10 ways to be more sustainable with your vegetable garden

Yes, I know a vegetable garden in and of itself is a pretty sustainable thing. Growing your own food instead of getting it from the store (usually in some sort of plastic bag or container) is great. But what are some extra steps you can take to be even more sustainable with your garden? Here are ten of them.

1. If you start your own seeds, do it in reused containers instead of buying new ones. Yogurt cups are great for this, but any container will do. Also starter pots made from newspaper are an eco-friendly way to go.
2. Use water saved from cooking or captured water from running the faucet to water your plants. When you cook vegetables or pasta in water, nutrients leach into the water and that water makes great plant food. Don't use water that you've used to cook meat in to water edible plants, though. And, make sure the water has cooled before you use.
3. Water early in the morning or late in the evening so the midday sun doesn't soak up half of the water before the plants get it. You'll have to use less water this way.
4. Save your seeds for next year. In addition to saving seeds from my own garden, I plan on buying a couple expensive heirloom tomatoes from the farmers market, enjoy them, and save their seeds for next year. I'm not sure how well it will work, but I'm going to give it a shot.
5. Share your bounty. Your bound to have too much of something (basil? zucchini?). Don't let it go bad. Share with friends and neighbors or find a food bank that will take the donations.
6. Compost. Turn your vegetable and plant waste into food for next year's garden.
7. Rotate your plants. Even in a small garden, moving the plants around from year to year will help the soil.
8. Deter pests naturally. It's very tempting, and I know how tempting it is from experience, to want to destroy bugs or keep the rabbits away using toxic methods. But, this is food your family will eat so keep the chemicals away. Experiment with natural remedies and be okay with losing a little of your crop while you're figuring it out.
9. Learn about the types of diseases your plants could get and how to identify them. This year especially with the late blight wiping out tomato plants, identifying and properly handling a disease could save part of your garden and your neighbor's garden, too.
10. If you have kids, get them out in the garden with you and pass on the skills that you have (or maybe learn skills together) so that they will continue to garden when they have their own space.

The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses

Welcome to post 499. As I lead up to post 500 here on A Little Greener, I'm looking back at some of the posts I've done in the past two years. I was going to do a look back at some of the pictures I've taken and used on the blog, but then I remembered how hard it is to use multiple pictures on blogger. I really do need to get this blog migrated to Wordpress.

I've decided to go with gardening today. Last year, everything grew wonderfully in my garden, even if the rabbits, squirrels and chipmunks ate a lot of it. This year, not so much. The rains, the cool weather, and probably my inexperience have made a much sadder veggie garden this year.

Okay, on with the look back at my past posts that have to do with gardening.

Green Term of the Week: Composting - Long before I started composting in my backyard, I wrote this piece. It took me a while to actually begin to compost, but this was the beginning of the decision for me that I would compost.

Reusing an Old Charcoal Grill - The dome charcoal grills can make for good planters.

Green Term of the Week: Lawn Busting - also known as Food, Not Lawns, Lawns to Gardens, or Grow don't Mow. Why have grass when you can have food?

How to Get a Six Year Old to Eat Pesto without Complaining - I got my then six year old son to eat pesto. It only took about 3 months of work.

Tomatoes Piling Up? Try this Fresh Pasta Sauce Recipe - Since I haven't gotten a single red tomato yet this year, it's hard to remember that last year I was knee deep in them at some point. But I was, and I made this recipe several times.

Online Seed Exchange: Get Your Seeds for Free - Seeds are relatively inexpensive, but free is better. Plus, seed exchanges sometimes have varieties you can't get in stores or catalogs.

Green Term of the Week: Victory Garden - A recent victory garden resurge had taken place in the U.S. We're reclaiming our knowledge, our seeds, and our ability to feed ourselves with real food.

Growing a Container Herb Garden - A video that shows you how easy it is to have fresh herbs no matter what sort of space you live in.

Okay, next post is number 500? What will it be? Tune in and find out.

Title quote by Hanna Rion

Other quote I was considering using to title this piece: Coffee. Garden. Coffee. Does a good morning need anything else? - Betsy Cañas Garmon

Obama's United We Serve campaign is quite green

President Obama launched the United We Serve campaign over the weekend. The campaign urges Americans to do their part in the road to economic recovery by volunteering in areas that can help in the efforts. 

In the video below, the president reminds Americans that it's not just the governments job to fix our problems. One of the examples he uses is an environmental one.

"We can invest in clean energy, but we need people to use energy efficient products in their homes and train for the green jobs of the future," he tells us.

There's an even a home energy audit toolkit on the United We Serve website. One of the volunteerism suggestions on the site is to form a home energy audit team in your community. 

Other "green" ideas on the site that have toolkits are:

Community Gardens

Organize a book drive - used books are greener than new books

Organize a clothing drive - again, used is greener than new

Maintain public lands

There is also the option of creating your own project and registering it on serve.gov. You can also register ones that already exist.

Take a look at the video below and ask yourself, "How can you volunteer to help America and help the environment at the same time?"

Welcome to wordless Wednesday

I've seen people do wordless Wednesday on other blogs - they post a picture instead of writing for the day. I take a lot of pictures. I mean a lot of pictures. So I thought I'd join the wordless Wednesday crowd. Each week I'll post a picture of something that has to do with being green or something that's worth being green for.

Okay, enough words.

Taking time to appreciate spring

It's been a crazy climate changing spring with the temperature rising into the 90's on one day then dipping into the 50's the next and heavier than even normal spring rains for days on end messing with my garden. The peppers and eggplants pictured above are doing well because they were fairly established when I put them in, but most of my tomato plants that I put in as small seedlings have been devastated by the heavy rains.

Yesterday and today, however, have been beautiful, sunny spring days. My windows are open as a type. Last night, three of the families on the block got together for an impromptu baseball game across the street, and all of us ages 2 - 45 had a blast until it got too dark to see the ball. Even though it was past my youngest's bed time by the time we came in,

we grabbed some ice cream from the freezer before bed (you need to try Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Macadamia made with fair trade chocolate and nuts!). This is what spring should be like. 

I took some photos this morning of the plants the beauty that is bursting out around my yard, and I thought I'd share them with you today.

If you're fortunate enough to be experiencing perfect weather, get outside and enjoy the views. Play a little, then be still for a while as you enjoy what's blooming around you.

I almost forgot to tell you - go buy sunflower seeds tonight!

Tomorrow, May 1 is International Sunflower Guerilla Gardening Day. I'm not making this up. In fact, I told you about it last year.

Basically what you do is you go around your community planting sunflower seeds surreptitiously where some beautification is needed. Then when the sunflowers are growing, you go back to weed and water until they are hearty enough to fend for themselves. Don't tell people you're doing it - just do it.

I've got a pack of sunflower seeds waiting to go. How about you?

Getting Tax Refund Money? 10 Ways to Spend Your Green, Greenly

It's the third Friday of the month and that means we're privileged to have a guest post by Adam Shake of Twilight Earth. Today he's talking about how to spend our tax refunds wisely and greenly.


A common misconception amongst many people is that being green costs more money, than not. This is not true, and in fact, the opposite is true. Being green saves you green. But just like most things in life, there is sometimes an up front cost involved, and that cost, over time, pays for itself or cost's less than a conventional product.

We've put together a list of items that will help you live a healthier life, help you keep the planet clean and will save you money. It’s a win, win, win situation!

1. An Energy Star Washing Machine - While saving over $50.00 per year, the machine will pay for itself through its average life-cycle of 10 years. Kenmore, GE, Asko and Miele are just a few of the companies that sell these models.
2. An Energy Star Dishwasher - This has a double bonus. Not only will you be saving money on electricity, but these use 25-50% less water than a non Energy Star rated Dishwasher. Save some green and use fewer resources.
3. Energy Star Refrigerator - Standard Fridges account for a whopping 15% of your household electric use. But there is good news, new Energy Star Refrigerators use 40% less energy than models sold in 2001! One of these could easily save you $50.00 a year in electric expense.
4. High Efficiency Water Heater - Saving you over $100.00 a year through less energy use and water use, for most homes you can get the heater itself for $600 - $1,200. Sounds like a good deal.
5. Upgrade your insulation - There are many homes, especially those in the South West that don't have adequate insulation. Proper insulation is one of the most overlooked energy saving methods out there, and should be started in the attic. Just about any insulation investment will pay for itself in less than five years. You can also buy great insulation made in the US out of recycled and sustainable materials such as Cocoon cellulose insulation (recycled newspaper), Ultratouch recycled denim insulation, and BioBased insulation (made from soybean oil)
6. New Windows - If you do not have them already, installing energy-efficient, or double-paned windows can be a great way to use your refund. Not only will installing these new windows keep the cold out and the heat in, but you can also claim federal tax deductions for qualifying installations, if installed before December 31st of 2009. You can deduct 10% of the cost, up to $200 for all windows, skylights, and storm windows.
7. Change out your light bulbs and shower heads - Perhaps you’ve been waiting to change your incandescent lights to compact fluorescents or LEDs because the latter are expensive. Now’s the time spend a couple hundred dollars and get really energy-efficient lighting throughout your home– and for outdoors as well. Compact fluorescent lights will last ten times as long as standard bulbs, and LED lights will last 5-10 times longer than the fluorescents. You’ll save money and energy. Also spend $50 to get a few low-water-use shower heads. These shower heads can save you 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of water per person per year. And they work great! You won’t know you’re in a low-flow shower!
8. Alternative Energy Stocks - It looks as if the economy may be turning around, but even if we have to wait a bit, Alternative Energy Stocks are the way to go. Check out sites like AltenErgyStocks.com for more ideas and tips.
9. Invest in a Garden - What's better than healthy eating, saving money on groceries and spending time outside? Not much. Did you know that the largest selling seed in the United States is grass seed? Did you know that there is more grass grown in this country than corn? Gardening is the way to go.
10. Saving your green - One of the things we like to say here at Twilight Earth is that "Sometimes, the greenest thing to do, is to do nothing at all." The only thing I would suggest replacing with energy efficient substitutes is light-bulbs and shower-heads. (Unless it is time to replace other things) Nothing else should be replaced if it has already been installed and is in good working order. The energy it takes to create things often offsets the savings of replacing them. Please don't go ripping out hardwood flooring to replace it with bamboo. Please don't tear out counter-tops to replace them with recycled glass ones. Only replace when needed, and then replace with green!

________________________________

Adam Shake is the founder of Twilight Earth, a blog that brings news and excellent commentary on what is going on with the environment worldwide that we need to care about. Whether he's educating about the environmental impact of things like coal or simply sharing his breathtaking photos of nature, I always learn something at his site. Visit Twilight Earth and look around (and check out my guest post on his site today).

On his blog he says "I’m about sharing with you what I know, what I’m learning, and what I’m ignorant about in reference to this huge subject that we call the environment." That's what we appreciate around here.

Growing a container herb garden

I'm in full garden mode right now, and I'm talking a lot about it over on MNN and a little bit about it here. I think that growing something is important for several reasons, but I also know that there are many people who don't have the time or the space to do a traditional vegetable garden.

I do think, however, that most people have the ability to grow one container of something. If you're trying to get the most bang for your buck, herbs are the way to go. Herbs cost very little to grow, yet are pretty expensive at the store. You usually buy an herb in a large bunch, and chances are you use what you need for a recipe and the rest ends up going bad before you need it again.

Growing your own will both save money and keep you from wasting money and food. It will make a huge difference in the taste of your food. It may even encourage you to try new dishes. 

I found this very informative video series over on monkeysee.com that takes you one step at at time through creating an herb container gardening. The first video is here, and you'll have to go to the website to view the rest.

Baby bunnies in my garden bed

My husband ran across a little snafu today when he was cleaning out the garden bed. Baby bunnies right where the tomatoes should go. I'm looking for advice on when and how to safely move them.

Green term of the week: victory garden

During World War 2, Americans turned to Victory Gardens to help them get through the financial crunch until they were victorious in the war. Everyone grew vegetable gardens in their back yard, and it considerably eased the amount of money they needed to spend at the grocery store.

There's a new Victory Garden movement afloat. It started before this crummy economy really took hold of us all, but the tough financial times are certainly strengthening it. The Wall Street Journal reported that vegetable seed sales are up, some sellers reporting as much as 80%. This upcoming season is poised to be the biggest vegetable garden season in decades with gardens being planted in community plots, back yards, windowsills, and in containers on balconies and fire escapes. 

The original Victory Gardens got their names because the war was causing tough financial times, and people at home wanted to do something in the quest to be victorious. Well, we're at war now, too, and while the current war may be one of the reasons we're in tough financial times, there are other things that our gardens can help us be victorious over this time around.

• Food miles - No fuel is consumed in bringing a tomato in from your back yard to your kitchen. When a tomato grown in Florida, however, has to come to my kitchen, it travels hundreds of miles and uses fuel and other resources.
  
• Pesticides and chemicals in our food - Many modern victory gardeners are doing it the natural, organic way.
  
• Losing our understanding of where food comes from - Ask most kids where food comes from, and they'll understandably say "the grocery store." My generation and the ones after it aren't particularly savvy about how food gets created. We need to change that.
  
• Losing varieties - Over the past several decades, many varieties of vegetables have disappeared as large farms have focused on only growing the varieties that look pretty and travel well. Victory gardeners are finding and perpetuating the growth of all the varieties they can get their hands on, saving their seeds, and sharing those seeds.
• Couch potatoism - A recent Nielsen survey found that people are watching TV 151 hours a month! We need to get off the couches and back into the dirt.

What are waiting for? If you've ever thought of growing vegetables, I can't think of a better time than now. It's still early enough in the season for anyone in the country to start growing some vegetables this year. Go play in the dirt.

Image: mercedesfromtheeighties

Online seed exchange: Get your seeds for free

I first read about this on Mother Earth News (not to be confused with Mother Nature Network). iVillage Garden Web has a seed exchange forum. Many people save the seeds from their plants. On the forum, some people are looking to give away seeds that they have. You simply need to send them a self addressed stamped envelope. Others are looking to exchange seeds.

Someday, I hope to talk about the problems with seeds in our country and beyond - how one big company, Monsanto is creating a monopoly on owning the seeds. I need to do more research on this, however. But it's important that we support those who are invested in saving seeds so we don't lose varieties of plants and we don't forget how to save our own seeds.

On that note, I think that this year, I will make a commitment to save one type of seeds at the end of the gardening season. I'm not sure which plant I'll choose, but I think it's something I need to learn to do. Apparently, there is a little more to it than just picking the seeds out and letting them air dry.

Image: Arria Belli

Evidence of spring

Do you feel it in the air?

Do you see the signs?

Spring is struggling to arrive, and I for one, am more than ready for it. 

The daffodils are budding and growing taller each day.

The rhodedendrum is also beginning to bud (below).

The parsley in my garden is beginning to grow where it was last year.

The ground cover is starting to sprout new leaves.

What's going on in your corner of the world?

Are you planning your garden yet?

We've had three warmish days in a row. It's been wonderful. The children have been outside a lot, I've been outside walking, and I've been wandering around my yard, thinking about gardens. 

It's that time. Time to plan your garden. Time to order your seeds. And almost time to start a lot of those seeds indoors. Are you planning yet? I am.

I'm thinking about what worked last year and what didn't. I'm paying more attention to the growth time of particular seeds so I can start some earlier than others. I'm figuring out how soon I can plant certain plants so I can get them in the ground as soon as possible. 

Last year, I started everything at the same time and planted it all on the same day. Some things started to thrive immediately. Other things, like my oregano, took many weeks to start to grow once it got in the ground. Turns out, it takes oregano a really long time, compared to say basil, to start to thrive. So this year, I'll be starting it from seed indoors weeks before I start my basil.

I'm also not going to bother growing those things that the critters ate completely before I had a chance to get to them like the carrots. 

One other change I'm going to make is to take the small sunny spot on my front lawn and plant some herbs there. What I'd like is for it to be available to everyone in the neighborhood. Partly because I want to share and partly because I want those who don't garden to get a taste for fresh and local.

Last year, I started my organic garden knowing not much of anything. I learned a lot. I'm excited to put what I learned to practice this year and learn even more.

Oh, and my six-year-old insists that we grow cantaloupes this year. That should be interesting. I've never grown fruit before. 

What are your plans?

I Made Grilled Pizzas for First Thursdays at Thursday Night Smackdown

If you were to take a look at what is in my RSS feeder you'd get a pretty good snapshot of my life: writing blogs, environmental blogs, food blogs, and a few of my friends' blogs. One food blog that I love is Thursday Night Smack Down. The blogger Michelle loves to cook and on Thursdays she tries new recipes from one of her many cookbooks and blogs about them with gusto. She also has something called First Thursdays where she gives her readers a category, they cook something from a cookbook they own, write it up, and send her a link. I thought I'd play along this month.

I made something I've been meaning to make all summer - grilled pizzas. I used a pizza dough recipe from The Bread Machine Cookbook. It was a half white flour, half wheat flour recipe. I asked everyone in the house what they wanted on top of their pizzas - gave them a bunch of options. Know what everyone wanted? Yep. Sauce, pepperoni, cheese.

Not me, though. I took a suggestion from The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters (great cookbook!) and put pesto (made from my garden), fresh mozzarella, fresh sliced Roma tomatoes (from my garden), and ripped up basil (again - garden) on mine. I sprinkled a little Parmesan on at the end for good measure. Oh YUM!

I've never grilled pizzas before. My husband put the coals all along the rim of the grill so we could grill them indirectly in the middle. After rolling the dough (love, love, love my bread machine) into four small shapes (not exactly round), I cooked them on one side (two at a time) on the grill. Then I took them off the grill, flipped them, and let everyone put on individual toppings.

I put them back on the grill until it looked like all the toppings were cooked and the cheeses were melted. There's all four of them at the left. We served them with our everyday Chianti (the boys had milk of course).

I was a little concerned about the whole wheat in the crust turning the boys off, but no one seemed to notice. In fact, both boys loved their pizzas. Getting them involved in growing and making the food had really made them more open to trying things they otherwise wouldn't.

Since this was my first time making my own pizza dough and grilling pizzas, I'm fairly impressed with the outcome. I think I'll try some other dough recipes and experiment with other toppings, too.

Tomatoes Piling Up? Try This Fresh Pasta Sauce Recipe

It wasn't too long ago I was whining about my tomatoes never turning green. Now, I'm knee deep in Romas, Early Girl's (won't grow those again - blah), Brandywine Heirlooms, and amazing Rutgers. In mid-summer I took basil bouquets when I went to someone's house. Now I take tomatoes and sometimes have to come home with them.

I found a really good, simple recipe for a fresh pasta sauce that used up a whole basket full of my Romas along with peppers, basil, oregano and parsley all from the garden and cooked it up the other night.

Garden Fresh Pasta Sauce from BigOven.com was yummy and even my kids dug right in and said it was really good. It was such a joy to make a completely organic pasta sauce with ingredients fresh from the garden. Although making it took so much more effort than opening a jar, I really enjoyed feeding my family that night. I'm always amazed at how satisfying downshifting can be.

Note: I found the recipe as is too salty after I made it so I added a can of unsalted tomato paste to help. It ended up being too thick so I used my food mill to juice two Early Girl tomatoes (at least they were good for something) to thin it out. Next time, I'll half the salt and add more if necessary.

Tomorrow night, I'm going to attempt using my tomatoes to make pizzas on the grill. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'll be making the dough in my bread machine and letting each of us make an individual pizza.

Garden Update - It's Me Vs. The Critters

It took what seemed like forever. But the first of my tomatoes started to turn red over the weekend. This morning, I had one tomato that looked like it needed just one more day of sun before I could pick it. My first beautiful tomato from my new organic garden.

Tonight, when I went out to check on it, it was lying on the ground half-eaten. I let out a few expletives. 

I thought the critters and I respected each other. I didn't freak out when they ate all my carrots. When I put cayenne pepper around my green beans, they stayed away. Somehow, I thought they would respect the tomatoes. They hadn't touched any of the tomato plants. Until today.

I've learned a lot this first year of gardening. The biggest lesson - next year get a fence. 

As upset as I am that my first tomato went to the critters, I'm excited that red is popping up all over. A lot of my Roma tomatoes are starting to turn. I'm excited to try to make my own spaghetti sauce from them. I'm also going to try my hand at salsa. I've got peppers and cilantro growing, too.

It's taken a lot longer than expected for my garden to start producing vegetables. I've had herbs for well over a month now. The basil has just been waiting for the tomatoes. I've been taking basil bouquets every time I visit a friend. 

How is your garden coming along?

How to Get a Six Year Old to Eat Pesto without Complaining

To a six-year-old boy, pesto looks like something someone threw up. It's bright green with darker specks. So how do you get a six-year-old to eat it? Here are the steps you need to take.

• Start about three and a half months before you plan on getting him to eat it by having him help plant the seeds for the basil and parsley that will be used in the pesto.
• Have him water the seedlings and check on them every day.
• Let the boy help shovel loads of compost into trash cans from the local department of public works to bring home to dump in your garden.
• Have him help transplant the basil and parsley into the garden.
• Check on the plants and water them with him every day.
• Three and a half months later, let him rip basil and parsley right off the plants.
• Let him cut up his knuckles while grating the parmesan cheese to go in the pesto.
• Have him smell each ingredient before it goes in the food processor.
• Let him turn the food processor on and off many times.
• Cook his favorite pasta.
• Put pesto on his favorite pasta.
• Watch him eat without hesitation "his" pesto.
• Smile when he's surprised he likes it.

See, nothing to it.

Green Term of the Week - Lawn Busting

Lawn Busting is the process of taking your lawn from grass covered to plant covered. There are many different terms floating around right now - "grow don't mow," "lawns to gardens," "food not lawns" and other terms/sayings - that have the same idea.

So why? What's the difference between grass and plants? Why are plants "greener" in some people's eyes than grass? There are several reasons.

• Nothing to mow. Unless you are using a push mower, you are using fuel/energy to mow your lawn. I've read that running a gas mower for just one hour produces as much pollution as eight cars driving at 55mph for that same hours. Wow. That's a lot. Getting rid of the majority of grass on a lawn and using a push mower to mow what is left, can get rid of a lot of pollution.
• Fertilizing lawns with chemicals is killing our planet. There is a high price to be paid for lush, green lawns. The chemicals used to keep them looking perfect are harming wildlife, children, our water ways and who knows what else.
• Native plants are good for the environment. Part of replacing lawns with plants has to do with purposely planting native plants that don't need to be watered much. Plants that are native to the particular region you live in are native for a reason. The amount of rain that typically fall in that region and the type of soil are ideal for those plants. That means a lot less watering to keep the plants alive.
  It also means that native wildlife will have a place that is ideal for them to hang out.
• Planting organic food gardens instead of grass helps people to become self sustaining and nourishes the earth. When food comes from your own backyard instead of the grocery store, lots of good things happen. You get fresh, healthy delicious food without having to hop in your car (which uses fuel and creates pollution) to get it. You inspire your neighbors to plant gardens, too (at least this has been my experience). You keep trash out of landfills (no packaging to throw away). Organic gardeners frequently replenish the soil with healthy compost instead of leaching the soil of its nutrients. The list could go on.

Lawn busting is gaining momentum in America. There are people who have no lawns left - even in the front. It's something my husband and I are talking about. With our boys, we still need a place for them to run around. But because of our boys, we have never bothered to try to keep the lawn nice, anyway, so we don't use chemical fertilizers. But we do use a gas mower (but we wait until it the grass gets nice and high before we mow).

We turned a nice chunk of the backyard into a veg garden this summer. I anticipate turning another back portion into a strawberry patch next year. As the boys get bigger and don't need as much room to run around, we'll slowly turn more of our yard into garden - both veg and other plants. My husband may even agree to get a push mower.

Reusing an Old Charcoal Grill

I can't take credit for this idea. My Weight Watchers leader, Martha, told us about this tonight. She had an old charcoal grill that was beginning to rust in the bottom and was ready to be retired. Instead of kicking it to the curb, she used it as a planter for her lettuces. 

Since she has many bunny problems, she thought this was a great solution. I think it's a great idea. It's a creative way to give a second life to an old item. It takes care of the critter problem. It can be wheeled to different parts of the yard to get more or less sun. It probably would also allow you to plant a  little earlier in the season because the lid can easily be popped on if there is a danger of frost.

My grill isn't ready to be retired yet, but I'm hoping that I find one curbside before next spring. I think  it would be fun to let the kids paint it before we plant.

Green Term of the Week - Composting

I sometimes have to just reflect on how "earthy" I've become. If you had told me a few years ago that I'd be taking trash cans and shovels in my mini van to scoop decomposed leaves, grass clippings and leftover food scraps and then haul it home, I would have never believed you. Seriously. That's what I did this morning with my husband and son. We went to a neighboring town's public works and shoveled our own compost for our garden.

Composting is a  process whereby organic wastes, including food wastes, paper, and yard wastes, decompose naturally, resulting in a product rich in minerals and ideal for gardening and farming as a soil conditioners, mulch, resurfacing material, or landfill cover. 

It's good for your gardens and its good for the earth. By using compost, I'm told, that I won't have a need for chemical fertilizers. It's a natural way to get nutrients into the ground that I will be growing my vegetables on. I'm told my vegetables are going to love it, and I'm inclined to think they will.

If you're still in the process of putting together your garden this season, consider using compost instead of chemical fertilizers and foods. Your food won't be contaminated with hazardous chemicals, the earth won't soak in the chemicals, and the animals in your backyard won't ingest them when they are stealing your veggies. 

Call your local department of public works to find out if they are any neighboring towns have compost that you can haul away for free or a small fee. If not, some garden centers do sell it.

We've decided that if we are successful gardeners this year, we'll start our composting center in the back of our yard. Wow, how I've changed.