composting

My first forays into composting were utter disasters. Not simply failures, disasters. The first was in a plastic bin and quickly became overrun with fruit flies before I tossed the whole lot out a month later (following barely any decomposition). The second was in an open pile and grew mold before I tossed it out following… barely any decomposition after two full months. After finally getting sick of wasting my time with poorly-managed compost bins, I dug in and learned that my primary (but certainly not only) issue was one of mass....

Do you ever find it frustrating that the most expensive part of starting seeds is… the dirt? Seed trays are cheap, heat mats are cheap, even high quality seeds are cheap! Don’t believe me? Here’s the actual cost breakdown from my most recent round of seed starting: $16 for 10 seed trays of 72 cells each (which is overkill for most gardeners by far) $24 for twelve seed packets (planted across two trays with tons seeds left over to store) $6 for a seed heating mat (bought on sale, but there’s always one on sale on Amazon) 0$ for water as I just catch a little extra from the shower and seed trays need very little by volume $1 for a propagation tray (just a random flat plastic bin lid from Ikea) $30 for two 8 qt....

So you’ve decided to level up your composting game and introduce worms into the mix? Well that’s fantastic news because worm composting (aka vermicomposting) produces not only fantastic nutrients for your garden - it’s extremely efficient! Both cheap to set up and maintain, vermicomposting is a perfect complement to a traditional compost bin and the backyard chicken flock for turning food scraps into beneficial inputs for your plants. While there are a number of effective vermicomposting setups, this article will walk you through a cheap, effective, and super simple strategy....