Organic Gardener's Composting

Organic Gardener's Composting By Steve Solomon This particular book gives me an audience problem. Simultaneously I have two quite different groups of composters in mind. What one set wants the other might find boring or even irritating. The smaller group includes serious food gardeners like me. Vegetable gardeners have traditionally been acutely interested in composting, soil building, and maintaining soil organic matter. We are willing to consider anything that might help us grow a better garden and we enjoy agricultural science at a lay person's level. The other larger audience, does not grow food at all, or if they do it is only a few tomato plants in a flower bed. A few are apartment dwellers who, at best, keep a few house plants. Yet even renters may want to live with greater environmental responsibility by avoiding unnecessary contributions of kitchen garbage to the sewage treatment system. Similarly, modern home owners want to stop sending yard wastes to landfills. These days householders may be offered incentives (or threatened with penalties) by their municipalities to separate organic, compostable garbage from paper, from glass, from metal or from plastic. Individuals who pay for trash pickup by volume are finding that they can save considerable amounts of money by recycling their own organic wastes at home. Includes sections on’ What Is Compost Composting Basics Nutrients in the Compost Pile Practical Compost Making Hot Composting The Fertilizing Value of Compost Evaluating Nitrogen Content Methods and Variations Building Your Own Bin Sheet Composting Mulch Gardening Vermicomposting Locating the Worms Setting Up a Worm Box Feeding the Worms Fruit Flies Maintenance Garbage Can Composting Composting for the Food Gardener Microbes and Soil Fertility Maintaining Soil Humus Climate and the Nutritional Quality of Food Soil Mineral Content by Climate Area Fertilizing Gardens Organically Making Superior Compost Charging the Compost Pits