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The Complete Compost Gardening Guide: Banner batches, grow heaps, comforter compost, and other amazing techniques for saving time and money, and producing ... most flavorful, nutritous vegetables ever. | 
 enlarge | Authors: Barbara Pleasant, Deborah L. Martin
Publisher: Storey Publishing, LLC
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $11.24
You Save: $8.71 (44%)
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 47318
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.9
Dimensions (in): 10.7 x 8.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 1580177026
Dewey Decimal Number: 631.875
EAN: 9781580177023
ASIN: 1580177026
Publication Date: February 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin turn the compost bin upside down with their liberating system of keeping compost heaps right in the garden, rather than in some dark corner behind the garage. The compost and the plants live together from the beginning in a nourishing, organic environment. The authors' bountiful, compost-rich gardens require less digging, weeding, mulching, and even less planting. And here's one of the best parts — no more backbreaking slogs from compost bin to garden. The authors even identify the plants that benefit most from compost and how the elements of a composted garden work together.
A natural Six-Way Compost Gardening System provides the ruling principles for successfully improving every garden with healthy compost. Readers will learn how to:
1. Choose labor-saving sites that keep gardens and compost piles as close to one another as possible.
2. Work with the compostable riches produced at home. Every yard and kitchen produces plenty of material — easily identified with at-a-glance charts — for a great start.
3. Help composting critters do their work by balancing ingredients, adding high-nitrogen meals when needed, and keeping the compost moist.
4. Reuse recycling bin items, such as large plastic buckets and cardboard boxes, as composting equipment.
5. Keep diversity in the mix. The magic is in the variety of the components and how they work together to create "gardener’s gold."
6. Customize composting to suit specific garden needs, always concentrating first on soil care.
Adhering to these guidelines, Pleasant and Martin bring readers on a thorough, informative tour of materials and innovative techniques, leading the way to an efficient and rewarding home gardening system. Their methods are sure to help gardeners turn average vegetable plots into rich incubators of healthy produce, bursting with fresh flavor, and flower beds into rich tapestries of bountiful blooms all season long.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
Composting Made Easy January 1, 2009
The Complete Compost Gardening Guide
By Barbara Pleasant and Deborah L. Martin
Storey Publishing
ISBN 978-1-58017-702-3
ISBN 978-1-58017-703-0
The hedgehog that lives in my back yard has let me know, in his own way, that purchasing a compost bin with a ground level opening is not a good idea. He already eats everything tasty in my garden, so access to compostable kitchen scraps will only create a feast for him and a mess for me. The solution would be to invest in a rotary compost bin that prevents animals from climbing inside. Not a good idea! While I would like to do my part to save the planet, spending a lot of money on equipment contradicts the idea of going green.
That is why the arrival of this book on my doorstep was so welcome. It only took the reading of a few pages to realize that there are many ways to compost without spending a lot of money. At first glance, I thought that this publication was targeting the commercial farmer, but on closer inspection, I discovered that this book has so much to offer the recreational gardener as well.
What I like best about this book is the scholarly method with which the subject of composting is introduced and expanded upon, in incremental sub topics, until the totality of the subject has been examined. The essential message in this publication is that anyone's back yard or farm can easily become a "compost- generating system" by simply following a few steps to create the right environment for organic matter to break down.
The first three chapters discuss the fundamentals by reviewing the science of composting, the tools needed and the materials that are helpful. Then the book gets really interesting when the various techniques of composting are discussed. In this section, we are introduced to four methods of composting. Here is where we personalize the book, by selecting the procedure or procedures that best suit our landscape, our skills and our needs. Farmers with large quantities of waste vegetation may opt for one process while the weekend gardener might choose another.
The first method is called "banner batches". This is composting that takes place in heaps or enclosures. The second method is referred to as "comforter compost and grow heaps" This is a labor saving procedure that requires one to simply pile garden waste in layers, moisten and allow nature to do the rest. The next method discussed is called underground composting. In this procedure, holes in the ground are filled with organic material and then covered with earth and allowed to decompose. The last method is called `vermicompost" which uses worms to convert waste into compost.
The final section of the book discussed how plants can interact with compost by growing in or near a compost heap. Some plants are enriched by growing close by and some plants enrich the heap itself by growing in it. In all, fifteen plants are recommended, each one being suitable for one of the four composting methods discussed in the book.
While composting is a science, at no point in the book does the writing become technical. The publication is written for the layperson in a friendly and easy-to -read style. It almost makes the reader feel that we are visiting the authors on a farm and learning from them as they go about their work.
Great info for the seasoned or new composter! December 6, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
My husband & I both found the info helpful, practical & creative for any backyard environment. The book was so good we bought it for our daughter & son-in-law for Christmas. We liked the rational they provided for different techniques used in composting. It also gave me some different methods of composting, especially when I need it quickly. The cost saving methods provided were great. We feel we spent our money wisely when we purchased this book!
Best Yet for Depth and Variety December 2, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am a Master Gardener Educator with a special interst in organic, Mother Earth stewardship. Outside of Rodale's book on composting, this it the best overall guide on composting I have found. It is in-depth, yet takes us to practical ideas. Great photos and layout. Easy reading. Knowledgeable and inpiring. I think is a great choice!
Compost Book Review November 22, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I was always under the miss-assumption that composting was just throwing a bunch of waste in a pile and letting it rot. Boy! was I wrong. This book helps you find different, creative, and convenient ways of enriching your soil while reducing waste and saving money. It covers all types of soil amendments and explains what they do when added to your compost pile. It also includes helpful advise for certain crops and identifying common pests and how to get rid of them.
The Complete Compost Guide November 16, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a lovely book! It will be used as a gift to a gardner friend of mine who will be thrilled with its contents.
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