Gardening Magazine – Centerpoint Classic Gardening Landscape Is An Amazing Tool!
If you are looking for some serious tips on gardening, Centerpoint classic gardening landscape should not be missed. One of the issues suggests that the bulb gardens are the easiest to take care and are also the most attractive. Bulbs can be classified into various bulb families and further categorized into several varieties within those bulb families. For example, the tulip, that is one of the kinds of bulbs, also has different exotic varieties. The Centerpoint classic gardening landscape offers a comprehensive guide to famous bulb flowers and the appropriate conditions required to grow them. For example, the Gladiolus needs proper sunlight and constant watering while in its blooming and growth phases.

Centerpoint classic gardening landscape is also a good resource for information on checking pests. Pest control is an extremely important task as it prevents the pests from taking over your garden. As soon as you get the indications that your garden has got infected with pest, you must act with no delay. Many people use chemicals to kill pests, however, with rising awareness about environmental concerns, gardeners are slowly shifting to organic remedies. There are also few plants that are naturally pet resistant. Whereas, some plants like Marigold attract specific insects like aphids that eat away the pests.

Is your garden located in a place with hot and dry weather. Centerpoint classic gardening landscape has ample advice on different kinds of annuals that can be grown in hot and dry climatic conditions. The African Daisy, the dust miller, the gold medallion and the creeping zinnia are the kind of annuals that if once establish their roots firmly can sustain even in hot and dry weather conditions. Some other types like the Cypress vine, the hyacinth bean vine, the blue daze and the fan flower can also put up with hot weather, but need extra watering to survive.

If you are an ardent rose fan, the Centerpoint classic gardening landscape has loads of suggestions to help you get that prized photogenic look for your roses. Few of them are as follows:

- It’s very important to choose a sun lit location for your roses
- Treat the soil with few inches of organic mulch mixed with highly rich organic compost
- It is recommended that the bushes of your rose plants must be at least 18-24 inches apart
- The holes that the bushes are planted in must be deep enough to facilitate free and unrestricted growth for the roots
- Bushes must be placed in the holes in a very gentle manner and the holes should then be filled with some loose soil. Once through, you should press down the loose soil with firm hands
- Adding bone meal into the soil can be very beneficial
- Each rose plant must be watered properly for the first two weeks. Thereafter, watering even once in a week is enough.

Working with roses can be quite a scratchy affair. Thus you need all the right tools to avoid those pricky thorns. A pair of leather gloves with folded-down cuffs will be a good investment. Make use of bypass pruners to avoid crushing the rose plants’ canes and stems. In case your rose garden is very old, you’ll have to employ loppers since the old canes would be too thick to be pruned with normal shears. Other essential tools you will require are a shovel with a long padded handle, a short digging fork, a tough wheelbarrow, kneeling pads, a watering wand, a leaf rake and a garden rake.

Refer your copy of Centerpoint classic gardening landscape, there may be many other tips that you can benefit from.

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/center-point-classic-gardening-landscape-read-your-way-to-the-perfect-garden-753666.html

Technorati Tags: African Daisy, Ample Advice, Annuals, Aphids, Blue Daze, Bulb Flowers, Climatic Conditions, Comprehensive Guide, Creeping Zinnia, Cypress Vine, Different Kinds, Dry Weather Conditions, Gardeners, Gardening Magazine, Gladiolus, Gold Medallion, Hot Weather, Hyacinth Bean Vine, Perfect Garden, Pests

You have now planted your own organic vegetable garden and have done everything that you can to get it started.  Unfortunately the seeds have not started sprouting or your started seeds have not grown much if it all.  Before you throw in the towel and give up on organic gardening there are a few things that you should try.

First of all, have you been hand weeding your garden daily?  This might sound like a pain and stupid chore but it could make all the difference in the world.  Make a point of visiting your vegetable garden each day and carefully checking for weeds.  Do not let the children do it and do not rely on a glance from your back window to tell you whether weeds are growing or not. 

Many gardeners have done casual checks and later realized that the sprouts they thought were growing in their garden were really weeds.  Make a close inspection each day and weed by hand to make sure the job is thoroughly done.  Throw these weeds away do NOT put them into your compost pit.  In order to get the best results dedicate 20 minutes each day to pulling weeds.

If you have been weeding your garden each day and your plants still seem to be growing slowly start adding rich, aged, compost to the slow growing vegetables.  Many plants just need a helping hand and some vegetables, corn, pumpkins, and squash, all need compost to provide richness and nutrients.  Spreading some aged compost from your composts pits will help your vegetables grow properly.

After adding compost to your vegetables every few days leads to no results consider investing in some manure from your local garden supplier.  They will often have organic manure on hand for your gardening needs and this will act as a stronger fertilizer than your compost.  If you are afraid to try manure you can invest in some aged compost purchased from a nursery first.  In many cases your compost pits will only be a few weeks old when you are trying to use them to encourage growth some older compost might just do the trick.

Do not be afraid to increase the amount of water that you are giving your garden.  You should be careful not to over water your plants but you want to make sure that your plants are getting enough water to survive and thrive.  When you water your plants in the morning always check to see if the soil appears dry.  If the soil seems dry one day after watering you might want to consider increasing the amount of water you are giving them.  The soil should always be a little damp around your plants.

Lastly, do not be afraid to spray your homemade pesticide or even a bit of diluted soapy water on your plants to get ride of insects.  If you notice a lot of pests are attracted to your vegetable garden consider spraying once every ten days or once every two weeks.  Also, spray diluted soapy water directly onto vegetables that have insects on them all the time.

Juliet Spalding
http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/troubleshooting-your-organic-vegetables-741889.html

Technorati Tags: Compo, Compost Pit, fertilizer, Few Days, Gardeners, Growing Plants, Growing Vegetables, Helping Hand, Nutrients, Organic Gardening, Organic Manure, Organic Vegetable Garden, Organic Vegetables, Pits, Pulling Weeds, Pumpkins, Richness, Sprouting Seeds, Sprouts, Weed

A gardening enthusiast can get all the equipment and paraphernalia that they would need for their garden at the Home Depot store in the gardening section. All kinds of machinery for gardening like rakes and pruners,
shovels, clippers, and shears are available here in the gardening section of the Home Depot Store. One can also
get seeds, plants and plant products, fertilisers, pest control products and any other fancy stuff for your
garden. You can get yourself stuff to do a good landscaping job, watering equipment, and decorations for your
garden at this store. Gardening tips and books on gardening are also available here.

Tips on planting
According to the expert tips of the Home Depot, it is better to plant flowers on a day when the sky is overcast and it may rain instead of on a warm sunny day. The rain will do the plants a lot of good. So it is better to
plant the new plants for the year and the perennial plants before the last frost date for he season. Perennials should be planted during the early fall in the North, and during the late fall in the South.

How to choose your new plants
It will help to be careful while choosing your new plants. do not buy plants that are wilted and discolored
and with spindly stems, but select those that have a healthy foliage and with short and sturdy stems and only a
few flowers to start with. To repot it you will have to knock the old pot off and then disentangle the roots
before you plant them in the soil. this way the roots will spread out better. It is also better to pinch all the flowers and buds off so that the plant can use all its energy in developing firm and healthy roots instead of putting all its nutrients into the flowers in the beginning. This way you will get a better crop of flowers later.

How to prepare a flower bed
Mix at least one inch of organic matter into a flower bed that has been prepared with a spade. Every year, to
improve the soil you should add some organic matter or rotted manure, compost, pear moss and sphagnum to it.
Another different method is to cover the top of the flower bed with a compost layer of at least 2 inches. For
plants that have to be planted annually you should loosen the soil up to a depth of 12 inches and for perennials to a depth of 18 inches. After this smoothen out the ground with a rake and then plant the plants at the same level in the soil as they were in the pot.

After you have planted the potted plants in the soil, add between one to three inches of organic mulch like
pine needles, bark, grass clippings or wood chip mulch. This covering will conserve the moisture, prevent any
diseases and also prevent the growth of weeds.

You can get a lot of information and guidance on pruning a hedge, starting a lawn, and planting trees in the
Home Depot gardening. There are guides for buying planters, pond pumps, hoses and valves too.

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/home-depot-gardening-your-one-stop-shop-for-gardening-tools-753699.html

Technorati Tags: Buds, Clippers, Expert Tips, Foliage, Gardening Tips, Gardening Tools, Home Depot, Home Depot Store, How To Prepare A Flower Bed, Organic Matter, Overcast, Paraphernalia, Perennial Plants, Pest Control Products, Pruners, Rakes, Shears, Shovels, Spade, Sunny Day

When you do your gardening, you always end up with some leaves and weeds, dead plants and probably some grass clippings. Most people see this as rubbish and send it off to the landfill. Not only is this a waste of one of nature’s fertilizers but it takes time and money to get rid of this garden ‘rubbish’. So, what alternative is there? Well, a gardening tip to consider is do what nature would do and use all this garden ‘rubbish’ to provide nutrients for your garden. Following are the gardening tips to help you convert this garden ‘rubbish’ to compost.

The first thing to know is that organic waste is considered better for your garden than any chemical fertilizer on the market. Nature has a decomposition process that promotes proper chemical change resulting in excellent nutritional benefits to the plants in the garden.

Of course, the question is, “Where shall I put this pile of smelly garden ‘rubbish’”? Gardening tips; your compost heap shouldn’t be smelly and if it is, you need to alter the composition of it to prevent it becoming anaerobic ie too much nitrogen. This requires the heap not being too wet and having enough oxygen. Once you’ve got the balance right, you will find that the decomposition process is actually producing some fertilizer that isn’t a pong to the nose!

So, what does this suitable place for a fertilizer heap look like? Gardening tips; is should be an area that has plenty of width space and not too deep. If it’s too deep, the materials down low in the pile will not be able to get enough of the necessary requirements, and you end up with a smelly heap. Try to choose an area where you can spread out the garden ‘rubbish’. You can, if you’ve got the space, have two heaps side by side. Remember, it’s width not depth that’s important.

What rubbish can you put into the heap to be converted to garden food? Gardening tips; it must be quickly decomposable – that is, able to rot away quickly. Did you know that orange peel takes years to decompose? Therefore, it’s not suitable; nor is meat or diseased plants. However, you can use most other organic material including grass clippings, woody plants, leaves, and vegetable scraps. Using your lawn mower, shred garden ‘rubbish’ to help quick decomposition.

How do you start the composting process? Gardening tips; make the materials as small as possible. Mix up the pile quite frequently to allow oxygen into the heap which will aid the decomposing process. Water periodically, but not too much as this is a sure way to invite anaerobic micro-organisms which will give you a smelly pile.

No matter what, your compost pile will be a little unsightly. Gardening tips; find a place that isn’t easily seen and is also near the garden areas that you will want to fertilize. Be aware of your neighbours; it may be out of sight for you but right in the vision of your neighbor. They really don’t want your compost heap near their entertaining area! Construct a compost pen for your pile, or buy a ready-made compost bin to contain all the decomposing material.

Summary:

Use your garden ‘rubbish’ as garden food and put back nutrients into the soil. Some gardening tips will ensure that you get a good start to making your own fertilizer.

Brooke Hayles
http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/gardening-tips-the-best-ways-to-create-and-use-fertilizer-59354.html

Technorati Tags: Chemical Fertilizer, Compost Heap, Dead Plants, Decomposition Process, Fertilizers, Garden Compost, Garden Rubbish, Gardening Tips, Grass Clippings, Heaps, Landfill, Necessary Requirements, nitrogen, Nutrients, Organic Waste, Oxygen, Pong, Suitable Place, Time And Money, Weeds

Every spring, whether northern or southern hemisphere, many people begin to think about gardening. Some have been gardening every year since they were old enough to help in the family garden back of the house. Others have begun gardening only recently. Most have questions, though.

How to make an organic garden is a question that arises more frequently these days, as people become more concerned about health issues. They want to know that the produce they are eating is good for their health and safe for their families to eat. They want to begin an organic garden.

Many books have been written about how to make an organic garden, and we cannot compete with them in one article, but we offer here 7 basic steps for beginners.

How to Make an Organic Garden – Step #1

Begin your organic garden by learning your plant hardiness zone. You will need to know your climate, and what organic produce will grow best there. If you live in the United States, you can access the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map on many gardening sites or seed websites. Planting directions on seed packets are based on the average last frost date. The last frost date for your area will be the last spring day when you might have a killing frost.

How to Make an Organic Garden – Step #2

After you have determined your local climate, it is time to choose a location on your property for your organic garden. The area most convenient to your back door may not be the best for an organic garden. Look for a location that never has standing water. Your plants need good soil drainage. Check to see if the plants will be protected from the wind. Will your organic garden be close to water so you can easily care for it?

How to Make an Organic Garden – Step #3

Next, you will need to test the soil for your organic garden. In the U.S., check online for your county or state Home/Agricultural Extension Service. They will guide you in taking soil samples from different areas of the location you chose for your organic garden. Be sure you label each sample of soil as to part of the garden, and send it to be analyzed. This analysis will help you know what to add to the soil for a great harvest. Remember, one of the basic things you will do in your organic garden is to feed the soil so the soil can feed the plants.

How to Make an Organic Garden – Step #4

Order seeds, using information about your climate and soil. Be sure you order certified organic seed so that you can have an authentic organic garden. A good online seed supply source is Main Street Seed and Supply. You can buy as little as a teaspoon of seed for a small organic garden, or pounds of organic seed for farming. While ordering seeds, be sure to include onions, garlic, and marigold flowers. These plants can be a first line of defense in an organic garden’s pest control program.

How to Make an Organic Garden – Step #5

While you wait for your seeds to arrive, you need to prepare the organic garden bed. If there is grass growing in the location, removed it first. Use a sharp, flat-edged spade to slice out the sod. Shake off as much soil as you can, and remove the grass from the area. Till the soil to a depth of about 12″, and work in organic fertilizer, checking your soil analysis to know what amendments are needed.

How to Make an Organic Garden – Step #6

If you have organic seedlings to plant, water them well the day before you intend to plant them in the organic garden. The best time to set them in the garden is a still, overcast day. If you must plant on a sunny day, take care not to stress the plants more than necessary. Use the seedlings’ pots to determine how deeply to plant them.

If you are planting seeds in your organic garden, follow instructions that come with each type of seed.

How to Make an Organic Garden – Step #7

Apply organic mulch soon after planting. Mulch conserves water, cools soil, and keeps weeds at bay. If you use compost, chipped bark, shredded bark, shredded, shredded leaves, or straw, your mulch will also improve soil quality in your organic garden. Apply 2 to 4 inches of mulch, being careful not to get it too close to the plant stems. Mulch can rot the stems. It can also become a hideout for nibbling little garden mice.

Organic Garden Tip:

Label your plant rows and keep a record of your garden’s progress. Save seed information for everything in your organic garden. A garden journal, with photos throughout the gardening season, will help you know what you want to repeat or change in next year’s organic garden.

Anna Hart
http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/how-to-make-an-organic-garden-134179.html

Technorati Tags: Agricultural Extension Service, Back Door, Climate, Garden Books, Good Soil, Health Issues, Killing Frost, Last Spring, Organic Garden, Organic Produce, Plant Hardiness Zone, Plant Hardiness Zone Map, plants, Seed Packets, Soil Drainage, Soil Samples, Southern Hemisphere, Spring Day, Usda Plant Hardiness Zone, Usda Plant Hardiness Zone Map

For fear of early frosts and cold winter nights, many gardeners don’t give a thought to fall gardening. But fall gardening produces high-quality vegetables, extending your harvest long after the seeds you planted in the spring have fulfilled their purpose. The vegetables produced by fall gardening are often sweeter and milder than those you picked in the summer. They bring a new taste to the same old dishes you’ve been serving through the growing season. If you’re a dedicated grower, think about doing some fall gardening this year!

The crops you choose to grow in your autumn garden, like every other garden, will depend on what you want to eat and how much space you have available for your fall garden. Even those plants that thrive in the heat (tomatoes, sweet potatoes, okra, peppers, etc.) will continue to yield until the first frost hits. In southern states, this can be as late as October or November. And if what we hear about climate change is true, you may have longer growing seasons nationwide in the future!

Some plants won’t grow well after the end of summer (snap beans, squash, cucumbers, etc.). But if you plant them around mid-summer, you’ll be able to harvest them through first frost. The more hardy vegetables will continue to grow and produce until the temperature falls to a chilly 20 degrees. Even roots and tubers whose top leafy parts are killed by a hard freeze can be saved if you’ve used a lot of mulch to protect underground temperatures.

Pick the vegetable plants with shorter growing seasons for your fall gardening. Seed packages should indicate the length of a plant’s growing season or the number of days to maturity. For these short-season growers, you can plant several times throughout the summer and harvest well into the fall. You may not be able to find seeds late in the summer, so buy the seeds early in the spring and summer. Just store them in a cool, dry spot (your refrigerator is great) until you’re ready to plant them.

In planning for fall gardening, you need to know when to expect the first hard frost in your area. The Farmers’ Almanac is a good information source for this, as it gives specific dates and has a great record for accuracy. Knowing the approximate date of the firs frost and the length of the plant’s required growing season, you can count backward to determine when your last good chance is for planting. That way, even the last plants you start will have plenty of time to mature and produce in your fall garden.

As with all gardens, preparing the soil for planting is critically important. You must first clear the soil of any remaining spring or summer crops and, of course, weeds. You’ve already done much of the soil preparation for the early plants, so you’ll just need to add a little more compost or fertilizer to amend the soil. If you used a lot of organic matter for your summer garden, fall gardening may not even require additional compost. But it’s a good idea to use plenty of mulch to cover the ground and maintain the warmth of the ground as long as possible. Wait from 12 to 24 hours after prepping the soil to plant your fall garden.

If you’ve been hesitant to start a fall garden because you think the early frosts will destroy your work, don’t worry. With a little planning and careful thought, you can select hardy plants with shorter growing seasons that will give you tasty, healthy vegetables into the early winter. And what is nicer than having that last plate of tomatoes or that last bowl of steaming squash as you snuggle near your fireplace on those early cold winter nights!

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/fall-gardening-grow-your-garden-throughout-the-year-753681.html

Gardens come in different varieties like the plants you find in them. There are several gardening tips that can be used for all type of gardens.

1.Mulching protects your garden topsoil from being blown away. It also provides nutrients as it decomposes and improves the appearance of your gardens. Mulching has other benefits and is one of the most recommended gardening tips by gardeners and farmers alike.

2.Healthy plants are more disease resistant. Plants are like people, a person with a strong immune system can combat diseases. A healthy plant does the same.

3. Pests can be eradicated by cleaning the plant with a watery solution of soap. Just make sure to rinse after. This gardening tip is best heeded for fruit bearing trees or edible plants.

4. Using compost fertilizers are a great way to have healthy plants. It is also a great way to save money on expensive fertilizers. Non -organic fertilizers also tend to leave chemical residues that can accumulate in garden soils and harm not only the plants but the gardeners as well. They cause toxins to go to the water supplies. Another gardening tip recommended not just by farmers and gardeners but also by environmentalists.

5. There are several plants that are only suitable for a specified climate, a certain kind of soil or can only grow with certain plants. You have to know what plant grow in the conditions you have in your area this is for you to avoid unnecessary purchases. This is a money saving gardening tip.

6.Landscaping is a good investment which can double the value of your home. This is one gardening tip that can earn you money.

7. Growing grass on bare ground is an easy way to make your home look better and appreciate in value. This is one gardening tip that promotes earning money while growing grass legally.

8. Aside from looking great in your home, trees also provide some sort of protection from direct sunlight exposure and strong winds.

9. Vines on the walls, fences and overhead structures also would offer some protection and would also look great.

10.Flowers are beautiful, but they are also expensive. Get one that is resistant to many elements. Flowers from your local community already have developed resistance to conditions present in your area.

11.For most gardens plants, their roots go only as deep as 6 inches. Putting fertilizer deeper than that would be a waste of money. Put them shallower as they seep down when the plants are being watered.

12.Earthworms are important to plants. They till and aerate the soil for the roots to breathe. Non-organic fertilizers can kill them. This gardening tip dates back to the old days of gardening.

13. Having several kinds of insects that are beneficial to your garden would be good. These insects can be encouraged to stay by having diverse plants in your garden.

14. Spot spraying weeds with household vinegar, instead of using commercial weed-killers, can eradicate them. This is another environment friendly gardening tip.

15. Avoid putting too much mulch on tree trunks; this would encourage unwanted pests to reside on them.

16. Use plant varieties that are common to your area or have been taken from an area with similar conditions.

17. Be sure to know the plants that are poisonous. If you are intent on growing them, make sure to have the necessary cure available in your household. Take note of this gardening tip, it can save your life.

18. The best time to water plants is during mornings.

19. Before planting a new plant in your garden, you must consider its height and size when it matures. This garden tip can help you save money in the future.

20. Newly transplanted plants may require special attention during its first week. This is to reduce the stress and shock it got during transplantation.

And last but not the least of the gardening tips…

21.Plants are living entities. If you want them to grow in your garden you have to treat them as such. They need to be taken care of. They are like your pets, you look out for them. In return you get that feeling of contentment watching them thrive.

A good way to take care of them is to consider that plants might have some feelings too.

John Pawlett
http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/many-gardening-tips-for-beginners-89262.html

People worldwide are becoming increasingly health conscious and want their food to be naturally grown. They need the fruits and vegetables that they consume not only to be free of chemicals, pesticides and other synthetic products, but also require them to be grown the organic way – treated with natural products, right down to the soil that they have been planted in.

This new organic frenzy has arisen because people now think about what harmful effects the chemicals and pesticides sprayed in their food crop must have done over the years. People want a healthier lifestyle now and are more aware on how to make it like that. Research has shown support to the organic theory which also points out to the adverse effects of using synthetic products and pesticides in the food crops, i.e. fruits and vegetables – among these include the root causes of many diseases, including some types of cancer.

An organic gardening product is a natural product that is free of any synthetic components such as chemicals and pesticides. Organic methods use alternatives to chemically made pesticides – they use natural products which are home grown and prove beneficial to the plants without any of the adverse effects of chemicals involved in any part of the process. They create a healthy cycle in which by keeping pests away naturally, they make plants healthy, thereby increasing the plants’ immunity to diseases, thus enhancing the health of the plants.

This is akin to the human immune system. Organic gardening products are not restricted to just the plants or the soil that they are planted in, but everything that affects the plant and/or is around the plant (the environment). Even everything that touches the plant is inclusive of this. Examples include gloves for weeding and planting, plant food, aprons, seeds, compost products, etc. Organically grown plants do not contain any harmful and dangerous chemicals and are overall healthier than their counterparts who are sprayed with pesticides and chemicals, not to mention other synthetic products.

This type of natural and organic gardening is healthier for both the human population, community and the environment at large. People are now much more concerned about what quality of food they are consuming and organic gardening is a boon for the health conscious eater, saving him or her from chemically induced allergies, lung problems, cancer or emphysema. Organic gardening is the modern answer to this very urgent demand of healthy and completely natural, chemical free food.

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/organic-gardening-products-a-healthier-option-for-you-and-the-garden-753816.html

So let us start with Composting and all you need to know.

Why should I compost?

• Organic matter improves soil structure and gives life. It opens up heavy soils, aids drainage and provides good growing conditions. Light or sandy soils benefit from its moisture retentive properties.
• It provides nutrients for plants. The nutrients in your compost depend on what has been put in your bin, but will always contain a wide range of trace elements and plant foods.
• It is a completely natural product. In nature, all living things eventually decay; composting simply speeds up the process.
• It is free and environmentally friendly. Up to 30% of household waste is organic and can be converted into compost for use in the garden. Composting is good for plants, good for the environment and good for us.

Where should I locate my Composter?

•  Preferably in a warm or sheltered position, but this is not essential.
•  place on bare soil. This will aid drainage and allow worms and bacteria to enter and aid   breakdown of the raw material.

What can I put in it?

• Garden Waste: All types of garden waste including annual weeds, grass cuttings, fallen fruit and old vegetable plants, bedding plants, chopped prunings, hedge clippings, horse and poultry manure and urine, straw, feathers, dried fallen leaves, sawdust and wood shavings, shredded wood and twigs, seaweed, spent compost.
• Household Waste: Teabags/leaves, egg shells, coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable waste, human and animal hair, feathers, shredded and soaked cardboard, paper, wood ash.
• Avoid: Cooked food and meat (attracts rodents).

How to Make the Best Compost?

The composting process requires raw material, water and air. Good compost comprises a balance of as many ingredients as possible. Too much grass will create a slimy mess; too much woody material will create a dry heap, which decomposes very slowly. Chopping and cutting ingredients into small pieces before adding to the composter will facilitate faster decomposition.

The most important balance to achieve is the proportion of woody, high carbon material (e.g. dried leaves, straw, paper, twigs, hedge clippings) to sappy, high nitrogen material (e.g. plants, weeds, vegetables & fruit, grass, manure). The woody material keeps the compost open and aerated, preventing the soggy mass that results from composting too much nitrogen-rich material (such as grass cuttings). However, it provides little or no nutrients for the bacteria in the heap, which creates the heat required for good composition. Soft material contains the nitrogen needed by bacteria, plus water. During colder months a piece of polystyrene or old carpet placed in the bin on top of the compost will prevent heat loss.

An essential ingredient for composting is air. The best way to introduce air into the composter is to fork up the contents and turn it over. It is a good idea to do this on a regular (monthly) basis.

When will the compost be ready to use?

Shredded material that has been kept moist and turned several times can be ready for use in the garden in just a few months but six months is more typical. The length of time really depends on the mixture of ingredients, air temperature, size of coarser material and how quickly the composter unit was filled. Compost at the bottom will always be ready first, so always remove from the bottom first.

If a finer texture is preferred, sieve out the coarse material; this can be used as mulch around the garden or in the base of planters/garden pots to provide drainage and nutrients, or simply replace in the bin for further breakdown. Do not use garden compost for delicate seedlings because it is not sterile.

Happy Gardening.

Owen Chubb
http://www.articlesbase.com/gardening-articles/making-garden-compost-685144.html

So let us start with Composting and all you need to know.

Why should I compost?

• Organic matter improves soil structure and gives life. It opens up heavy soils, aids drainage and provides good growing conditions. Light or sandy soils benefit from its moisture retentive properties.
• It provides nutrients for plants. The nutrients in your compost depend on what has been put in your bin, but will always contain a wide range of trace elements and plant foods.
• It is a completely natural product. In nature, all living things eventually decay; composting simply speeds up the process.
• It is free and environmentally friendly. Up to 30% of household waste is organic and can be converted into compost for use in the garden. Composting is good for plants, good for the environment and good for us.

Where should I locate my Composter?

•  Preferably in a warm or sheltered position, but this is not essential.
•  place on bare soil. This will aid drainage and allow worms and bacteria to enter and aid   breakdown of the raw material.

What can I put in it?

• Garden Waste: All types of garden waste including annual weeds, grass cuttings, fallen fruit and old vegetable plants, bedding plants, chopped prunings, hedge clippings, horse and poultry manure and urine, straw, feathers, dried fallen leaves, sawdust and wood shavings, shredded wood and twigs, seaweed, spent compost.
• Household Waste: Teabags/leaves, egg shells, coffee grounds, fruit and vegetable waste, human and animal hair, feathers, shredded and soaked cardboard, paper, wood ash.
• Avoid: Cooked food and meat (attracts rodents).

How to Make the Best Compost?

The composting process requires raw material, water and air. Good compost comprises a balance of as many ingredients as possible. Too much grass will create a slimy mess; too much woody material will create a dry heap, which decomposes very slowly. Chopping and cutting ingredients into small pieces before adding to the composter will facilitate faster decomposition.

The most important balance to achieve is the proportion of woody, high carbon material (e.g. dried leaves, straw, paper, twigs, hedge clippings) to sappy, high nitrogen material (e.g. plants, weeds, vegetables & fruit, grass, manure). The woody material keeps the compost open and aerated, preventing the soggy mass that results from composting too much nitrogen-rich material (such as grass cuttings). However, it provides little or no nutrients for the bacteria in the heap, which creates the heat required for good composition. Soft material contains the nitrogen needed by bacteria, plus water. During colder months a piece of polystyrene or old carpet placed in the bin on top of the compost will prevent heat loss.

An essential ingredient for composting is air. The best way to introduce air into the composter is to fork up the contents and turn it over. It is a good idea to do this on a regular (monthly) basis.

When will the compost be ready to use?

Shredded material that has been kept moist and turned several times can be ready for use in the garden in just a few months but six months is more typical. The length of time really depends on the mixture of ingredients, air temperature, size of coarser material and how quickly the composter unit was filled. Compost at the bottom will always be ready first, so always remove from the bottom first.

If a finer texture is preferred, sieve out the coarse material; this can be used as mulch around the garden or in the base of planters/garden pots to provide drainage and nutrients, or simply replace in the bin for further breakdown. Do not use garden compost for delicate seedlings because it is not sterile.

Happy Gardening.

Owen Chubb
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