Composting

CompostingGarden MaintenancePodcastSoils & FertilizerVegetable

How to Grow: Earthworms

Learn about the benefits and problems with having earthworms in your soil. Listen to podcast: We all have played with the wiggly earthworm since childhood. As gardeners we've been taught to revere the earthworm as a master decomposer of organic matter and savior of plants growing on clay soils. But all is not what it seems with the earthworm. There is a dark side to this creature. First a little history. There are no native earthworms in North America. All the earthworms were wiped out in the last ice age 11,000 years ago. It was only when...

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CompostingGarden MaintenancePodcast

How To Grow: Composting

Learn some alternative ways to make compost beyond just building a pile. Listen to podcast: I have a confession to make. I'm not an active composter. I'd like to think the piles of organic matter I put together in fall will heat up and break down quickly, but invariably other chores take my attention and they slowly decompose to eventually be useable. This method works, but there are other alternatives for making compost right in the garden for those of us who aren't interested in layering, watering, and turning our compost piles to heat...

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CompostingGarden Maintenance

How to Grow: Food Scrap Composting

Learn about the best ways to compost food scraps in a small composter in fall and winter. Listen to Podcast: Although Vermont's new law on banning food scraps in landfills begins to take effect this fall, homeowners will still have a number of years to get their systems in place. But there's no reason to wait until the government tells you to do it. Food scrap composting is easy and produces great compost. Here's some tips to get started. Probably the easiest way to compost food scraps is to get a commercial composter. Plastic boxes are...

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CompostingGarden MaintenancePodcastVegetable

How to Grow: Composting in Place

Learn about composting your garden waste in the garden instead of moving it to a compost pile. Listen to Podcast: Like many gardeners, for years I would diligently clean up the veggie and annual flower gardens this time of year, pulling out dead plants and adding them to my compost pile. But in the last few years I’ve decided to compost in place. Instead of feeding the compost pile, I feed the garden soil in the beds directly. Here’s how it works. Instead of pulling out old broccoli, cabbage, pepper and bean plants, I cut them at the...

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