -Ketzel Levine, National Public Radio's Doyenne of Dirt) "Thoroughly practical, easy-to-follow guide to good gardening Lee Reich make it sound simple, and if you follow his methods and philosophy, it is." -Dora Galitzki, Gardening Columnist, The New York Times, and Author of The Gardener's Essential Companion "Finally, a book filled with science-based information that insures success and frees us from busywork in the garden." - Dr. H. March Cathey, President Emeritus, American Horticultural Society