Latest composting Stories

COMPOST is a natural fertiliser and soil conditioner that can be made at home from organic wastes, such as: Twigs and prunings. Lawn clippings. Food scraps. Manure. Leaves. These wastes are changed into a rich humus by micro-organisms (tiny creatures), insects and worms. Composting is great for the garden and environment because it: wImproves soil fertility and texture. Boosts plant health and growth. Helps retain moisture and nutrients. Lessens the requirement for chemical...

Converted Organics Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) announced today that the Company has received and is installing new equipment in its Gonzales, California manufacturing facility to increase its capacity to accept and process food waste into organic fertilizer and soil amendment products. The plant will be open to receive and process increased quantities of food waste by Friday, October 3. "Increased production capacity is critical to Converted Organics' commitment to meet growing market demand for our...

By CONNIENELSON Clean up Continue to harvest vegetables as they ripen. If you have more veggies than you can use, take them to a food shelf. (To find a food shelf near you, call Second Harvest at 651-484-5117 or go www.2harvest.org.) Once they're hit by a hard frost, remove annuals and vegetables and toss them in the compost bin. Cut back perennials that show signs of disease. Don't compost diseased plant material. Throw it in the trash. Leave sturdy-stemmed perennials and those with...

QUALITY of life in Warwickshire compares favourably to other areas, according to a new report. Compiled by the Warwickshire Observatory, the report says there is more employment, better skills and earnings compared with much of the country. The report draws on responses to a number of surveys and statistics gathered by a range of organisations. People have increased their life expectancy, with fewer people dying before 75 - comparing favourably with the national average, and people like...

The first compostable bottles of water to be sold in the U.S. House of Representatives will come from a company in Southside Virginia. Grand Springs, in the rural Halifax County community of Alton, unveiled its new Green Bottle Spring Water in a Capitol Hill cafeteria Tuesday as part of the House's effort to reduce its impact on the environment. "I think this is the wave of the future," said Robert Smith, owner of Grand Springs. "I think it's where we need to be in this country." The House...

A Mushroom compost manufacturer has been ordered to take action to reduce the smell produced by the process. Cotswold District Council is taking action against Agricultural Supply Company Limited, of Fairford. It has served enforcement notices on the firm after completing an investigation following a number of odour complaints from neighbours of the Sunhill site. Residents have long campaigned about smells. More than 20 protesters against the firm's plan to process mixed organic waste...

By Banks Albach At 11:10 a.m. Monday, hundreds of fourth- and fifth-graders poured onto the playground of La Entrada Middle School to eat lunch handed out by parent volunteers -- low-fat pizza, bowls of chicken and rice, burritos and salads, all served in biodegradable trays made from corn and potatoes. When they were done, the students placed leftover food, the containers and milk cartons inside compost bins and dumped certain plastic items into recycling bins. The little that didn't go...

COHASSET - The Friends of Holly Hill Farm will hold programs on topics ranging from composting to wreath making this fall. The first program in the series, "Home Compost and Starting a Worm Bin," will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday. The fee is $15. The rest of the schedule: "All About Salt Marshes," 2 p.m. Oct. 5, $5. "First Annual Discover the Woods Day," 2 p.m. Oct. 19. Registration at least 10 days in advance is required. "Tour the Growing Fields of Holly Hill Farm," 1 p.m. Oct. 25, $5....

Clay is the Jekyll and Hyde of soils. It constitutes some of our most fertile agricultural soils, but even these turn rock-hard when dry. Tiny particles pack down so tightly that the ground virtually defies water absorption. Once saturated, it becomes a sticky morass taking forever to dry out. Many a garden failure is directly related to an abundance of clay in the soil. Like all things in life, there is no absolute black-and-white with soils but, rather, a million shades of gray....

By Jake Griffin jgriffin@@dailyherald.com Ashley Summers' lunch leftovers feed the hungry. Hundreds of worms devour apple cores, banana peels, carrot tops and other organic table scraps she and co-workers at Western DuPage Special Recreation Association leave behind. In return for the staff's generosity, the worms produce a nutrient-rich soil and an equally potent liquid fertilizer, and they also help keep about a half-pound of waste out of local landfills or water treatment plants each...