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Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Help me compost, please
Never thought I'd be asking for this, but I would like some advice about a compost bin for the backyard. I'm *not* a big green thumb, but this year my plants suddenly decided to grow, so I'd like to start re-using our "garbage" to create good compost/soil for them to use, and to enrich the kind of junky sandy/clay soil we have in our beds.
The spot I'd like to keep it gets sun most of the day, and is protected on two sides by a short retaining wall and our garage. It's about 3 feet wide. Is this a decent space? I'm looking at one I can tumble, not something I have to turn with a fork. It has to be fairly compact and not too heavy, as I'll be the only one working it.
Thanks for any recommendations you can give.
Re: Help me compost, please
I'm a big fan of the supplies from Gardeners.com. I've always been happy with the quality of their products. They have a couple different compost tumblers, if you're set on using that type of model.
Good article all about composting: http://www.gardeners.com/All-About-Composting/5061,default,pg.html
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I know people who have tumblers and they work for them, but I'd like to chime in as a contrasting opinion. One of my favorite things about composting is that it is a cheap way to get good nutrients into your garden soil. To me, the expense of good tumblers is prohibitive, and if its green impact you are going for, typically households try to avoid introducing more shipped, manufactured, plastic junk to their homes. Also tumblers are limited in that they only hold so much, and you would be surprised at how much compostable material you can come up with.
Turning compost isn't as cumbersome or strenuous as you might think, and you don't really have to do it that often. Sure, ideally, compost should be rotated frequently, but its not an exact science. We have a pile in the back of our yard that H dumps leaves and grass clippings into, plus our kitchen compost, and it gets turned maybe 3 times a year. When we want good humus for the garden, we just dig into the center/bottom of the pile and its full of black gold. Easy, no start up investment, and low environmental impact.
Just some thoughts.
Just thought I would cast a vote in for vermiculture. If your bin is in the shade and you keep a good mixture of greens to browns, and wets to drys, worms are the way to go! Red wrigglers eat through TONS of garbage super fast, and you'll have rich worm castings to add to your garden in just a few weeks. I love my worm bin.
GL!