India, 2023. A small bin stands in a lab, filled with organic waste. But this is no ordinary compost bin. The compost is moving and shifting. Along the top crawl insects. Cockroaches. Welcome to the world of blatticomposting – a form of composting that could help deal with the mountain of organic waste countries like […]
Cockroach Composting: Turning Trash into ‘Frass’ Read More »
Back in the 19th century, Albert Howard, considered one of the fathers of composting, was a big fan of adding lime to compost. In recent decades, though, the practice has been discouraged by many composters who see it as unnecessary. After all, lime is alkaline. While compost goes through some major pH swings, it usually
Does Lime Really Speed Up Compost? Read More »
“The problem we found with our manure bin,” my colleague, Matt, said, “is a dark brown material liquid out of the holes and staining the floor.” We were discussing using homemade compost bins to heat polytunnels in winter. My colleague had successfully heated his polytunnel over the winter with manure and some garbage bin composters.
Compost Leachate: Valuable Fertilizer or Potential Hazard? Read More »
Did you know that the US and EU each produce a whopping 1.4 billion tonnes of manure a year? * In short, that’s an extraordinary amount of organic material that, if used correctly, can enrich our soils and nourish our plants in extraordinary ways. There’s so much around that it’s often free (if you collect
Manure v. Compost: Learn the Difference! Read More »
Have you ever noticed all the gardening tips that flood tabloids at the start of the gardening seasoning? You know the sort of thing – “This one tip will supercharge your plants says expert” and the like. One that made the rounds this year was the use of coffee grounds, with ‘experts’ advising us to
The Garden’s Barista? Worms’ Impact On Coffee Grounds Read More »
Got a slow compost heap? Then you might well be on the lookout for a compost accelerator or activater. I get it – as a compost nerd, I’m always keen to speed up my own compost. As a result, I’ve spent years researching different ways to activate the compost and trying out (mostly free!) activators.
Compost Activators: Do They Work? (Plus 6 Free Alternatives You Can Use) Read More »
Would you ever use fresh compost in the garden? One friend of mine did, and used to wax lyrical about the benefit of free municipal compost. “It’s still hot, James – it warms the soil in the spring!” Much as I loved him, he was completely wrong in this case! Fresh compost can be high
Compost Maturity Matters: Why Fresh Isn’t Always Best Read More »
As my wife will happily say (and often does!) my DIY skills are appalling. In fact, I’m banned from doing anything in the house. Some compost projects, though, are so easy, even I can do them. I’ve previously covered DIY pallet bins and a garbage bin composter, and . This DIY worm bin is even
How to Build A Simple Worm Composting Bin In Just 20 Minutes Read More »
21st June 2023 Love your popcorn? Then you might be pleased to hear that compost doesn’t just improve soil and nutrition – it also increases how well popcorn pops! That’s the latest findings of a study from South Africa, which has revealed that compost increases the ‘popability’ of popcorn. (Popability, apparently, is common parlance in
Compost Makes Popcorn Pop Says Study Read More »
Want to learn how to make faster, better compost with no extra effort? While it’s important to learn the basics first, once you’ve mastered those, you can use one or several of the hacks below to get better quality compost faster. Do note there is a lot here AND I regularly update this article as
14 Hacks to Make Compost Faster & Better—Free Course Read More »