Why Make Compost?

Compost is one of natures best mulches and soil amendments, and you can use it instead of commercial fertilizers. Best of all, compost is cheap. You can make it without spending a cent. Using compost improves soil structure, texture, and aeration and increases the soils water-holding capacity. Compost loosens clay soils and helps sandy soils retain water. Adding compost improves soil fertility and stimulates healthy root development in plants. The organic matter provided in compost provides food for microorganisms, which keeps the soil in a healthy, balanced condition. Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus will be produced naturally by the feeding of microorganisms, so few if any soil amendments will need to be added. No garden is complete without a compost pile! Compost is a soil conditioner, mulch and fertilizer all wrapped into one. It feeds the soil microorganisms that help plants stay healthy, adds nutrients to the soil, and helps clay soil drain better and sandy soil retain water. Plus, composting reduces your contribution to the waste stream by recycling yard and kitchen waste into the world's best soil amendment. Here's how to build a pile that breaks down fast and never smells bad.

How to Make Compost

Things You'll Need
Spading fork, Green material (i.e. grass clippings), Brown material (i.e. dry leaves), Shovel, Hose

1.Choose a site that is handy to your garden and kitchen, yet out of plain sight. 2.You don't need a bin to make compost-a pile of leaves, grass clippings and other yard wastes will do-but a bin keeps the compost contained and looks neater. You can corral compost in a simple wire column made from a 4-foot wide by 8-foot long piece of stiff wire mesh. 3.You can also buy a more permanent bin or build a three-bin compost system made from slatted wood or recycled pallets. Leave the bins open on one side so you can add compost materials and turn the pile easily. Cover the top of the bins with a sheet of plywood if you live in a very rainy climate. A three-bin system allows you to turn the compost from one bin to another and store finished compost until you are ready to use it.

4.The two basic elements that make up compost are green garden debris (grass clippings or old annuals) and brown garden derbis (dry leaves). Green ingredients are high in nitrogen and brown materials are high in carbon. Adding too many greens can make the pile smell bad. Do not add animal waste, meats, oils, dairy, diseased plants, weeds that have gone to seed, or plants treated with pesticides or herbicides to your compost. 5.Compost piles with a balance of one part green to two part brown materials break down fastest. The easiest way to achieve this balance is to add one garden forkful of green material to the pile, top it with two forkfuls of brown material, and mix them together. Continue adding greens and browns until the pile is at least 3 cubic feet (3 ft. x 3 ft. x 3 ft.). Piles of this size heat up quickly and break down faster. 6.Add in a shovelful of finished compost or garden soil to help kick start the microbial activity in your pile. 7.Compost also needs the correct amount of moisture to breakdown. Compost with the right moisture level should feel like a damp, wrung-out sponge. Too much moisture can cause temperatures to fall within the pile (and make it smell). Too little moisture slows down the decomposition rate and keeps the pile from heating up. Check your compost pile's moisture level once a week and adjust it if necessary by adding water to increase moisture or more browns to help dry the pile out. 8.Turn the pile once a week to move material from the outside of the pile in. Turning also keeps the pile from compacting, which reduces airflow and slows down decomposition. 9.You should have finished compost in about two months. You'll know your compost is finished when it no longer heats up and you can't identify any of the original materials. The compost should be dark brown, moist and earthy smelling. Dig finished compost into your garden's soil. You can use partially composted material as mulch. 10.You can also build a very basic, passive compost system by simply piling up leaves, grass clippings and other yard waste into a pile in a secluded corner of your yard. The compost will be ready when the original ingredients are unrecognizable, usually in about 6 to 12 months. Compost at the bottom and middle of the pile typically "finishes" first.

COMPOST

'Greens' or nitrogen rich ingredients

Urine (diluted with water 20:1), Comfrey leaves, Nettles, Grass cuttings

Other green materials

Raw vegetable peelings from your kitchen, Tea bags and leaves, coffee grounds, Young green weed growth avoid weeds with seeds, Soft green prunings, Animal manure from herbivores eg cows and horses, Poultry manure and bedding

'Browns' or carbon rich ingredients - slow to rot

Cardboard eg. cereal packets and egg boxes, Waste paper and junk mail, including shredded confidential waste, Cardboard tubes, Glossy magazines although it is better for the environment to pass them on to your local doctors or dentists' surgery or send them for recycling, Newspaper although it is better for the environment to send your newspapers for recycling, Bedding from vegetarian pets eg rabbits, guinea pigs hay, straw, shredded paper, wood shavings, Tough hedge clippings, Woody prunings, Old bedding plants, Bracken, Sawdust, Wood shavings, Fallen leaves can be composted but the best use of them is to make leafmould

Other compostable items

Wood ash, in moderation, Hair, nail clippings, Egg shells (crushed), Natural fibres eg. 100% wool or cotton.

The cold heap route

*Try, if possible, to collect enough compost materials to make a layer of at least 30cm or more in the compost bin. Weed the garden, mow the lawn, empty the kitchen bucket! Mix in some straw, woody prunings, scrunched up cardboard packaging eg cereal boxes this helps create air spaces within the heap. It may help if you place a few woody plant stems or small twigs on the bottom first as this will improve the air circulation and drainage. *Continue to fill the container as and when you have ingredients. If most of what you compost is kitchen waste, mix it with egg boxes, toilet roll middles and similar household paper and cardboard products to create a better balance. *When the container is full - which it may never be as the contents will sink as it composts - or when you decide to, stop adding any more. Then either just leave it to finish composting (which could take up to a year) or go to Step 4. *Remove the container from the material, or the material from the container whichever you find easiest. If the lower layers have composted, use this on the garden. Mix everything else together well. Add water if it is dry, or add dry material if it is soggy. Replace in the bin and leave to mature.

The hot heap route

*Gather enough material to fill your compost container at one go. Some of this may have been stored in a cool heap and have started to rot slightly. Make sure you have a mixture of soft and tough materials. *Chop up tough items using shears, a sharp spade (lay items out on soil or grass to avoid jarring) or a shredder.

*Mix ingredients together as much as possible before adding to the container. In particular, mix items, such as grass mowings and any shredded paper, which tend to settle and exclude air, with more open items that tend to dry out. Fill the container as above, watering as you go. *Give the heap a good mix Within a few days, the heap is likely to get hot to the touch. When it begins to cool down, or a week or two later, turn the heap. Remove everything from the container or lift the container off and mix it all up, trying to get the outside to the inside. Add water if it is dry, or dry material if it is soggy. Replace in the bin. *The heap may well heat up again; the new supply of air you have mixed in allows the fast acting aerobic microbes, ie those that need oxygen, to continue with their work. Step 4 can be repeated several more times if you have the energy, but the heating will be less and less. When it no longer heats up again, leave it undisturbed to finish composting. A hybrid route There s nothing wrong with doing a bit of both. Fill your heap as you create waste (as for the cool method), then turn it when you have time. This will help it heat up. You can turn it as much or as rarely as you please the more often you turn the heap, the quicker your compost will be ready. When is it ready? Compost can be made in as little as six to eight weeks, or, more usually, it can take a year or more. In general, the more effort you put in, the quicker you will get compost. When the ingredients you have put in your container have turned into a dark brown, earthy smelling material, the composting process is complete. It is then best left for a month or two to 'mature' before it is used. Don't worry if your compost is not fine and crumbly. Even if it is lumpy, sticky or stringy, with bits of twig and eggshell still obvious, it is quite usable. It can be sieved before using if you prefer. Any large bits can be added back into your new compost heap.

All About Eggplants

CAN I GROW EGGPLANTS? Wait until night temperatures are consistently in the 60's before setting out eggplant transplants. Even though the plants can recover from a few cold nights, they may become stunted or susceptible to disease organisms. Be sure to provide good drainage and a rich organic soil, and be sure to give eggplants plenty of space-most varieties will need 18 to 24 inches between plants and two to three feet between rows. Black plastic mulch can help eggplants get off to a fast start in the spring when temperatures are marginal. Cover the plastic with light-colored straw mulch to reduce the build up of heat in the summer. Don't be afraid to fertilize-eggplants are heavy feeders. And water eggplants thoroughly during dry spells. If you watch out for spider mites and harvest the fruits while the skins are still glossy, you will soon be considered the neighborhood eggplant expert. PLANT HISTORY

The eggplant, and its close relative the tomato, were considered poisonous for many years. It is a member of the Solanaceae family that includes a number of toxic weeds like Deadly Nightshade. Eventually the adventurous began to try eating eggplant and it even earned a reputation as an aphrodisiac. But, it's only been in the last 100 years that eggplant has been widely accepted as a vegetable. The large-fruited varieties probably originated in India while the smaller eggplants are thought to have come from China. EGGPLANT SEEDS OR PLANTS? Eggplants can be started from seed indoors 10 to 12 weeks before their ideal planting out date. However, nice healthy transplants might be a better way to go unless a very large harvest is desired. In northern gardens where the growing season is short, it is important to use earlyripening eggplant varieties and start with large transplants. Get the eggplants off to a fast start by protecting them with "Wall O' Water" plant protectors to shelter the tender plants from cold, dry northern winds that are prevalent in the early spring and into the summer. CULTIVATION Start by working lots of compost into the soil, plus 2 to 3 pounds of a complete fertilizer like 15-5-10 per 100 sq. ft. If you prefer, use an organic fertilizer like blood meal, well-rotted manure, cottonseed meal or bat guano. Burpee's Big Boy Tomato Food is also super for eggplants. Once the weather has warmed up enough or measures suggested to improve soil warmth have been applied, set transplants 18 to 24 inches feet apart in a row with rows similarly spaced. 'Blue Marble Hybrid' and 'Millionaire Hybrid' are best for container gardening or for closer spacing. If you use one of the dark-colored mulches, it's best to cover it later in the summer with light-colored hay to reflect the sun's heat. Old newspapers also make great mulch. Soak them in water just before laying them out- 8 to 10 sheets thick - and cover with hay, or dry grass clippings to hide the paper and keep it from blowing away. If you fertilize eggplants monthly use about one pound per 100 ft. of row. You can be fairly cavalier about sprinkling fertilizer down the row because the newspapers will act as a buffer. The paper will break down and can be dug into the garden at the end of the season. EGGPLANT GROWING TIPS Traditional eggplant varieties have a reputation for developing a bitter flavor when grown under stressful conditions. Make sure your eggplants get lots of water and fertilizer to insure rapid growth and fruit maturity. Fortunately modern hybrid varieties are not likely to exhibit bitterness in spite of the weather. However, they will respond to good cultural practices with bushels of delicious fruit. INSECTS & DISEASES Flea beetles and spider mites love eggplants even more than gardeners do. It is not always easy to catch flea beetles on eggplants. They're quite mobile, but you will see evidence of their damage - shot holes throughout the leaves. Insecticidal sprays will often be necessary although botanicals like rotenone usually get the job done. Spider mites don't chew holes in the leaves, but they suck the juices out of the plant leaving lots of small, dead specks in the leaves. They can become so numerous that the leaves begin to take on a grayish appearance and you may even see webs.

Eventually the leaves turn yellow and fall off. If you catch them before they become too numerous, high-pressure water sprays will often knock the population down enough for predators to finish them off. Otherwise spray the plants with wettable sulfur being sure to cover the underside of the leaves as well as the top. EGGPLANT HARVEST TIPS The primary criteria for harvesting eggplants is to pick them while the skins are glossy. If the eggplants skin becomes dull, the seeds are beginning to mature and the potential for bitterness is increased. RECIPES & STORAGE Eggplant is delicious battered and fried. Mix an egg in a half cup of milk. Dip quarter-inch slices of eggplant in the milk then shake them in a plastic bag with Italian breadcrumbs. Fry in oil until crisp, then drain on paper towels and sprinkle with a bit of Creole Seasoning or salt. Even kids will eat eggplant fixed this way if you don't tell them what they're eating. Eggplant is also great in a casserole. Cut the eggplant into half-inch chunks and steam until tender. Use any of the Italian sauces readily available in jars at the grocery store (or spend all day making mama's marinara sauce), but also cook up some fresh Italian sausage and add this to the sauce. In a casserole dish, layer the sauce, chunks of eggplant, fresh Romano and/or parmesan cheeses, Italian bread crumbs, mozzarella, more sauce etc., etc. Top it off with more breadcrumbs and bake at 350 degrees until bubbly. When eggplants are plentiful, make up a bunch of these casseroles in foil pans and freeze them. They taste even better when the snow is blowing outside. Today's eggplant hybrids are so sweet and flavorful that one of the best preparations is to simply place slices on the grill after brushing lightly with olive oil. Go easy on the oil, as eggplant will absorb a lot of it. Cook just until the slices have nice grill marks on both sides.