Composting-the ultimate in recycling

-----THE GARDEN GNOME




Composting, I use all of my kitchen scraps, no animal or dairy products, but I do use lots of well-washed egg shells, coffee grounds and tea bags. Banana peels are terrific to use also, I use my garage blender to render all of the veggie stuff to a pureed mess that worms like to eat. I use something called a Garden Gourmet to make my compost. It has lots of ventilation and can be made smaller by removing some of the side slats. I layedr the bottom with twigs, then a layer of dirt, then leaves, more dirt, more leaves, more dirt, some manure, more dirt until it gets to the top. I use a sawed off hay fork to turn it often. Every time I have a blender full of compost fodder I pour it over the top of my compost and then turn it. I actually get quite addicted tgo my thrifty ways of making garden gold fertilizer. The Garden Gourmet has a slide up door on the bottom for removing all the lovely black stuff for tossing in my garden. I fertilize my garden three times a year, once before planting, once in the middle of summr and again in fall. Last year I raked up as many leaves as I could to fill my garden [the snow came really early] covered the leaves with tarps to keep them from blowing away and left it all to rot in the ground until I got it re-tilled again this year. The soil is so rich the difference between it and the surrounding dirt is remarkable. I also use lots of leaves to mulch the garden between my plants to keep down the weeds and to hold the water in the soil. All of this is labor and not much in the way of money, a nice savings that I am praying will pay off in a bounty of healthy food for my family.

Everyone needs at least one of these for their emergency kits:
pure-go filtering water bottles
It lasts for approximately 1 year. If a person drinks 3 bottles of water per day the cost of the bottle is equals less than 3 cents per fill up.

Grow your own:heirloom seeds

about fertilizers

-----THE GARDEN GNOME

Question: what kind of fertilizer is natural?
Answer:

Compost, animal manure [composted to rid it of e. Coli] I use bunny poo straight, it has no urine in it to burn the plants. Chicken manure in manure tea, yes I put mine in a pillow case suspended in a fifty gallon drum of rain water to ladle loving on my veggies. I don't recommend any pet manure or night soil because of the density of the former and the bad germies in the latter. Night soil or humanure is why you can't eat fresh veggies or drink the water in Mexico. Horse manure or whinny poo, is good if well composted. I like to toss some cow poop or bullpucky in my composter along with kitchen scraps [use only non animal scraps like veggie stuff or eggs shells, tea bags and your coffee grounds for best results, in the composter, I like to dig up a few hundred worms for my composter too, Also I put any mushrooms I find in my composter, lots of brown leaves and very small twigs.] fats, milk products and meats are not for composting. I waste nearly nothing and all goes into my composter with those exceptions. I also have a compost heap and piles of composting leaves in the woods behind our house so that they can eventually be used in my garden.

All manure can be turned into manure tea which is readily available for fertilizing your gardens whether you are flower growing or veggie planting.

I'm kind of addicted to composting and use it a lot in my gardens, if anyone offers me animal bedding or their accumulated poo, I'll use it too.

Chemical fertilizer and poor farming methods have just about ruined our farmlands and we indeed have none left that is at all considered healthy. Chemical fertilizers have only three ingredients, N=nitrogen, P=phosphorus, and K=Potassium. These are not the only things fertile soil needs and often the proportions are wrong, so adding manure is best along with God's idea of allowing fields to go fallow every 7 years. Many times a really good husbandman will add a cover crop to his fallow fields, this keeps it from blowing away in a stiff wind and if it's the right crop, it will add stuff like nitrogen to the soils. Not allowing the soil to rest, not giving it proper fertilizers will ruin your garden every time.

Everyone needs at least one of these for their emergency kits:
pure-go filtering water bottles

If you are going to garden and have your own food supply- grow the healthiest foods from Heirloom seeds orchardhouse heirlooms

NO ADDICTIONS NO WASTE

I have always felt strongly that the worst thing to have in times of lack and want are addictions. How awful will they suffer who can no longer get their cigarettes, the soda pop, alcohol or their medications,[drugs are drugs whether legal or illegal-they create dependence]; even if we are simply dependant on certain products we use on our bodies and hair, they also will not be available indefinitely.
If their loss will be felt as strongly as a withdrawl then it's best to start withdrawing now. Times are going to be hard and to add to that an overpowering craving will just make us unnecessarily miserable.

Storing up some food items, especially the ones you will actually eat is a really good idea. Just bulking up on staples if you can't use them in basic cooking is not terribly helpful.

Learning to cook healthy basic meals using few ingredients is a great idea. I'd like to suggest that you subscribe to The Hillbilly housewife, she often has great recipes and tips for good simple meals.

The second thing I wanted to address here is stopping the waste. Buying things with fewer wrappings is one way, but also not wasting foods/goods is another. Try not throwing that item of clothing away just because a few stitches are missing in the hem or seem, learn to fix it, did you lose weight, learn to alter your clothes. And as for food, many kitchen scraps can be put into a composter so your small kitchen garden can be ammended in a natural healthy way. If you start looking at your life and how you live as a cycle of acquiring, care and finding the best ways of extending life to your belongings you'll see that there are many many ways to economize.

We need water to drink so wasting water is not a good idea either. Clean water [called potable] should be reserved just for drinking. Wash water can be used and reused before discarding.

This is just a start and if anyone has more they want to add please feel free to in the comments section.

Everyone needs at least one of these for their emergency kits:
pure-go filtering water bottles

If you are going to garden and have your own food supply- grow the healthiest foods from Heirloom seeds orchardhouse heirlooms