Earth Day

DID YOU KNOW?
A number of laws were passed by the Congress following the introduction of Earth Day in 1970, including the Clean Air Act and the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
175 countries currently observe Earth Day. According to the nonprofit Earth Day Network, Earth Day is now "the largest secular holiday in the world, celebrated by more than a half billion people every year." Environmental groups are working towards making Earth Day into a day of action which changes human behavior and provokes policy changes.

Source: www.care2.com/send/catearthday1.html

Worm Poop: Black Gold

Sifting your vermicompost material is relatively simple, if a little time consuming. The good stuff, sometimes called worm castings, will congregate at the bottom of the bin. To collect the castings, you can feed your worms heavily on one side of the bin, toward the top, and then wait for about a week.

When all is said and done, we're only after one thing -- black gold. No, we are not talking about oil here. Whatever people call it -- worm castings, tailings, solids, grit, dirt, humus, black gold, or even the "latter end of the digestive cycle," it's all one thing: worm poop.

The special thing about worm poop is that it's highly concentrated into some of the most nutrient-packed fertilizer that you can use. Studies have found that plants fertilized with worm castings saw higher growth rate than those treated with chemical fertilizers. Some farmers know this, and they pay a lot more money for soil with worm castings in it.

With the current trend of eco-consciousness, people are always looking for ways to eat organic foods, and to keep unnecessary waste out of landfills, and recycle.


Source: http://home.howstuffworks.com/vermicomposting4.htm

Worm Poop

Worm Composting 101

Create you own Compost

Composting Guidelines

1. Layer your pile. If you’re building a large compost pile, you’ll want to layer it with alternating layers of “green” and “brown” organic matter. It helps to throw some soil, manure, or completed compost on top to get the microbes working. It's good to put woodier things like dead plant stalks on the bottom and layer veggie scraps, weeds, and dead leaves on top. The amounts of the various types of organic matter will determine how long your compost takes to decompose.

2. Know what to compost and what not to. Before you throw just any organic matter into your bin, make sure you research what your bin can handle. For instance, worms don’t seem to like citrus (too acidic) or anything too spicy, but they love coffee grounds. Keep meat and dairy products out of compost piles, as they can go rancid and also attract critters, though eggshells are ok. And large pieces of wood or sticks may take a long time to break down, so they’re best left out of the compost bin.

3. Let it breathe. For most compost bins, the organic matter needs a way to get oxygen so that it can break down. Worm bins usually have ventilation holes, and allowing some air to get into your compost bin or container helps for this.

4. Keep it moist. Compost needs moisture to aid in decomposition. Water your compost pile a little bit every time you water the garden. It doesn’t like to be soaked though, so in the rainy season you may want to put a tarp over the pile or bin.

5. Turn it occasionally. How often you turn your compost pile depends on how fast everything is breaking down. Normally the center of a compost pile will be warm. Once the heat starts dying down, you can stir or turn it with a garden fork to get the decomposition going again. Stirring your pile every few weeks can help it decompose faster.

6. Multiple piles for a constant supply. If you keep adding kitchen scraps to a compost pile, each addition will be at varying stages of decay. This can make it difficult to know when to harvest finished compost. It may help to start a big pile in the spring, then let it sit (stirring occasionally) and start a new one to add new waste to. This way you always have compost in the works. With vermicomposting, you can keep adding and harvest a layer of the bin, moving the worms to a new layer. With container composting, usually the turn-around time for compost is pretty quick, but multiple containers can’t hurt.


Compost is an artform that’s best learned through practice. Everyone has different methods, which you’ll learn as you experiment. Composting is simple, inexpensive, and very eco-friendly. It’s recycling you can do right at home! You may be amazed at how little ends up in the trash can once you start composting, and instead of filling the landfill, you can turn waste into delicious home-grown produce!

Source: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/compost-101-dont-start-a-garden-without-it.html

Composting 101

No garden would be complete without its own natural recycling system, a compost pile. Without a way of dealing with compost, weeds and scraps are waste. But why create more trash when you can turn your garden and kitchen waste into valuable soil-building fertilizer?

One of the first steps to starting an organic garden should be to begin a compost pile. Composting will break down organic matter into nutrient-rich material that builds soil and nourishes plants. And just like anyone can garden, no matter their situation, there are composting possibilities for everyone!

Possible Composting Methods

• A big outdoor compost heap or bin. If you have the space in your garden or yard, a large compost heap is the best way to make the most of all your organic matter waste and fertilize a large garden. Your compost pile can be as simple as a loose heap in a sheltered area of the yard, or as fancy as a pre-made tumbling bin.

A compost pile should be at least 3′ x 3′ x 3′ to break down the organic matter well. It’s best to allow it to breathe, and you’ll need to be able to easily access it to stir your compost every so often to keep it going.

• A worm bin for vermicomposting. The idea of keeping a bin of worms to eat garbage freaked us out at first, but now that we’ll soon be harvesting rich worm castings and seen the results. We're big believers in worm power.


You can build your own worm bin or buy a ready-made stacking bin.


Worm composting can be scaled to your available space, so it’s great for keeping in a garage, deck, or even in the kitchen. You can use both a worm bin and a garden compost pile because your worm bin can only digest so much, so we only give the worms kitchen or canteen scraps. Some worms often don’t like things like onions, citrus, and hot peppers, so those can go in the compost pile.

Source: www.care2.com

What is Compost?

Compost is a natural organic material produced when microorganisms break down organic residue. This process occurs continually in nature, resulting in a sweet, earthy smelling brown material called compost. Compost adds food for many organisms and an enormous diversity of organisms to your garden soil when you use it as a soil amendment. It is a rich source of organic matter. Although compost contains plant nutrients, it is typically characterized as a soil amendment rather than as a fertilizer, because most of the nutrients are not readily available and only become available slowly, over many years.

Composting is not just about gardening. It helps our environment and greatly reduces the amount of material that ends up in landfill sites around the country.

Composting is something that everyone can do with a little time and effort. The results are a cleaner and healthier environment. Everyone knows it's the right thing to do - so get out there and get composting!

Source: www.johnstownrecycling.com

Earth Hour: Does It Make A Difference?

It won't reverse global warming, but proponents said Earth Hour was a good way to raise awareness about the climate problems the world is facing.

Organizers saw the event as a way to encourage the world to conserve energy. While it was unlikely that all lights in participating cities were cut, it was the symbolic darkening of monuments, businesses and individual homes.

The goal was to cut electricity consumption by five per cent for an hour. Cutting power consumption generally makes everyone feel good, but the actual reduction it achieves is a drop in the bucket.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, there needs to be a 50 per cent to 85 per cent reduction in emissions to turn the current warming trend around.

Earth Hour demonstrated how dealing with climate change was really going to happen: from the ground up.

The World Wildlife Fund set a target of one billion people shutting off their lights. The organization said that that kind of participation was equivalent to a "global vote" in favour of taking action on climate change. It would also send a strong message to the world leaders expected to gather at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which takes place Dec. 9-17, 2009, in Copenhagen. The meeting is supposed to come up with a plan to deal with climate change that will replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Source : www.cbc.ca

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