Composting Has Many Benefits and is Easy To Do

There are many benefits to composting and just about anyone can do it.  It's a great way to recycle kitchen scraps and yard debris, and keeps a lot of waste out of the landfills.  You might be surprised at what can be safely composted.  Everyday household items including cardboard tubes, newspaper, eggshells, fruit and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, and leaves can be composted.  Compost enriches the garden soil and provides essential nutrients to plants and eliminates the need for adding chemicals.  Compost improves all types of soil, whether you have heavy clay like I do, or coarse sandy soil.  In clay soil compost helps loosen up the soil and in sandy soil it helps the soil retain water better.  Compost can even help prevent some soil borne diseases.  Using compost in your garden reduces the need for additional fertilizers, pesticides, and extra water.  I've been adding compost to my garden, which started out as hard packed clay with virtually no worms or insects, for the last 5 years and have seen an incredible improvement in the texture of the soil and the quality of the plants and vegetables.  I now have a thriving earthworm population, and all sorts of other beneficial insects that call my garden home.  Composting replicates nature's system for feeding plants by turning organic waste into rich hummus.  Below is a basic recipe for making compost.  With fall right around the corner, you'll be finding plenty of ingredients in your yard for compost.
Green plant matter includes: lawn clippings, old vegetable vines, weeds that haven't gone to seed, hedge clippings, vegetable and fruit skins and trimmings. 
Dry plant matter includes: fallen leaves, straw, small twigs, cornstalks, and black and white newspaper.

To make your compost:
1. Combine your ingredients in a compost bin (I use a Compost Tumbler, which works well in the suburbs).  You want your mixture to include both green and dry materials.  To speed up the composting process you can chop or shred the materials and add compost inoculant (available from most organic gardening sites).
2. Moisten the pile with the hose, but don't saturate it.  You want it evenly moist, but not sitting in water.
3. Turn the pile at least once a week.  I usually turn mine every few days to keep everything well mixed.  This allows air to move through the pile so the microbes get enough oxygen to break down the materials quickly.
4. Allow the compost to cook.  You want the pile to get nice and hot (I've had mine up to about 120 degrees) in order to kill any pathogens and weed seeds.  Check the pile regularly, especially during hot weather, and water as necessary to keep it moist.  In about a month you can start checking for finished compost.  When it's ready to be used in the garden it will be dark, moist, and crumbly.  It won't smell rotten, but will actually have a sweet earthy odor.
Happy gardening! :-)
-Michelle of CreativeCritters

How to turn an old drawer into a raised bed for plants

I'm very good at recycling and finding new uses for old things- it just comes natural to me.  While I was cleaning the basement I came across an old drawer (the dresser it came from is long gone).  The lettuce I started from seed under florescent lights was just about ready to be planted outside, so I thought the drawer would make a very nice raised bed.  One problem I often have with my early spring crops is that it's usually too wet to get out to the garden and get them planted at the right time.  Usually I end up waiting until the garden dries up, and that shortens the time I have to harvest the lettuce before it goes to seed.  This year, by using the drawer as a planter, I can have the lettuce close to the house, and even move the planter around as needed.  This is what I started with.
 
Then I drilled holes in the bottom for drainage (otherwise the water would just sit in the bottom and the roots would end up rotting).
 
Then, to improve drainage further and make sure the potting soil won't block the holes, I added a layer of styrofoam packing peanuts.  I've used this method before in a variety of other planters and it's worked quite well for me.
 
Then I filled the drawer almost to the top with good quality potting soil.  Add the soil slowly or you'll have packing peanuts flying all over the place!  And a windy day isn't the best time to work with packing peanuts outdoors either ;-)
 
Then I added the lettuce- a variety of loose leaf and semi head lettuce (Buttercrunch is my favorite!).  I added potting soil around the plants as needed and gently firmed the soil around them.  I made sure the plants would have enough room to grow too. 
After I gently watered the plants I used two row cover supports and covered the whole thing with a lightweight row cover, attaching it to the drawer with clothespins and plastic spring clamps.  The row cover serves a few purposes: it keeps animal from eating or digging up the lettuce (and I've got all sorts of critters in my yard who would love a nice fresh salad!), and it protects the plants if the temperature drops below freezing.
 
Lettuce does quite well in cool temperatures, and so long as it's protected from actually freezing, it can handle pretty low temperatures.  I used the same row covers one year when the temps were down to about 27 one spring, and not a single plant was damaged.  Within a few weeks I should be eating nice fresh salad from a drawer- LOL!  Happy gardening! =)
-Michelle of CreativeCritters