You know you're doing something wrong when you have to weed your compost pile. On the other hand, those are the healthiest tomato plants I have this year... I'm curious to see what they turn out to be. There's a dahlia in there, too, to my surprise... One of my discarded trimmings back in the fall must have had some life in it, after all.

Making compost in a manure spreader, the recipe is simple, straw or wood chips as a bulking agent, food wastes, some weeds and some college students to mix it all together. Let bake for a few weeks and turn every now and then, and eventually you get wonderful compost. Plants will love you for it.

Our compost heap.

Bullocks' Permaculture Homestead

Orcas Island

890 Channel Rd

Deer Harbor, WA 98243

(360) 376-2773

www.permacultureportal.com/

September

16 other photographs from this group (not this one!) are published as:

'Compostion'

ISBN 9781-870736-17-6

17 large Premium colour photographs plus an Afterword

36 pages, 216 x 280mm, Hardback.

Retail price: £18 $25

Short Description: A book of 17 photographs taken of my compost caddy whenever I found the contents interesting because of the colours or composition of elements or both. The photographs were taken with natural light from a skylight which gives a variation in the speed and aperture used. This information is recorded on the facing page with date of capture. The camera used was always a Sigma DP2 with Foveon sensor.

See previews here:

stefan-szczelkun.blogspot.com/2018/09/compostion-advance-...

I moved the compost bin to the end of the yard. I spread the compost from it into the space where the garden will be.

Saving the world. We used to talk about who would do it and how the world would be saved when we were kids. Heck, most kids love that sort of imaginative lifestyle, arguing with friends which superhero was stronger. What villain would try to take over the world. And how it would be saved.

As adults, we have the power to do the saving now. And the world isn’t exactly trending in a positive direction as of late. I’m sure you’ve heard many opinions and read a handful of articles all covering the #Amazon #Rainforest fires.

No matter where you stand, though, there are a few things that are certain: climate change is happening, and it’s best to make some changes in your life sooner rather than later. You have the power to help save the world, just as every other person does. Why continue to leave it up to politicians to get the job done when that’s proven time and time again to simply not be enough?

So, what can you do? There are multiple things that are out there available as resources for you to get started, but the one we’re going to focus on today is composting. So, why does composting help so much?

Reduces trash in landfills

The more you can keep your #materials and #waste in circulation, the less it ends up sitting in a landfill doing no one any good and the earth more harm. If you can keep your food waste and paper waste (did you know you can put cardboard, like cheap moving boxes, in your compost bin?) out of trash, you’re reducing your impact on a landfill. (Bonus points if you recycle and effectively put nothing in the trash.)

Great for the soil and earth

By composting, you’re directly creating a place for fresh soil to grow. Having worms help the decomposition process only helps, as you’ll be able to make freshly made soil that can help other plants you may have grow stronger and healthier. It’s a win win for the #environment, your wallet, and your plants. And like we mentioned above, you can even put old, cheap moving boxes in your compost so long as they’re broken down and wet when you place it within. Since it acts like wood that’s fallen from a tree, it can only be nutritional for the soil and worms in your compost.

Limits food waste

The more food you toss out instead of trying to compost, the more you’re wasting things and opportunities. Why not try to make your food count, even if you don’t eat it all? Instead of letting it rot in a dumpster, you could be putting it back into soil for future food to grow. That’s thinking ahead in an extremely sustainable and environmentally friendly way.

This pile has been cooking for a few months, and it was time to spoon it out for mixing in with a new garden are I worked on today. There was a good three wheel barrows full of dark meaty dirt and lots of worms.

We collect vegetable scraps and coffee grounds each week and then throw them in a compost bin in the back yard.

This tomato volunteered from seed from tomatoes we tossed in the compost pile last year. It's finally putting on some fruit.

I moved the compost bin to the end of the yard. I spread the compost from it into the space where the garden will be.

For the kitchen to hold veggie scrapes, egg shells, coffee grounds, etc. before I add them to my compost barrel.

Two year old compost, screened to 5/8ths of an inch.

November

Now published with 16 other photographs from this group:

Compostion

ISBN 9781-870736-17-6

17 large Premium colour photographs plus an Afterword

36 pages, 216 x 280mm, Hardback.

Retail price: £18 $25

Short Description: A book of 17 photographs taken of my compost caddy whenever I found the contents interesting because of the colours or composition of elements or both. The photographs were taken with natural light from a skylight which gives a variation in the speed and aperture used. This information is recorded on the facing page with date of capture. The camera used was always a Sigma DP2 with Foveon sensor.

See previews here:

stefan-szczelkun.blogspot.com/2018/09/compostion-advance-...

Tom Gilbert, Executive Director of Highfields Center for Composting in Hardwick, Vermont, shows off some of the local compost. (Keith Shields, NHPR)

Our new compost pile. The sides are branches, simply stacked on top of each other. (That's a Helen and Scott Nearing plan)

my compost area tucked in the small corner at the side of the house.

Yeah I know it looks like a pile of straw, and it is. It just has a bunch of gross other stuff in it too, stuff like food wastes and some semi-completed compost, it gets technical, in the end it is really a nice addition to any soil, plants really like it.

The start of our composting.

Front view of motor and pulley reduction system

When I was looking at the thumbnails of pictures I had just dumped from camera to computer, I was wondering which dish this was a picture of. It was not until I looked at a larger version that I remembered having taken a picture of the church compost pile today. Unitarian Universalist Church of Jackson (Mississippi).

Composting is the recommend method for disposing of animal mortality. This facility is at Garrett College in McHenry, MD.

Maine-based permaculturalist Jon Ippolito helps rebuild the compost pile at Bonsallo Ave (South Los Angeles), residence of LA Green Grounds members Vanessa Vobis and Craig Dietrich (Photo by CD)

We have lots of little stinky worms down there

The soldier fly larvae in the compost bin in an all out orgiastic feast. The worms don't seem to mind competing with the larvae. Infact, I think the larvae break the food down quickly into something more manageable for the earth worms.