1. Composting helps you cut back on costs associated with maintaining a garden. Spending money on fertilizers and soil conditioners can get expensive, and it can get expensive fast. Composting will do the same thing as its pricey counterparts and since you’re using leftover scraps from your everyday life it’s essentially free! The quality of the soil directly relates to the quality of your garden, and composting will help vastly improve both of these.

1. Composting will help the soil retain water so you can water your garden less often. Watering less will help you save money without compromising (and actually improving) the quality of your garden. It’s a win-win situation all around. And since you are using organic matter there is less water contamination that your plants will have to fight off.

1. Composting is an organic process, so your garden incurs fewer chemicals. Anytime you can approach something naturally it’s going to be better, and composting is a completely natural process. Eliminating chemicals from your garden will not only help it, it will also help the environment. In addition, it can also help repair soil that has been damaged over time.

1. Composting provides your fruits and vegetables with essential nutrients. By using composting to fertilize your soil you are providing your fruits and vegetables with essential micro- and macro-nutrients that they would be otherwise deprived of receiving. These nutrients are released at a steady pace that helps your plants benefit because they are able to take in much more of them.

1. Composting provides your plants with a stable environment. Using compost helps to fend off pesky weeds that seem to pop up out of nowhere and encourages your plants to grow strong and healthy. It can be difficult to properly provide your plants with the amount of fertilizer, water, and nutrients, and composting helps strike a natural balance between these things.

Composting is an easy way to help improve your garden and will offer you and your garden only advantages. You’ll spend less and at the same time have a healthier, fuller garden. Not to mention it’s incredibly easy to do so you really have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

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Coleen Torres, blogger at phone internet, save money on home phone, digital TV, and high-speed Internet by comparing prices from providers in your area for standalone service or phone TV Internet bundles.

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Potatoes are hungry plants so it is good to add some fertiliser to the soil now, before the potatoes are planted.

If the soil is fertile the potatoes will be able to reach their potential and yield well.

Apart from all the elements and minerals a good soil provides, potatoes particularly need:

1. nitrogen for leaf growth. Too much nitrogen results in too much leafy top, and not enough tuber development, so care must be taken not to overdo the nitrogen on potatoes.

2. potassium for tuber development. Wood ash and decaying comfrey leaves are good sources of potash.

mix-manure-into-seedbed

In the autumn or winter before planting:

Apply manure:

• well rotted farm yard manure, or compost, can be spread on the soil
• try hard to cover the soil evenly
• a 20Kg barrow load of manure per square metre is about right
• this should  provide sufficient potassium and phosphorus for the potatoes.  But on poor soils the potatoes may need a further dose of nitrogen when the leaves are growing
• the worms will drag the manure down and mix it into the soil
• the manure can be dug into the soil after Christmas when the soil is not too wet

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Warning- check that the manure has not come from hay, silage etc which has been contaminated with aminopyralid herbicides. If you are not sure where the manure has come from, or what the animals have been fed on, do not use it.  This contaminated manure either kills, or reduces the vigour of, potatoes.

If manure is not available:

• add 1kg/10m of general purpose fertiliser such as 6-24.24, 8-24-24, or 10-20-20 just before planting potatoes
• rake the fertiliser into the top of the soil

Do not add lime to garden where potatoes will be grown next year. Potatoes like a slightly acidic soil with a pH of just under 6.

Potatoes will respond well if fertiliser is applied to the garden before planting potatoes

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Shoddy used to be used by farmers to add organic matter to the soil.  In the 1950s, the brussell sprout fields of Bedfordshire were cheered up with the different coloured wools making up the shoddy which was put on the sprout land.

The advantages of using wool shoddy in the vegetable garden are:
* slow release fertiliser
* completely biodegradable
* rich organic source of nitrogen
* other elements beneficial to
* plant development
* slug deterrent

Wool shoddy makes an ideal mulch which acts as a:

* weed suppression
* soil moisture retention
* soil structure improver

Beneficial results from the use of wool mulch have been achieved in a range of trials on vegetables.

Greater top growth on wool mulched broad beans gave a heavier crop yield, showing that even nitrogen fixing legumes can benefit from an application of nitrogen rich pellets.
In a root crop – beetroot – using wool pellets allows earlier cropping. On the trial site wool mulched plants produced mature roots of harvestable size earlier than without by weeks.

Shoddy can be used in pellet form, where the pellets:

* act as a self felting mulch
* absorb and retain moisture; ideal to mix with soils and composts
* cut down evaporation; major reduction in watering costs
* help suppress weeds
* bio-degrade over 6 to 14 months, releasing organic nutrients
* are ideal as a water retainer and soil improver
* are natural mulch and soil conditioners
* protect soil
* are ideal for vegetable beds, container pots and hanging baskets

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The unique properties of sheep’s wool make it ideal for compost.  Sheep’s wool compost:

• retains moisture
• acts as a slow release fertiliser
• provides nitrogen
• is 100% natural
• sustainable
• has low carbon footprint

Lakeland gold is a sheep’s wool compost made on a small hill farm in the Lake District.

Wool based compost is ideal for use in hanging baskets and containers as it retains moisture and slowly releases the fertiliser.

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Steps to producing top quality compost:

* Get a low cost compost bin
* Place the bin on level, well-drained bare earth, so the worms can get in
* Start filling the bin with waste garden and kitchen organic material
* Remember compost needs the right mix of materials, called browns and greens, to give the right carbon:nitrogen ratio.
* Browns are high in carbon & include cardboard, paper, fallen leaves, dried flowers & woody stems
* Greens are high in nitrogen & include grass cuttings, vegetable peelings, fruit waste & teabags
* Compost which does not heat up within 24 hours (to 150-160F) needs more green
* Compost with an ammonia-like smell needs more brown
* Do not compost meat, fish, bones, dairy products, cooked food, coal ash, pet litter
* Chop large items into small pieces to help speed things up
* Cover to keep the compost moist, but not wet. If it is too dry add water, if it is too wet add some dry stuff like chopped newspaper

* Aerate the compost, occasionally, by making air pockets. The insects & worms that are breaking the compost down will need the oxygen. Poke a broom handle into the compost to make an air passage, or use a garden fork. Adding scrunched up paper will keep the compost open
* Speed up the composting process by adding a handful of soil or buy a compost accelerator (young nettles will do the same job)
* The compost will be ready to use after 9-12 months. It will be dark brown, moist, sweet-smelling and crumbly. It may have some earthworms in it.
* To release the compost, lift the bin, or if it has a hatch at the bottom, open it.

Use the compost as:

* a mulch on soft fruit and herbs
* a fertiliser for feeding the vegetables
* a soil improver

Making compost is an essential part of sustainable vegetable gardening.

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    * improves the soil
    * enriches the soil with nutrients
    * makes heavy soil lighter.

Cover the soil with a layer of compost about 2 inches thick. Then gently fold it in to the soil using a garden fork.

The compost can be old decomposed grass clippings; old, decomposed leaves; well-rotted farm yard manure; well-rotted horse manure; well rotted straw.

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1. Spread them on to the vegetable garden.

Coffee grounds are:

•     high in nitrogen
•     acidic – so spread thinly

2. Add coffee grounds to compost.

Compost should not contain more than 25% of coffee grounds

3. Use coffee grounds in a worm bin

Used coffee grounds are a valuable resource, and have three main uses in
the vegetable garden.

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Steps to producing top quality compost:

• Get a low cost compost bin
• Place the bin on level, well-drained bare earth, so the worms can get in
• Start filling the bin with waste garden and kitchen organic material
• Remember compost needs the right mix of materials, called browns and greens, to give the right carbon:nitrogen ratio.
• Browns are high in carbon & include cardboard, paper, fallen leaves, dried flowers & woody stems
• Greens are high in nitrogen & include grass cuttings, vegetable peelings, fruit waste & teabags
• Compost which does not heat up within 24 hours (to 150-160F) needs more green
• Compost with an ammonia-like smell needs more brown
• Do not compost meat, fish, bones, dairy products, cooked food, coal ash, pet litter 
• Chop large items into small pieces to help speed things up
• Cover to keep the compost moist, but not wet. If it is too dry add water, if it is too wet add some dry stuff like chopped newspaper
• Aerate the compost, occasionally, by making air pockets.  The insects & worms that are breaking the compost down will need the oxygen.  Poke a broom handle into the compost to make an air passage, or use a garden fork. Adding scrunched up paper will keep the compost open
• Speed up the composting process by adding a handful of soil or buy a compost accelerator (young nettles will do the same job)
• The compost will be ready to use after 9-12 months.  It will be dark brown, moist, sweet-smelling and crumbly. It may have some earthworms in it.
• To release the compost, lift the bin, or if it has a hatch at the bottom, open it.

Use the compost as:

• a mulch on soft fruit and herbs
• a fertiliser for feeding the vegetables
• a soil improver

Making compost is an essential part of sustainable vegetable gardening.

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The aims are to encourage more people to:

• compost their own garden and kitchen organic waste
• use compost to improve their gardens & grow better vegetables
• promote sustainable gardening
• understand the value of recycling organic waste

Compost Awareness Week is happening all over the world, and local events are promoting the importance of composting.  In the UK some local councils are giving away compost, and others are offering compost bins at reduced prices.  Details can be found on the Compost Awareness Week website.

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The aims are to encourage more people to:

* compost their own garden and kitchen organic waste
* use compost to improve their gardens & grow better vegetables
* promote sustainable gardening
* understand the value of recycling organic waste

Compost Awareness Week is happening all over the world, and local events
are promoting the importance of composting. In the UK some local
councils are giving away compost, and others are offering compost bins

at reduced prices. Details can be found on the Compost Awareness Week
website.

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