Image by Gardening in a Minute via Flickr

We started our first vegetable garden in containers. That was before we had a home with a yard big enough to have a vegetable garden in the ground. Since that time we have noticed that people all over the country are starting their own vegetable gardens. Probably for the same reasons we started gardening, to save even a little on the grocery bills.

Back when we first started gardening was not a hobby, that came later when I realized it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

Gardening has been around since, well forever so I don’t think people decided to start gardening just on a whim. There is obviously more to it than that. People are gardening vegetables these days to combat rising costs knowing that they aren’t getting any pay raises to compensate for cost of living increases. Plain and simple.

Another huge factor is lack of job security and households where only one individual is working outside the home.

Like I said at the beginning our first veggie garden was a container garden. We wanted to grow some vegetables so we could save a little and eventually we bought a home with a big yard and now have an ever growing garden. However that little container garden produces piles of tomatoes, potatoes and strawberries.

Surprise, Surprise We Grew Veggies

We weren’t really certain we could grow anything outdoors. I like house plants and have no trouble growing them indoors but in here they don’t have to survive the elements, but we did fine, even though I made a few mistakes.

Mistakes Are Part of  The Learn Process

I have always seem to learn things the hard way but that’s me. It’s mostly self inflicted of course as I tend not to read instructions and try things without learning how first. I’m still alive and doing fine. Container gardening wasn’t really that hard to learn. My biggest mistake was not using containers big enough for the task. That mistake was easily rectified by getting larger containers and re-potting. Lesson learned.

After a few years of gardening vegetables in containers we found the home of our dreams, it even has two lots, one we turned into a small garden which seems to get a bit bigger each passing year.

But summer is gone all too soon and then a winter that’s way too long, so…

We Started A Herb Gardening In The Kitchen

We had already been container gardening so starting a container garden in the kitchen wasn’t a big step but it had huge results. Now we have fresh herbs all year long and love them in most every thing we eat. The only issue we had with our kitchen herb garden was that our kitchen windows don’t get enough sunlight during the winter so we moved the herb garden to the living room window and all is well again.

It’s Organic Vegetable Gardening Or Nothing

From the time I was 8 years old I suffered migraine headaches that would make me so sick and cause such pain. That was the same year I moved to live on a farm. It took me almost 40 years to find out the cause of my migraines, it was pesticides. My dad used pesticides on everything in our huge vegetable garden and it nearly killed me. Needless to say we don’t use pesticides in our garden and we wash all the produce we purchase very thoroughly.

Gardening has become such a great hobby now and it’s a hobby that feeds us healthy and tasty garden produce.

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• 5 Tips For Container Gardening (backyardgardeningtips.com)

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If you want to produce the best compost you just need to follow a few tips and your garden will thank you. Just a few minutes with the right information will save you from putting the wrong things in the compost bin.

We have a Compost Bin out behind the garage for a couple of years before I ever tried it. I am sure they previous owners were scared they’d mess up because it was never even used.

Even though it’s possible to compost just using a pile it’s messy, looks terrible and will attract animals looking for food scraps.

Constructing A Compost Bin

Our compost bin is plastic and kind of looks like an upside down garbage can but you can construct your own compost bin with a few stakes and chicken wire. I would suggest you make it about 3 feet square for the best air circulation. That seems to be just the right size for everything to work right.

Filling Your Compost Bin (What To Put In Your Compost Bin)

What’s the best or most balanced mixture for your compost bin, for getting the best results in the shortest time frame.

Green Yard And Kitchen Waste

The green waste is usually high in nitrogen. It’s the green waste that activates the heat process in your compost. Some heat generating yard waste is better at heating, like fresh young weeds that haven’t gone to seed yet. Be sure you keep those grass trimmings as they work well too. We also use our kitchen waste, fruit, vegetable, coffee grounds. We don’t drink much tea but you can use the tea leaves as well, even the bag.

Brown Usable Waste

The brown waste is usually high in carbon. Brown waste includes leaves that fall in autumn, all those dead flowers, plants and weeds. You can also use those cardboard tubes from Christmas wrapping paper, foil wrap, etc. If you use straw to cover flower beds or strawberries you can recycle that through your compost bin when you’re done with it.

What Other Things Can Go In The Compost Bin

We have grocery bags that are made from recycled cloth but every once in a while we will shop somewhere they give us paper bags, if they don’t have a lot of colour or ink we put them straight in the compost bin, well I rip them up to make the pieces break down faster. We also use our egg shell in the compost bin but I also use them to keep slugs out of my garden. Don’t forget the paper towels you use they can go in as well.

Air Circulation For Breathing Room

Your compost bin works best when it has a good flow of air and will NOT stink like some compost bins do, those without a good air supply as it take more bacteria when the air flow is not enough.

Each time you turn your compost pile it will get a new supply of air and will loosen the compost for better air circulation.

Just A Little Water

We keep our compost bin slightly damp but not too wet. Kind of like a sponge you just squeezed the water from, it’s just damp.

Our compost bin has a lid on it that helps to keep a lot of the moisture from the green waste from evaporating so we don’t need to use water much at all, but we keep a close watch on it in the hot dry weather.

We started our composting without adding any extra soil to help jump start the process but I have heard that it’s beneficial at the start so feel free to add some top soil between the layers of compost. A small amount of garden soil between each layer will introduce the bacteria needed to start the compost cycle. The soil that was still attached to plants we pulled and added to the compost bin was enough for us to have great results.

I was so impressed with the first compost we created. It was just like top soil you buy at the nursery but it was created right in our own Compost Bin.

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• We Love Our Backyard Composter (backyardgardeningtips.com)
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