Compost Corner: Have you started composting coffee grounds yet?

I follow a few you tube channels but one of my favorites these days is One Yard Revolution. I've shared one of his videos before, he's posted another coffee video. This video is pretty telling... how much money you can safe in fertilizers and amendments by using free used coffee grounds.

Compost Corner: What not to compost...

Its hard for the average gardener to maintain a "hot" compost pile. I know that mine may get hot but for the most part I am cold composting. Which is completely fine with me.  So because of this I have learned (the hard way)...

Do not compost tomatoes (or tomato plants with tomatoes on them)....

And do not compost pumpkins with seeds in them....

Next year they are getting thrown in the forest... that way maybe they can feed the deer and rabbits.

Compost Corner: Egg shells....

Eggs are an incredibly sustainable source of protein. Along with using the inside of the egg, the egg shell is one of the simplest things to compost and use in your garden.

Egg shells are something like 97% calcium. So egg shells are a great way to supplement calcium in your garden (especially for tomatoes, eggplants and peppers). Also apparently it keeps away slugs because they don't like to slide across the sharp edges.

So here is what I do....

1) When I am cooking with eggs I keep this little dish handy (one of those things in my kitchen that previously sat around collecting dust, till I found a new use for them).

2) Microwave the eggs for 3.5 minutes. Why 3.5 minutes? Way back when I found that number on the internet (great reason right) :) .

3) Crush egg shells into tiny pieces.

4) Done!

These egg shells are being saved for my summer tomatoes. (Otherwise they would just go straight into the compost bin).

Compost Corner: I love coffee..

As I've mentioned before here my favorite things to compost are coffee grounds and egg shells. I came across this video the other day and its such a great summary about why I love composting coffee.





If you are local the Starbucks on route 9 in Freehold attached to the Barnes and Nobles is really good about saving their coffee grounds for you(and sometimes they actually proactively put out bags for anyone to just take without having to ask them to save them).