There are many ways to compost, so I think I will just mention a few and post some links.
You can build your own compost bin out of pallets or fencing, or you can buy a compost barrel. The barrels usually have some sort of built-in turning system that makes it much easier to keep the compost moving along. Here are some pictures of both types, and some links to several articles and websites.
It’s really easy to see the benefits, so I thought we’d look at that first.
There are many environmental benefits. It has the amazing ability to regenerate poor soils. The micro-organisms break down the organic material to create extremely nutrient-rich humus. Compost is also able to clean-up contaminated soil; it absorbs odors and volatile organic compounds. It also traps heavy metals preventing their getting into the water. By using compost it is like organic recycling. The soil will improve which will enhance your garden produce, making them healthier for you.
Now, however, it’s time to take a moment to look at the disadvantages of composting.
Composting takes time. You’ve got to be willing to collect, pile, and turn you waste. It also requires at least some amount of land, somewhere to pile your compost and allow it to age. It takes a good deal of labor too. If it is not done properly compost can have a disagreeable odor, but this can usually be remedied by adding more carbon material. Depending on what you put into your compost pile, it can also attract animals. This obviously isn’t usually the most beneficial thing that could happen for your compost.
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Compost is organic material that can be used to amend the soil or even as a growth medium. It is a way to organically rid yourself of the kitchen and yard waste. After a period of decomposing and aging, the compost turns into a wonderful material that can be used on your garden. Compost drastically helps eliminate the need for other fertilizers as it puts natural nutrients back into the soil. However, there are some disadvantages to composting. We’ll look at this subject more in the next few days.
Okay, so you’ve planted a rather large garden, and now you have the produce coming like crazy. What are you going to do? The only answer, besides let it all go to waste, is preserve it in some way or another. We have briefly looked at root cellars; that’s one way to do it, especially for those crops that don’t can well (potatoes, carrots, melons, etc.). Tomatoes, beans, relishes and pickles, jams and jellies, and juices can very well; corn, squash, and peas freeze well. Preserving is yet another thing that must be done if the garden is going to be efficient. You can get lots of produce from it during the growing season, but it is worth so much more when you can still get produce from it, indirectly, in the winter. Some things, like herbs, dry well and can be stored in cool, dry places waiting to be put to use. Preserving is an excellent way to “stretch” you garden! There are lots of places out there to guide you step by step through just about any canning/freezing/drying/preserving method you could want.
We slightly touched on the topic of a “green” garden in this post. We mentioned the importance of truly organic gardening, and gave the reasons for avoiding the big companies. We also told about the fuel and grocery savings when you have your own in this article. So now I wanted to write about the amazingly aesthetic and flavorful benefits of an organic garden, and how you can be a part of an organic garden indirectly.
Can you ever drive by a beautiful, thriving garden and not think about how good the corn and beans taste? What about your grandparents? Wasn’t all the food out of their garden so much more flavorful than the exact same thing from the grocery store? That is because the fresh produce from the grocery store has to be able to be shipped all across the country or even world! Sometimes the produce is even harvested way before it’s ripe because it will ship better that way. Obviously this does nothing beneficial for the flavor. With the rising fuel prices the fresh section’s prices are also soaring. This is something you can help by growing your own. It doesn’t really matter, if you’re only going for flavor and savings, if you don’t know how to grow anything. Buy a couple of tomato plants down at the local co-op and water them well. Allow the tomatoes to get good and red before you pick them; almost nothing beats fresh, homegrown tomatoes. Of course, being if you’re going for a “green” garden, you can’t do this. The seed you use must be heirloom, so that you can save them for next year’s garden. And, obviously, you must save them! This is ultimately the best option, in my opinion, but there are a lot of things to learn in taking a step like that if you’ve never done a garden that way before.
I mentioned being a part of an organic garden indirectly earlier. This is another way to get delicious produce without actually doing the work yourself. Farmers markets are great for every-now-and-then customers, but if you love a variety fresh veggies all the time a CSA is the way to go. CSA is a Community Supported Agriculture. Most are vegetables, but some, where the laws allow, have farm raised meat too. Each week the operators of the CSA will put together a box or basket of the produce that is fresh that week. Granted you probably don’t have as much say in what you get like picking things out at a farmer’s market; instead you buy shares in the farm, and then pick your box up at an appointed time. Here is a good article about a new CSA explaining how it works. Here is their website.
Let’s take a few minutes to look at this aspect of gardening. First, glance at the interstate. What do you see? Despite the rising fuel costs there is little change from when fuel was reasonably priced. There are still a lot of cars, probably more SUVs, and tons of semi trucks. Focus in on the semis for a second. Now think, many of those semis are bringing in grocery items from various parts of the country and world. There are, in my opinion, at least two things wrong with this picture: 1) the food they often truck in is not the best quality, it’s nothing like you can grow; 2) diesel exhaust accounts for approximately 26% of the total hazardous pollution in the air, and 66% of the particulate pollution from on-road pollution. Those truck create noise and smog; they’re just not good for us or our environment. One way that we can do our part in not contributing to bringing those big trucks through our area is to buy locally grown produce from local suppliers. By reducing the demand it is conceivable that the trucks, who bring in the supply for the demand, will drastically reduce also.
Okay, so you don’t really want to pay the higher prices for the premium produce from the farmer’s market. How are you going to do your part? There’s that ugly patch of nothingness out in the back landscaping. Why don’t you turn that spot of uselessness into a lushious garden that gives you top-notch vegetables for not much more that your labor? This would be the best option because you would, at the same time, not demand anything from the suppliers who use the semis to truck the produce in, and reduce your own air pollution by not going to the grocery store or even the local farmer’s market. I would imagine that if you had a green roof this would also be a wonderful area to transform into a productive garden. Gardening can be very therapeutic. You can pull up weeds when you angry, and watch the plants grow when your meditative. They’re a great way to work out stress.
We had looked at green roofs and root cellars pretty well recently, so I think that this topic comes in quite seamlessly. Gardening is an excellent way to save on energy. Growing your own food would save a good bit of money both in the fuel it takes to get to the market and in the produce you would normally buy there. How extensive your garden is is entirely up to you, the amount you feel capable of handling, and how much space you have available both for the garden itself as well as the area for the food you decide to preserve.
If a garden is going to be truly “green” it should be based on heirloom varieties and utilize “organic” methods. If the garden is not primarily heirloom and “oraganic”, then it is necessarily connected to gigantic seed and chemical companies. These companies do not have a policy of protecting our environment through the production of good seed and safe chemicals. their policy is instead one of profit. They will sell whatever as long as it rakes in a bundle of money. As I thought about this article I took a look at one very major seed company and its policies. There are fears that this company has too much influence in the government and that it is developing “Terminator” seeds. Terminator seeds are those that cannot be saved. The mature plant develops seeds, but the seeds are unable to complete the natural cycle and grow into mature plants. This is feared by many because of its potential to completely wipe out the small farmer who has been growing and saving his own seed for generations. There is even a campaign that is completely against this seed company.
This is another reason for doing your own gardening. You are able to control what seed you are able to use and what chemicals you apply. It would be a major step in both personal and even national security if people would once more turn to gardening for their food supply. It makes complete sense that the more food products we import the more we make ourselves vulnerable to subversive attack. Just think for a minute, we import food from hostile countries as a political move. That is endangering the entire country by opening it up to any sort of poisoning that the hostile country could come up with. The inspections that the food undergoes is not perfect, and all the hostile country would have to do is come up with a new type of lethal poisoning that the inspections would not catch and they’d have the whole country in its power. We’ve got the same thing going on here in the food industry as we do in the oil industry! Think national security and personal protection, people! Pull your head out of the lion’s mouth quickly before he decides to bite!