Composting
Composting is a great way to keep down waste while reusing your food scraps and green wastes to create new nutrient rich soil.
Some ways to compost:
- Dedicate a shady area outdoors to use as a Composting pile
- Rotating compost areas outdoors
- Barrel or Container Composting outdoors
- Vermicomposter, for breeding worms
- Indoor or Kitchen Composting in a container
- Keyhole compost gardening, permaculture (permanent agriculture)
- Lasagna layering gardening
Little Lakeview Conservatory LLC uses all of these methods to reduce, reuse and recycle our green waste.
Outdoor Composting:
Our outdoor area is located away from our business and family home. Here larger amounts of compost and green waste that we would not otherwise want decomposing closer to used spaces due to possible insects and wildlife animals that are attracted to it, are placed.
Some of the materials included in this mixture:
- Coal or charcoal ash
- Dairy products and eggs
- Some plants
- Fats, grease, lard or oils
- Meat and Fish Scraps
- Farm animal wastes
Semi annually we rotate this composting pile into a more matured pile in a secondary area. This process gives us nutrient rich soil that we can then use the following year for raised gardens and so on.
Barrel or Container Compost:
Avoiding the first list of ingredients that we might otherwise compost in our larger outdoor area we add green materials into a large Barrel container that is regularly rotated located near our raised beds. This makes for quick clean up of garden cuttings.
Outdoor Compost Collection Bucket:
To save time, we use a collection bucket for quick collection that is carried to the larger composting pile.
Also avoided for use in any composting situation:
- Animal waste (although some animals, such as our rabbits, are wonderful at making us fertilizer that we can use)
- Black Walnut Tree leaves or twigs
- Any green waste that may have chemical pesticides on/in it
Vermicomposter:
Vermicomposting is great for breeding worms for gardening or to use as bait for fishing. The EPA has a great link (located in our Additional Resources) with instructions for how to build one of these composting systems for yourself.
Indoor or Kitchen Composting:
If maintained properly, a kitchen composting system for collecting specific items is great for producing compost tea to fertilize your gardens.
Avoid the following materials in this mixture:
- Coal, charcoal ash
- Dairy products or eggs (although grinding a mix of egg shells up is a great way to add calcium to gardens growing plants that require it, such as tomatoes)
- Any diseased plants
- Fats, grease, lard or oil
- Meat or Fish scraps
- Animal waste
- Black Walnut Tree leaves or twigs
- Any green waste that may have chemical pesticides on/in it
Keyhole Compost Gardening:
If you have a large enough tall raised garden bed, placing a composting box with drainage holes can provide ongoing fertilization for your raised bed garden.
Again avoid the following:
- Coal, charcoal ash
- Dairy products or eggs (although grinding a mix of egg shells up is a great way to add calcium to gardens growing plants that require it, such as tomatoes)
- Any diseased plants
- Fats, grease, lard or oil
- Meat or Fish scraps
- Animal waste
- Black Walnut Tree leaves or twigs
- Any green waste that may have chemical pesticides on/in it
Lasagna Layering Garden:
We have used this method in our raised Kale and Lettuce gardens. The layers of green wastes helps fill the raised beds and provides fertilizer for the plants as is decomposes beneath the plants.
Layers placed in the Spaghetti Garden within your raised garden frame:
- Cardboard
- Twigs, Leaves and Yard cuttings
- Manure or Compost
- Additional Yard cuttings and used coffee grounds
- Additional Leaves
Leave these as is if your building this in the fall, to decompose over the winter. Or cover with dirt if you are building this in the spring for your gardening use.
Additional Resources:
All DIY projects shown on LittleLakeviewConservatory.com are purely "at your own risk". As with any DIY project, unfamiliarity with the tools and process can be dangerous. Posts should be construed as theoretical advice only. If you are at all uncomfortable or inexperienced working on these projects (especially but not limited to electronics and mechanical), please reconsider doing the job yourself. It is very possible on any DIY project to damage your cottage, void your property insurance, create a hazardous condition or harm or even kill yourself or others.
Little Lakeview Conservatory LLC will not be held responsible for any injury due to any featured DIY project.
Little Lakeview Conservatory, LLC was est. in 2019 to provide sustainable plants in NH and to share information to help people create self sustainability in their own homes.
Please feel free to contact us at LittleLakeviewConservatory@gmail.com be added to our email list or with any questions, requests and comments.
Little Lakeview Conservatory, LLC was est. in 2019 to provide sustainable plants in NH and to share information to help people create self sustainability in their own homes.
Please feel free to contact us at LittleLakeviewConservatory@gmail.com be added to our email list or with any questions, requests and comments.
