Handsome Ceramic Compost Crock Stores Scraps for Compost, Stops Odors

Collecting kitchen scraps for composting shouldn't detract from your kitchen decor. This sleek ceramic crock is attractive enough to keep on the kitchen counter, so there's no need to hide it under the sink. Glazed inside and out, the crock will never stain or absorb food odors, and it has an activated carbon filter to trap odors. Dishwasher safe, too! Includes one filter that lasts up to two months. For under $35 dollars you can solve your composting woes for good!.  More info here.

Tumble Weed!

Rest your back and give your hands a break. There’s no need to fork and lift when you use the Tumbleweed Compost Bin.

The Tumbleweed’s unique tumbling motion means easier and more convenient operation. Just add kitchen and yard waste to the 58-gallon bin, and with a quick spin, you can create a rich compost mix in as little as 21 days.

The patented design of a stainless steel center rod and vented lids allow air and moisture to be evenly distributed by the tumbling action.

Constructed of UV-coated hardened polyurethane, the bin measures 46 inches tall, 36 inches wide and 34 inches deep.

The Tumbleweed Compost Bin is available from Abundant Earth.

--Andy Summa
 

BETTER THAN A BUG LITE!

• Organization for Bat Conservation
• Bat Conservation International
   

...that about one third of our garbage consists of organic materials from our kitchens and yards. Most of this could avoid going to landfills if we compost...
 

VERMICULTURE:

• Magic Worm Ranch

• Worm Woman

• Worm Farm

• Yelm Worm Farm

• Happy D Ranch

• Worm Digest

• Worm Mans Worm

Worm Farm - Creating the Black Gold
By Andy Summa

Jonathan Craig, owner of wormfarm.com and self-proclaimed Worm Shepherd, doesn’t think worms have gotten the credit they deserve. The unseen worm, quietly aerating, tilling and fertilizing the soil, is a partner in the fight to save the environment, Craig said.

“It's the simplicity of it," he told the Yakima Herald-Republic. “All the natural resources are just sitting there for free. I'm taking all the waste that's sitting there for free, and turning it into black gold. And the byproduct is, hey, I'm an environmental hero.”

Craig’s wormfarm.com sells products that glorify the efforts of worms, which fertilize and aerate the soil without the aid of nasty pesticides and herbicides. Worms are clean, eat almost any nasty thing you can think of, and produce rich, organic compost.

Earthworms excrete a highly nitrous fertilizer (called castings), which contain five times the available nitrogen, seven times the available phosphorous, three times the exchangeable magnesium, eleven times the available potash, and 1.5 times the calcium found in 6 inches of topsoil.

You can build up your garden with rich, power growing organic soil. Garden plants will be bigger and juicier than ever before, Craig said.

Two pounds of red worms, approximately 2000 of them, will eat one pound of compost every 48 hours. Worms eat coffee grounds, table scraps, melon rinds, newspaper -- you name it. They even like small amounts of cow dung to nibble on. Their favorite dish seems to be coffee grounds mixed with ground up apples or carrots from a juicer.

To order worms, composters and other products, call (504) 469-6289 or check out their website, wormfarm.com. Just ask for the Worm Shepherd.

Andy Summa is a freelance writer in Sugar Land, Texas.
 

GENERAL:

• Composters.com
• Gardeners
• Abundant Earth
• Gardens-Alive
• All Things Organic
• Recycled Plastics Marketing
• The Natural Gardening Company

INFO & RESOURCES:

• The Compost Resource Page
• Composting Council of Canada
• The Humusphere
• Journey to Forever
• Worm-a-Rama