The Complete Compost Gardening Guide: Banner Batches, Grow Heaps, Comforter Compost, and Other Amazing Techniques for Saving Time and Money, and Produ

Author: Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin

Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin turn the compost bin upside down with their liberating system of keeping compost heaps right in the garden, rather than in some dark corner behind the garage. The compost and the plants live together from the beginning in a nourishing, organic environment. The authors' bountiful, compost-rich gardens require less digging, weeding, mulching, and even less planting. And here's one of the best parts - no more backbreaking slogs from compost bin to garden. The authors even identify the plants that benefit most from compost and how the elements of a composted garden work together. A natural Six-Way Compost Gardening System provides the ruling principles for successfully improving every garden with healthy compost. Readers will learn how to:

Choose labor-saving sites that keep gardens and compost piles as close to one another as possible.
Work with the compostable riches produced at home. Every yard and kitchen produces plenty of material - easily identified with at-a-glance charts - for a great start.
Help composting critters do their work by balancing ingredients, adding high-nitrogen meals when needed, and keeping the compost moist.
Reuse recycling bin items, such as large plastic buckets and cardboard boxes, as composting equipment.
Keep diversity in the mix. The magic is in the variety of the components and how they work together to create "gardener's gold."
Customize composting to suit specific garden needs, always concentrating first on soil care. Adhering to these guidelines, Pleasant and Martin bring readers on a thorough, informative tour of materials and innovative techniques, leadingthe way to an efficient and rewarding home gardening system. Their methods are sure to help gardeners turn average vegetable plots into rich incubators of healthy produce, bursting with fresh flavor, and flower beds into rich tapestries of bountiful blooms all season long.

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Summary

Choose labor-saving sites that keep gardens and compost piles as close to one another as possible.
Work with the compostable riches produced at home. Every yard and kitchen produces plenty of material - easily identified with at-a-glance charts - for a great start.
Help composting critters do their work by balancing ingredients, adding high-nitrogen meals when needed, and keeping the compost moist.
Reuse recycling bin items, such as large plastic buckets and cardboard boxes, as composting equipment.
Keep diversity in the mix. The magic is in the variety of the components and how they work together to create "gardener's gold."
Customize composting to suit specific garden needs, always concentrating first on soil care. Adhering to these guidelines, Pleasant and Martin bring readers on a thorough, informative tour of materials and innovative techniques, leadingthe way to an efficient and rewarding home gardening system. Their methods are sure to help gardeners turn average vegetable plots into rich incubators of healthy produce, bursting with fresh flavor, and flower beds into rich tapestries of bountiful blooms all season long.

Description

Develop mature compost right in your garden. Barbara Pleasant and Deborah Martin explain their six-way compost gardening system in this informative guide that will have you rethinking how you create and use your compost. With your plants and compost living together from the beginning, your garden will become a nourishing and organic environment that encourages growth and sustainability. You'll also find that the enriched soil requires less tending, weeding, and mulching, so you can do less back-breaking work for the same lush, beautiful results.

About the Author

A long-time compost enthusiast, Deb Martin enjoys trying new and different ways to transform organic materials into rich, soil-building goodness for the garden. From the busy binful of worms in her basement to the pallet-framed yard waste heap out back, she always has something rotten going on! A garden writer and editor for many years, Deb has contributed to numerous books and magazines, including Organic Life, Pennsylvania Gardener, and GROW: The Magazine of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and is co-author of The Complete Compost Gardening Guide.

Barbara Pleasant has written about organic gardening and self-sufficient living for more than 30 years. Her books include Starter Vegetable Gardens, The Complete Compost Gardening Guide, The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual, The Gardener's Bug Book, The Gardener's Weed Book, and The Gardener's Guide to Plant Diseases.

Back Cover

Turn the compost bin upside down! The nutritious, organic diet your garden craves is as simple as creating compost heaps right in the garden. Plants and compost live together in labor-and time-saving harmony, producing bright, sweet, juicy vegetables all season long.