Winter Composting In Preparation for Your Spring Garden

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Compost tumblers are the most efficient closed-bin systems and make year-round composting relatively easy. A composting tumbler is a bin on a support, so it can be spun to mix the compost. The tumbler has some form of aeration, such as vents, spikes or a perforated tube running up the center for airflow. Its self-containment makes it easy to move, and the dark color helps keep the tumbler warm. Continued feeding with both green and brown matter can keep the bacteria alive and working.

The good part, besides the above, is that wildlife cannot access the scraps put in these containers. Tumblers keep the compost contained, all in one place, and odor-free for city dwellers. Composting tumblers are also called batch composters, as they break down one batch at a time. Some models have dual compartments so one batch can be added to while the other matures. Because they are contained and elevated from the ground, compost tumblers are the easiest way of keeping compost active through winter.

There are other ways to deal with waste materials over the winter as well without having to face the winter head-on. One solution is an insulated sealed composter that sits in a corner of the garage. A sealed composter with proper balance of carbon and nitrogen components will not emit any composting odors.

Another method is worm composting, or vermiculture. A Worm Composter is efficient, odorless and can be kept indoors. There are those who may not want to have a worm compost system in their home, for various reasons; however, worm composters can also be kept in the garage or outside.

Yet another indoor system is known as Bokashi, which uses an anaerobic composting process, which means that food scraps don’t rot or smell while breaking down. This is a good method for urban dwellers who can make compost indoors for their plants or community gardens, and for those who live in climates that get deeply cold, such as in upper Canada and Alaska. In these climates, even if the cold were not enough to keep you from composting outdoors, any lid to a composter could likely be frozen shut.

Probably the best reason to maintain an active compost over winter is the head start it gives your early spring garden. During winter, your compost will also provide a welcome boost for your houseplants throughout the dreary winter months.

In gardening, so much is preparation. Summer is preparation for winter, to grow food that will see families through the cold months; but rarely is winter seen as preparation for summer. Composting is one of the many ways in which a homeowner can prepare for spring and the growing season. In keeping compost active and producing that black gold the plants love so much, we connect winter to summer, making each complement the other with what nature has to offer; taking the remains of last summer to make new plants this summer. Keeping the compost going over winter is satisfying to the gardener while providing a wonderful bounty for spring.

 

Garbage News from Around the World, the January 2015 Edition

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A quick recap of some of the more interesting news stories of late that involve garbage:

And You Thought You Were Having a Bad Day: A man searching for his wallet in a trash bin in Northern California was scooped up by a garbage truck and taken on a long, presumably smelly, ride. The Oroville Mercury Register reports that the man survived the ride in the rear of a truck. Yolo County Sheriff’s Lt. Martin Torres said the man, whose name was not released, was inside a garbage bin when the truck made a pick-up on Tuesday. The man told police he used lumber in the truck to reach the top of the garbage pile to better avoid the compactor. He was taken to UC Davis Medical Center for complaints of back and neck pain. “The man said he was stuck in the truck for about an hour, but estimates show it was more like 3 or 3 1/2 hours,” Torres tells the newspaper. “The truck made several other pick-ups before arriving at the landfill, where the driver saw the man crawl out of his trash pile.”

Your Money or My Garbage: A bill dispute between a trash hauler and a customer in Minnesota has resulted in a huge mess, literally. The city of Red Wing fined local hauler Paul’s Industrial Garage $1,800, plus cleanup fees, after authorities say it dumped nearly 2 tons of garbage on a customer’s driveway over an unpaid bill, reports the Post-Bulletin. The operator of the truck also faces unlawful dumping charges after the driveway was littered with discarded furniture, old paint cans, garbage bags, etc. “This is, in my opinion, a completely unacceptable public health issue that was done intentionally with complete disregard for public health, welfare, and safety of the public,” says the city’s public works chief. The hauler says the customer rented the roll-off trash receptacle six weeks ago for the driveway, filled it with household trash, but wouldn’t pay up. The company, which estimates it lost about $1,500 in revenue as a result, apparently decided to take its roll-off back but leave the trash behind.

Apparently, Humans Will Litter Anywhere: In the depths of European oceans, you’ll find coral, sand—and old Heineken cans. Yup, human litter can be found even in the most far-reaching places on the planet, according to one of the biggest scientific surveys ever done of the seafloor. Using video and trawling surveys between 1999 and 2011, scientists analyzed 32 sites in the Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, and Mediterranean Sea. They found everything from bottles to plastic bags, clothing, and fishing nets—even more than 1,200 miles from land and nearly three miles below the water’s surface, the Guardian reports. Not a single site was litter-free. That means your garbage is on continental shelves, ocean ridges, and deep canyons—the worst spot for garbage build-up, the study says. Plastic was most common at 41% of the garbage found, while 34% was related to fishing—think nets and lines. Also spotted: wood, pottery, glass, paper, cardboard, and even burnt coal residue left from steam ships more than 100 years ago. “This survey has shown that human litter is present in all marine habitats, from beaches to the most remote and deepest parts of the oceans,” a researcher says. “Most of the deep sea remains unexplored by humans and these are our first visits to many of these sites, but we were shocked to find that our rubbish has got there before us.” Smithsonian notes some 14 billion pounds of garbage enter the oceans each year, some of which animals eat, get tangled in, and often die.