Composting is controlling the natural decay of organic matter by providing the right moisture and heat conditions for composting enzymes to convert yard trimmings into a product that can be returned to your landscape and garden.

These little organisms (mainly bacteria, fungi and protozoa) break down garden and landscape trimmings in a moist, aerobic (oxygen-demanding) environment. The final product is a dark, crumbly form of decomposed organic matter.  One way to test your soil to see what you have is to take some in you hand, and squeeze it into a ball. If it compacts tightly then you have a clay soil. If it compacts lightly then it is a loam, but if it falls apart immediately then it is mostly sand.

• Compost replenishes your soil. 
• When added to soil, compost helps break up clay soils. With clay soils water tends to move through it slowly.
• Helps sandy soils retain water and nutrients, and also releases essential nutrients.With sandy soils the water will move through it rapidly resulting in frequent watering.
• Compost also contains beneficial microscopic organisms that build up the soil and make nutrients available to plants. 
• Improving your soil is the first step towards growing healthy plants.

First Step: Is to rinse out the two halves of eggshells that you have left over from breakfast or baking a cake. Note: These eggshells don't have to be divided exactly. Put the eggshells into a container, I use a butter bowl that comes from the grocery store, or you can use a milk container with the top cut out. If the eggshells break don't throw them out, keep them because they are useful in other ways in the garden.


Second Step:  These eggshell halves will create a natural seed pot for planting your flower or vegetable seeds. Take a tool with a sharp point and make a small hole in the bottom of the eggshell halves for drainage. I also use the eggshell containers to put the eggshells back into in which I also make a hole in the bottom for drainage.


Now you can sow your seeds into these eggshells and start growing your plants. After your seeds start sprouting and the weather is warm enough you can transplant them into your garden. You do this by gently cracking the eggshell so that the roots have a way out into the soil.


Note: Don't worry about the eggshells, they will decompose naturally adding nutrient into the soil, and it's all organic.


Third Step: The eggshells that have cracked and are useless as seed pots, you can spread the pieces around into garden to ward off insects, and such because the eggshells have sharp edges that the bugs don't like. Mix the broken eggshells into the soil and around your plants, this will discourage slugs, and cutworms. Also sprinkle them around your plants base. If the pests can't get to your plants they can't eat on them.


Fourth Step: You can add eggshells to the garden when you are tilling the soil, this will add calcium to the soil. Also you can put the extra eggshells into your compost bin or pile. Eggshells will also discourage animals and birds from coming into the garden because eggshells have a sharp edge on them.


Some people like to use eggshells as a disposable funnel for garden chemicals, Just bore a small hole in the bottom of the eggshell and use it. I don't necessarily recommend this way, but it is one way.

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Finally, An Easy to Understand System That Teaches You Everything You Need to Know About Organic Gardening Without Having to Buy Expensive Tools or Fancy Equipment


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Spring is already here again its garden planting time. It's time to start thinking about getting the garden ready to plant.  Having a garden can be a lot of fun and rewarding as you plant  the seedling and watch them grow.

But first you need to plan where and what your garden spot is going to look like, and if it the best place for the garden. People sometimes think that they have to have a really big garden. But just remember the larger the garden the more work is going to be involved with it. What I have found that many people start out great with a large garden, but then it becomes to large for them to handle effectively.

If you are starting your first garden think about a smaller garden, then you can always enlarge the garden area if you want to. Remember the larger the garden the more work it is going to take to stay up with it. Most of the time first time gardener's should start out with an area of no more than around 150 sq. ft area. This So unless you are planning to sell the vegetables.

Usually 150 sq ft are is just about right for a family. It is useful to know  your  climate zone and  what type of  plants grow best in your area.

   In deciding upon the site for the home vegetable garden it is well to dispose once and for all of the old idea that the garden "patch" must be an ugly spot in the home surroundings. If thoughtfully planned, carefully planted and thoroughly cared for, it may be made a beautiful and harmonious feature of the general scheme, lending a touch of comfortable homeliness that no shrubs, borders, or beds can ever produce.

With this fact in mind we will not feel restricted to any part of the premises merely because it is out of sight behind the barn or garage. In the average moderate-sized place there will not be much choice as to land. It will be necessary to take what is to be had and then do the very best that can be done with it. But there will probably be a good deal of choice as to, first, exposure, and second, convenience. Other things being equal, select a spot near at hand, easy of access. It may seem that a difference of only a few hundred yards will mean nothing, but if one is depending largely upon spare moments for working in and for watching the garden and in the growing of many vegetables the latter is almost as important as the former this matter of convenient access will be of much greater importance than is likely to be at first recognized. Not until you have had to make a dozen time-wasting trips for forgotten seeds or tools, or gotten your feet soaking wet by going out through the dew-drenched grass, will you realize fully what this may mean.

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Jesse Auburg