Compost is a version of humus found in soil. The Australian gardener’s best friend, this is a mixture of recycled organic and household waste that you can use as a natural fertilizer to renew your soil’s composition and yield bountiful plant growth and harvests. Making compost for your garden is not as difficult as it seems. You can even create one at home using crude materials you may easily locate in your household. Here are the basic steps of making compost:

Step 1: Free the ground from debris and set-up three wooden pallets that are tied side by side.

Step 2: The two basic ingredients of compost is carbon (brown ingredients) and nitrogen (green ingredients). The former provides volume while the latter fuels the compost. A 1:4 carbon-nitrogen ratio is the standard being followed. Collect items which are potential sources of carbon like autumn or dry leaves, newspapers, vegetable wastes, sawdust etc. Nitrogen is found from organic and artificial types of activators. Organic types include soil lawn clippings, hair, weeds and blood meal. Although, artificial type of activator like commercial Nitrogen fertilizers is readily available, organic types are more effective since artificial activators do not contain protein which is essential for microorganisms’ use.

Step 3:  Compost pile consists of layers of carbon alternated with nitrogen. Place larger materials at the bottom of the heap. Putting it at the bottom of the heap increases the chances for it to breakdown and it also allows the air to move through it.

Step 4: Continue layering the materials. Water the heap as it grows and in every additional layer of nitrogen. Ensure to keep the heap moist.

Step 5: As decomposition commences, the heap will begin to subside. Smother the pile with fresh lawn clippings and water it again. You can also install a piece of PVC pipe in the middle of the heap to maintain airflow. Add additional food scraps over time and leave it for 2 weeks.

Step 6: Turn the compost pile. Fork and transfer it to 2 or more bins.

Step 8: After turning it, leave it again for another week. However, turning it more often hastens the decomposition process.

Step 9: You know it’s done when after 4-6 weeks of continuous turning, the organic materials are unrecognizable and the heap looks like organic soil.

Now that your compost is ready, you can use it in many different ways to enhance the soil with the appropriate amount of nutrients for the plants to thrive at its best!

Winter is coming so now’s the time to start preparing your soil for growing delicious Australian winter root vegetables.

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While cultivating soil can be a tedious and messy job it gives you the opportunity to transform your yard into a prolific home garden. Aside from the nutritional benefits you get from eating fresh and naturally grown fruits and vegetables from your own backyard, maintaining a vegetable garden at home can also be a good physical activity to help you stay in shape. Calories are burned when you plant the garden, sow seeds, water the plants, remove weeds, mow the lawn and, of course, it also saves you money that would otherwise be spent buying fruit, vegetables and even flowers from stores and markets.

Beginning a home garden requires a lot of planning. First, you have to decide what plants you would like to grow in your home or backyard. The next thing to do is to prepare the soil which is an essential factor to the survival of outdoor and container plants. To determine a healthy and safe soil, have it checked for water, nitrogen and phosphorus content as well as its alkalinity and acidity. In addition to that, you need to have an excellent mixture of clay, sand and silt. You can test its quality by compressing it and assessing if it can hold its shape or whether it falls apart easily when an external force is applied to it. You can then be certain that you’re close to the standards of a good soil composition. But if you think it lacks one ingredient or another you can remedy that. Peat moss or compost is used for soil that contains too much silk or sand. For too much clay, a mix of peat moss and sand should do the trick.

If your soil is deficient in nutrients you can add fertilizers one to two weeks prior to planting your seeds. Continue adding the same amount of fertilizer a week after the seeds have been sown to be certain that there is an adequate supply of the nutrients that are essential for the plants’ growth.

Garden pests can be your number one enemy in home gardening. Eliminating them totally will be close to impossible but there are ways of controlling their existence in the garden. Planting herbs like chives, coriander, basil and mint can help you with pest control. Insects are deterred by eliminating weeds, leaves and decaying matter where they could possibly reside.

There are so many things that a gardener should consider in home gardening. Spare some time and effort in learning about it and you’ll see that even without a green thumb, you can grow a garden of abundance and freshness.

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It tastes better, obviously this is subject but many people buy organic products because of the taste. This is because organic fruit and veg is grown slowly (as they should) and has a lower water content, which attribute to a fuller flavour.

It’s healthier; on average organic food contains higher levels of vitamins and minerals compared to non-organic food.

Helps the environment and wildlife; organic farming supports wildlife and the environment because they don’t use sprays and chemicals. Organic farming also has higher levels of animal welfare standards than system farming.

No additives; food additives have been associated with rashes, headaches, asthma and growth retardation. They’re best avoided.

Antibiotic additives are routinely added to animal food in conventional farming to speed growth even though these have been linked with bacterial resistance in humans to the same or closely related antibiotics. 

Foods that have been certified as organic provides a guarantee that the product have been grown, handled and distributed while avoiding the risk of contamination, and can be traced back fully along the supply line.

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Health advocates recommend oils in our daily diet, but too many polyunsaturated vegetable oils like safflower, soybean and sunflower can result in oxidation and free radical damage to our bodies. Now, monounsaturated vegetable oils are better for you, and certain types, like fish oil, provide a higher level of protection and are more nutritious for our body.

Why it’s important to use organic oils?
It is worthwhile looking for organically certified oils to use in your kitchen for a number of reasons. When organisms are exposed to pollutants, we process and eliminate them according to metabolic capacity while what is left is stored in fatty tissue. After a while the fat-soluble metabolites of herbicides, pesticides and other plant agents are subject to build up within the plant oils.

If you purchase organic oils, it is the best way to ensure you are getting pure oil, since the yielding plants would have only had minimal exposure to these chemicals. Unless the label indicates, cooking oils extracted from intensive crops like canola, soybeans and corn are likely to have material from genetically modified stock.

If you purchase an oil with organic certification, it will give you assurance that the product contains only natural, unadulterated ingredients. If an oil is organic, it comes from well-nurtured soils with balanced nutrients, that support healthy plant growth- the kind required to produce premium quality oil yields.

As well as giving our body more nutrients, organic oil protects our crops and land. While commercial oil crops can deplete soils from high volume production and trace mineral and organic component absorption, organic oils do not. Synthetic fertilisers used with commercial oil crops lower the quality of oil and vitality in forthcoming crops.

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But before you rush to the local farmers market to get the best fruit and vegetables, you should know a bit about organic foods and what it is that makes them the best food choice.

Farmers and food producers- produce organic foods without using synthetic chemicals like pesticides and artificial fertilisers. They don’t use genetically modified components (GM) or expose the food to irradiation, making them a truly natural source.

Organic foods are grown naturally and are not necessarily completely chemical free, but have a considerably lower pesticide residue than modified foods. Less chemically effected foods makes them a more reliable, safe food source.

There have been a number of studies on organic foods to compare the nutritional content. There are no significant differences in vitamin and mineral contents, but organic vegetables have lower nitrate levels, higher vitamin C, and higher levels of selenium.

As well as not using harsh chemicals and artificial fertilisers, animal welfare is a priority for organic farming. Organic foods can also include animal produce like eggs, which would be free range rather than caged (also known as battery) hens.

Organic foods include fruit and vegetables, grains, meat and meat products, eggs, dairy foods and honey.

Although organic products are better for you and the environment (and the animals) it is often far more expensive than other foods. This is because the labour to grow the food is far more intensive, it doesn’t have herbicides, pesticides and other chemicals, making the yield generally smaller.

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Getting fresh fruit and vegetables doesn’t mean you have to travel far; in fact there are many fresh fruit and vegetable ‘box schemes’ that deliver straight from the farm. You probably don’t even know it, but there may be a farm in your area that will offer this service.

There are differing schemes that will work in different ways, but most will involve weekly delivery of local grown and in season, fresh fruit and vegetables. What items are in the box will depend on the farmer and their ‘box’ deals. Some fresh box deals will offer meat and dairy products also.

This home delivery service is a great way to get fresh food to your home (and know that it came from an actual farm). The best thing about this is that the farmers and yourself are benefiting from the organic products taken to your home.

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