General – Page 227 – Crazy About Compost

Interview with Dr. Michael Mulvaney

In response to my video, "You Just Composted WHAT?", I decided to look for a soil scientist to hear their thoughts on some controversial "compostable" items that are often written about: waxed cardboard, condoms, eggs contaminated with salmonella, etc. Who stood out most to me was Dr. Michael Mulvaney. His blog, named "The Dirt Dude", has lots of excellent material about soil and agriculture, and I could tell he would be able to provide some great feedback for my wonderful readers. So here we go: TW: When did you decide you were so interested in soil and pursue a career? Was it an early childhood fascination for you? Tell me a bit about how you got to where you are now. What are your goals as an agronomist, and what…

Compost Tea!

In just over two weeks, I have collected nearly a gallon of compost leachate from my compost tumbler. Pretty awesome, just look at my excitement. Some people have been asking me what compost tea is... well, don't drink it! Simply put, it's the best organic and natural fertilizer you could use on your garden. You can take care of an entire acre with only 5 gallons of the stuff, which is great. To dilute it, I recommend 10 parts water to one part compost tea. If it smells really bad, chances are it's past its prime and not the best for use. If you leave it outside in a bucket, you can hope to make aerobic, but ultimately you will need a small air pump to infuse air into the…

How to Build a Worm Bin In Under 15 Minutes (video)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QFCW2X9OZ8 Woohoo! I just made a new worm bin. I'm going to go ahead and call it a "Bentley Bin", which I named after Bentley Christie of http://www.redwormcomposting.com . He's the true master of vermicomposting, and I highly recommend checking him out to learn everything there is to know about worms. Hit the Like button for the video and leave a comment for me! I'll be posting updates once I get my worms, which should be in about a week.