Paper and cardboard provide a good carbon source for composting, and they are also used for sheet mulching and lasagna gardening, but is it safe to use paper and cardboard in the garden?
Bleached paper contains chlorine and dioxin, a known carcinogen. Inks contain heavy metals and BPA is used in some types of paper. Much of this paper is recycled and the recycled paper contains these various chemicals. Is it safe to compost paper and cardboard?
Fish fertilizer is a common organic fertilizer that is recommended for both houseplants and the garden. It has a strong following and its proponents feel that it is better than any other type of fertilizer, but how does it really stack up against the most common organic fertilizer; compost?
Fish fertilizer – are the accolades true, or a bit fishy?
Everyone wants to be green and now you see a lot of compostable plastic on the market. Is compostable plastic really compostable? Can I add it to my compost bin? How long does it take to decompose? These are all good questions that gardeners should be able to answer.
My Master Gardener group had a year end party and one member brought some compostable plastic drinking glasses. As I was collecting them at the end of the evening I started to wonder how well they decomposed. I had previously looked into compostable tea bags and was surprised by what I learned. Are these drinking glasses just some more greenwashing?
In this post I’ll discuss compostable plastic, compare that to biodegradable plastic, and explain the role of all of these in the garden.
Composting is an integral part of gardening that has been carried on for generations. That has led to a lot of composting myths. What can you add? What can’t you add? Is it difficult? Do you have to follow specific methods to make it work?
In this post I will answer all of those questions and more, by looking at 27 common composting myths.
What is the best manure for the garden? This question is routinely debated on social media providing a wide range of opinions. Some say chicken manure is great but others say it’s too hot and will burn plants. Horse manure can be used almost fresh, but cow manure needs to be composted. Sheep manure is higher in nutrients and sheep digest their food more fully – is that important? Some swear by rabbit manure.
Many of these discussions consist of a lot of opinions, but they’re very weak on facts. In this post I’ll look at the science and try to determine which manure is best.
Is it safe to use coffee grounds in the garden? Coffee grounds are routinely recommended for the garden but in the last couple of years I’ve seen several articles about the possible harm coffee grounds do to plants and soil. Just because it is free organic material does not mean it is something you should be using.
In this post I will look at several of the claims made agaisnt using coffee grounds in the garden and determine their validity.
There is concern that composting produces carbon dioxide and we all know that CO2 contributes to climate change. Does this mean that backyard composting by gardeners is contributing to climate change? Is this a practice we should stop in an effort to control rising temperatures?
It is a real dilemma for gardeners and especially organic gardeners. Just when you thought you were doing something good for the planet you find out that you may be causing harm.
Does composting contribute to climate change, and is there something gardeners should do different?
Sunflower seeds are good for feeding birds. They are relatively cheap, easy to handle, and birds love them. There is only one problem – the hulls. By spring the ground under bird feeders is covered with sunflower seed hulls.
Very little seems to grow under a feeder and many have heard that the sunflower hulls are allelopathic and that the allelochemicals prevent other plants from growing. There are even lists of plants on the internet that are affected by these chemicals.
There is also a concern about disposing sunflower seed hulls. Is it safe to compost them? Should they be put into the garbage? Can they be used as mulch? In this post, I’ll answer these questions by looking at the science.
Fall leaves are a great resource of nutrients for the garden but if you use them incorrectly, they can rob your soil of nitrogen and make it difficult for plants to grow. This is especially true in a vegetable garden where you are trying to grow things quickly from seed.
In this post I discuss the decomposition of fall leaves and explain how to properly use them in the garden. In the process you might discover some interesting things about your compost pile.
Mushroom compost is used a lot for gardens but it comes with a warning, don’t use too much because it contains a lot of salt. I have been aware of this for a long time, and I have even cautioned people about using too much. Salt can harm plants and it only makes sense not to use a product loaded with salt.
I always wondered why mushrooms would be grown with high levels of sodium. Are the fungi that different from plants? Do they need high sodium levels? A little online research started to make things clear. It turns out to be a good example of the confusion caused between salt and salt – something every gardener should understand.
I am seeing the term soil factory used more often, usually in discussions about Bokashi or Vermicomposting. I’ll restrict this blog to discussions about Bokashi, but most of the comments also apply to Vermicomposting.
It is claimed that Bokashi ferment, the material remaining after the fermentation process, can be used to make soil, which can then be used for house plants or in the garden. This would be quite a feat if true. It takes nature millions of years to make soil and now Bokashi enthusiasts can do it in a couple of weeks.
Bokashi is a fermentation method used for processing kitchen scraps in the home with very little mess and no foul odors. Some claim that bokashi is a method of composting, but that is incorrect, as discussed in Bokashi Composting Myths.
What exactly is bokashi? We call it a fermentation process but what does that mean? How does fermentation compare to composting on a molecular level? Does one method have advantages over the other?
