Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - The benefits of outdoor home composting:
- Feed your flowers
- Improve the soil structure
- Call in the beneficial insects and microorganisms
- Control weeds
- Create micro-ecosystems
- Save on refuse disposal costs
- Lessen your environmental impact
Get started:
- Select a location
- Lean the ratios of greens to browns
- Choose a form for your pile: the three bin system tends to work best for active gardeners
- Contact Natural Selections for assistance
Best Practices of a Home Composter: A way of Life
- Make it part of your routine
- Involve the family
- Practice organic lawn and garden care
- Let your grass clippings fall
- Mulch and reuse your autumn leaves
- Top dress with compost before mulching with leaves or bark mulch
- Mix in compost when planting, moving or renovating a garden
- Water wisely
Common Composting Problems:
- Animals? Avoid meat scraps, bury kitchen scraps
- Low Temperature? Turn your pile, make it bigger, check your water to color ratio
- Too Hot? Poke holes, decrease size, add brown
- Nothing Decomposing? Check moisture level, add green
- Smell? Ammonia smell: Add brown, Rotten smell: Turn pile, check for too much moisture
- Flies? Fruit flies are OK, maggots mean there is a protein source; use only plant material-no meat, butter, or oil should be added
Composting - High Level Review of Why Composting is a great idea! Contact me for more info!
Resources
Bow Tying - Click below to review the bow tying from your workshop with Michele
Tick Bite Prevention
Self-protection is the best way to prevent tick bites and associated illness.
Change your clothes when you come indoors after hiking or working in the garden.
Launder clothing after hiking or garden work, dry on hot settings.
Treat clothing, including shoes and garden gloves with permethrin according to package directions
Check your body for ticks daily, year round!
If selecting personal insect repellant, the EPA suggests that any product with DEET should have a concentration between 20 and 30 percent of the active ingredient
Avoid whole-yard spraying, these products kill all the insects in your yard and garden, even the beneficial insects!
Precautions:
- Permethrin, available in a convenient spray bottle at REI stores or REI.com, is a chemical that is highly toxic to bees, fish, tadpoles, and cats (once dried not an issues for cats).
- Do not spray in or near water sources, or on blooming plants, make your tick tubes outside on a non-windy day.
- Only spray on gardening clothes and gloves while not wearing them. Spray till wet and hang to dry. Once dry clothing is safe to wear, chemical is good on material for up to 6 washings. You can also treat hiking boots and camping gear this way.
- Purchase Permethrin with at least 5% active ingredient.
- Always wear rubber gloves when handling Permethrin in the wet form (It’s ok to touch once dry). Always wear eye and breathing (mask) protection when spraying or treating any material.