Composting, the process of turning kitchen and yard waste into organic fertilizer, is a fantastic practice for many reasons. First, it reduces landfill waste dramatically. Upwards of 40% of landfill space goes to food and yard waste. Cities around the world are realizing the benefits of composting as it saves huge amounts of money on landfill fees and even creates a revenue stream through sales of organic fertilizer. Even if you don’t have a home garden, you can do something good for the environment by composting your food and yard waste. Visit this site if you would like to find a composter in your area.
If you do have a family garden or are planning to explore the possibilities of making extra income from a small scale farm (either urban or in the countryside) then composting is a must. You can create abundant supplies of organic, natural fertilizer from your compost bins or buckets that will save you time, money and best of all, is great for the environment. The run-off of chemical fertilizers is responsible for creating dead zones in our lakes, rivers and oceans, so using natural fertilizer from composting is a fantastic way of doing your part to have a smaller footprint.
Easy Composting
Here’s a short video explaining how easy composting is and what benefits to expect from this ancient but often forgotten skill:
How to Make Compost
There are many ways to make compost. The most typical are to use large bins which can sit in your backyard and require minimal effort. Another approach which an urban gardener friend of mine used, is to get used shipping pallets (often available at grocery or big box stores), then build a giant box to hold a mixture of yard and kitchen waste.
This is a bit more involved as it requires more maintenance, like turning the compost pile at regular intervals plus using pretty defined ratios on the types of waste. You also may need to add in some chicken wire to keep rodents or raccoons out. But it’s certainly a workable option of you’re on a budget.
If you can’t wait to dive into the wonderful world of composting, then you can check out this great composting e-book (which also has an audio version) that has hundreds of tips about how to create a great composting system for your garden or family farm.
