Soil

If you have a farm with cattle, or simply live near one, you are already familiar with with cattle manure. Your experience of cattle manure is probably limited to its smell and the problem of safe...

Topsoil is an amazing substance, with billions of beneficial microorganisms in every square inch. But topsoil can be depleted by intensive agricultural activity, especially if you do not...

Using a compost tumbler for the home is the easiest and most efficient way to compost. The tumbler compost bin is different than the standard compost bin because it requires much less effort and...

Casing soil is an important component of mushroom growing. The unique growing conditions required by mushrooms calls for a soil that has excellent moisture retention and a dark, warm environment....

Healthy topsoil is essential for maintaining a healthy and thriving lawn and garden. Healthy topsoil has a healthy balance of minerals, is regularly watered and is loose enough to provide adequate...

A compost pile can be helpful to you and your family. It is a great way to do your part to be green. A compost pile can help you recycle roughly 35 percent of your yard and kitchen waste. There...

Blueberry bushes make up a large family of fruiting bush with species growing both above the Arctic Circle and well into the humid southern reaches of North America. Blueberries are related to...

Composting is a great way to get rid of excess yard waste and kitchen scraps without adding to the landfill or polluting the air with smoke from burning leaves. Not only is it the environmentally...

Compost is a great way to enrich the soil in your garden and recycle kitchen and yard waste at the same time. You could simply make a big pile of yard waste and kitchen scraps, and they would...

Composting is a great way to recycle yard and kitchen waste and enrich the soil in your garden at the same time, but many composting systems seem ridiculously complicated. Composting does not...

Composting is a great, environmentally friendly way to dispose of those piles of dry leaves. Not only do you avoid adding bags of leaves to the landfills, and prevent the air pollution caused by...

Your discarded orange peels make great composting material. They're rich in nitrogen, and adding them to your compost pile can help create a balanced, nutrient-rich humus that will help your...

Compost enriches soil by providing macronutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Gardeners recycle organic kitchen waste by adding such refuse as eggshells, coffee grounds and tea...

Composting is one of the best things you can do for the environment, as well as for your lawn and garden. It can be accomplished even in the smallest of outdoor spaces without worrying about lots...

Mulch prevents weeds and retains soil moisture, but after a few years it begins to look tired and worn in ornamental beds. Instead of tossing it out and wasting all that organic material, compost...

Soil is the foundation of any successful organic garden. It is impossible to raise bountiful harvests of healthy organic fruits and vegetables unless you start with soil free of the toxic...

In many areas aquatic plants have become invasive and are choking out the native species. Luckily, the fast growth of these plants can be leveraged and the plants used as a high-nitrogen nutrient...

Sandy soil is composed of large, coarse, rapidly-draining particles. Clay soil is made up of fine particles, which when compacted, causes soil to become waterlogged. A grower who knows the...

Not all types of soil are alike, and clay and sand represent opposite ends of the soil spectrum. In order to successfully grow plants in sand or clay, it helps to understand the unique...

Composting is the process by which organic matter such as table scraps, leaves and grass clippings are placed into an outdoor pile and allowed to decompose. The heat that is generated by the...

Composting is a great addition to any garden, and is an environmentally-friendly choice. Not only can you recycle kitchen scraps and yard waste, but you avoid chemical fertilizers that can seep...

Chicken manure has the highest content of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium of the animal kingdom and thus is a potent garden fertilizer. Although you can spread the fresh manure in the fall and...

Growing healthy organic produce in the home garden starts with good organic soil. The soil in container plants and seedling trays shouldn't be from a bag at the store, as these often are treated...

Compost is the black gold of gardening---with many metro governments encouraging city residents to reduce waste through composting, why not give it a try? Vermicompost is a great indoor or...

Composting is not only great for your garden, it's great for the environment too. The process is quite simple, and doesn't require any specialized equipment, chemicals or skill. All you need for a...

Composting yard and kitchen waste is not only great for the environment but great for your garden as well. Compost is an all-natural fertilizer that adds nutrients to your garden soil and improves...

Lemons are a useful fruit for many different cleaning jobs around the house. Gardeners also find lemon rinds to be useful for composting. When creating a compost mixture, nitrogen-rich "green"...

When using compost to amend a garden, you will encounter two types: finished compost and unfinished compost. Unfinished compost is compost that still contains microbes that break down the organic...

There are plenty of benefits to composting--it's a great way to recycle kitchen scraps and improve the quality of your garden soil at the same time. Unfortunately, it can take weeks or months for...

Worm castings provide a nutrient rich medium for plants and fauna to grow. Mixed into soil, a night-crawler excrement can drastically improve the quality through fertilization. Night-crawler worms...

Raised beds create a superior soil base for growing vegetables and flowers. Instead of depending on the quality of soil in the garden, raised beds give plenty of room for amending and improving...

Soil preparation is the first and most important step in gardening. Just as humans need nutritious food to thrive, plants need nutrient-rich soil to grow and produce flowers or fruit. Amending...

Converting your organic kitchen and garden waste into compost is an easy way for you to limit the growth of landfills, reduce your carbon footprint, and add healthy, rich nutrients to your garden...

Sheep, goat, cow, horse, chicken or bat---combine any of these manures with your compost and you will see positive results in your garden. These positive results typically last the length of a...

Ordinary newspaper can be a successful component of rich, useful garden compost. Newsprint is composed primarily of plant fiber, and modern newspaper inks are made from a safe soybean oil base....

Clay soil is difficult to grow lawns on because the soil particles are so fine that when water is added, these particles stick together, causing poor drainage and lack of airflow. The grass roots...

Composting is a process that speeds the breakdown of organic materials by creating the proper carbon to nitrogen level for organisms to feed on. This is accomplished by layering green nitrogen...

Crushed lime-rock powder can be added in the construction of your compost heap to assist in the raising of the pH balance of your end product. Lime serves as a microbe accelerator and, when used...

Pine needles make a good, attractive mulch for landscaping and perennial beds, but they decompose slowly and are slightly acidic. Together with their prickly nature, this makes them less useful as...

Plants grown in soil maintained under an organic system receive benefits from delicate microorganisms that are easily disrupted through the use of chemical fertilizers and soil improvers. Healthy...

A compost bin is a great way to store compost in the winter. If you do not have a compost bin, building one will provide you with a location to keep your compost protected until the spring...

Although an outdoor compost heap is a useful way to dispose of kitchen waste during the summer months, it may not be a viable alternative in cold winters. Vermicomposting, or composting with...

Sunflower seeds are in abundance at the end of a summer growing season. Each head of a sunflower produces dozens, sometimes hundreds of seeds. Anyone with a garden of sunflowers can end up with...

Turn your vegetable scraps into rich soil with worms. Watch microorganisms and macroorganisms at work. Composting with redworms allows them to digest and break down garbage; it also reduces plant...

Topsoil provides one of the most valuable resources on the planet, supplying the raw material to raise food and cleanse the air of dangerous toxins. A handful of healthy topsoil contains billions...

Getting natural, it's all the rage. And making your own compost right at home should give any greenie something to smile about. Soil has naturally occurring bacteria that break down organic waste...

Recycling the disposable remnants of nature's blessings to nourish the new growth is the role that composting plays in gardening and landscape maintenance. Compost bins are handy...

Worms spend their lives within the soil, processing organic matter and releasing that processed matter as waste. Worm waste products contain high levels of phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen. This...

Lawn clippings (cut grass) can break down--or decompose--and turn into rich and organic soil. However, lawn clippings make a better compost if they are mixed with other natural things such as...

Whether you are clearing out old trees or simply pruning bushes, you may have a pile of hardwood just waiting to be reused. Why not compost it and give it another life in nutrient-rich soil?...