Showing posts with label Gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gardening. Show all posts
Making Your Uwn Compost Bin
Some commercially available compost bins have their own systems or devices for turning over the compost. Some have harvesting trays or mechanisms for easier harvest. But those things are just add-ons and are made for added convenience for the consumer. You really don’t need such stuff. All you need is basic enclosures to keep the compost materials from being scattered around the area.
Possibly the only limitations you have in making your compost bin is the amount of imagination and ingenuity you have. Fortunately, you can look in your storage room or garage and look for suitable materials and most likely you will find some quite suitable ones. They can be made from heavy plastics or wood or tin. Like I said, it’s just a matter of how you handle the “paints” to create a “masterpiece”.
One of my suggestions would be using a wire mesh, a couple of wood planks or even pipes. The idea would be like creating a simple wired fence around your compost pile with the pieces of wooden plans or pipes as support. You can tie the wire mesh to the pipes or planks to make it more secure. The shape is up to you. You can make it round, square, rectangular or even triangle shaped.
Just keep in mind that you will need to have quick access to the compost pile to turn it over at least once each weak. You can create a doorway from the wire mesh or you can make your enclosure in such a way that you can easily lift and put back the whole enclosure.
Also, if you have some left over wooden slats from an old fence or wooden planks from an old shed, I’m sure you can assemble a quite sturdy compost bin in your backyard. Just make sure to let the air in by allowing spaces between the wooden boards. This will keep the air flowing inside the compost pile make decomposition quicker. If you have enough loose boards lying around, you can create a dresser-type compost bin complete with a door with hinges for easy access to the compost pile.
You can even fashion one from your garbage can. Look for an old can where you can afford to experiment without being scolded by your wife or your mother later one. What you need to do is punch a couple of holes in your garbage can to allow the air to circulate in the soon composting materials. You just put your composting materials inside the can. Before you cover it, wet the materials inside until they appear damp.
You can turn over or roll it around to let the materials mix while always keeping the compost pile damp. When storing the trashcan compost bin, if would be best to place it above ground. In a month or so, you should be able to get satisfactory results from all your effort.
You see, making your own compost bin is very easy. You just need to consider the following fundamentals: air should flow inside the bin, you should have quick access to the compost pile, and you should be able to wet the pile when needed.
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The Big Deal on Industrial Composting Techniques
In-Vessel Method
The in-vessel method, as suggested by its name, involves closed reactors. This is synonymous to closed bin composting method in residential scale, but instead of small bins, we are talking of metal tanks or concrete containers that are herculean in size. As a result, factors such as flow of air and temperature are controlled more effectively.
Some companies also put additional cover layers atop the metal tank or enclosed composting container to ensure complete isolation from external elements. Ventilation and insect infestation are often controlled by layering, constant cleaning and additional aeration processes on the affected layers.
MBS technique
MBS is the acronym for mechanical biological treatment system. It is a facility that helps sort materials using the composting technique. The scientific term for composting, in this case, is anaerobic digestion. This has instant practical applications in helping sort waste from residential abodes as opposed to industrial wastes which may be more hazardous and larger in number. This waste management technique is praised for its ability to help ensure biological safety of the environment.
Sheet Composting
The heap is often the method used for composting, but in the case of sheet composting, it the organix materials are placed directly on the soil you are intending to fertilize. Then it functions as a mulch when it decays there. The common materials used here are alfalfa and mustard. But the only downside is that it can rob off the nitrogen in the soil.
But adding green manure crops like clover can help sustain the lagging nitrogen supply in the roots. Most of the supporters of sheet composting claim that in the long run, this is more effective and able to retain more minerals in the soil than other techniques.
High Fiber Method
Wales invented this high fiber method of industrial composting and with great success so far. It involves rigorous stirring and even distribution of materials all throughout the pile. And then the aeration and surface area of the entire compost pile will improve with this symmetry. The compost pile consists of cardboard, newspapers and other forms of used paper.
It is also well-suited for household composting but then it is currently being performed on a laboratory in Wales for further monitoring. This solution was offered as a way of helping reduce pressure in waste landfills. If paper products are used as a material for composting, excluding the poisonous risk of colored ink, it really has a high potential of success.
ASP Method
ASP or Aerated Static Pile method of composting has both active and passive elements to it. The heap is placed on holed pipings that allow circulation without having to manipulate or turn the entire compost heap, as in other industrial composting techniques.
It completely relies on air for the bulk of the operation, and is extremely helpful for making sure that the passive and active elements are both in play.
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To Compost or Not to Compost
There are a several organic materials that should not be included in the compost pile unless you know how to do it properly while there are other materials that should not even be attempted even by the experts. To compost or not to compost, that is indeed the question. And let’s see if we can provide the answers.
For home composters like you and me, we have a number of materials available inside our own home and even our own backyard. The big, industrial composters have a little advantage over us. They can compost more materials than us because they have the facilities to divert, mask, or absorb the odor that may come out from composting a lot of organic stuff. We don’t have the same luxury. We don’t want our neighbors organizing a protest rally against our composting in our own backyard, now do we?
Don’t let this worry you though, there are still a lot of materials that we could include in our compost pile. Let’s begin with something our front lawn is always dying to dispose off: excess grass. Yep, grass clippings from our lawn can be put to better use like for the compost file in our backyard. In situations where you have hay instead of grass clippings, that could work as well.
Using hay for composting is often practiced by farmers. You will find that farmers are more than willing to dispose of that hay. And when it comes to using hay for composting, be sure to pick the greener ones. Green hay means it still has a lot of nitrogen in it.
Others include kitchen wastes such as vegetable peels, fruit rinds, tea bags, eggshells and coffee grounds. These substances contain high levels of nitrogen. Make sure, however, to keep pests away from your kitchen wastes. Some would prefer to prepare a compost bin intended for their kitchen wastes. Others would prefer burying these wastes in eight inches of soil. And because they precisely attract pests, it would be best to stay avoid including scraps of meat, milk products and left over bones.
Wood chips, wood shaving, saw dusts, paper, and other wood products are generally good to included in your compost pile. However, be sure to stay away from chemically-treated wood products. Arsenic is one of the highly toxic chemicals that is sometimes used to treat wood. Using sawdust from such treated wood products is a no-no since the chemical will leak into the soil causing more harm than good.
Speaking of no-nos, there are other things that you should not include in your compost. Plants that died due to a disease should not be included. There is still a possibility that the disease the caused the death of the plants might infect your future plants.
And similarly, human, dog and cat wastes are not uses as composting materials as well precisely because they contain organisms that could cause disease. Such disease might cause people to be sick or might affect your plants.
Even though grasses can be used for composting, it would be best to avoid weeds like morning glory, ivy, sheep, and kinds of grasses that could grow in your compost pile. The weeds seeds also can survive the composting pile which can be carried to your new garden.
So going back to our earlier question: to compost or not to compost? Composting is something that is ideal for your garden. However, choosing the right materials will determine how successful your compost pile will be.
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