Autumn Gardening Jobs for September: Classic Gardening Activities to Revisit
In the spirit of autumn, it's the perfect time to get your garden ready for the colder months and prepare for the next growing season. Here's a rundown on how to build a compost bin for gardening and preserve extra tomatoes as paste, all while reducing waste and enriching your soil.
Building a Compost Bin
Begin by selecting a suitable location for your compost bin. A sunny, sheltered spot close to your kitchen is ideal. You can use various materials to construct your bin, such as recycled pallets, wood, or wire mesh. Pallets are practical, sturdy, and easy to assemble with basic tools like screws, a drill, and a saw. A simple design could be a wooden box or a cylindrical enclosure about 3 feet tall to hold the compost materials effectively.
Layering Your Compost
Once your bin is ready, start your compost pile with a base layer of dry, carbon-rich materials like twigs, dry leaves, or cardboard to ensure good airflow. Then, alternate layers of green, nitrogen-rich materials such as kitchen scraps (fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds), lawn clippings, and garden waste with brown, carbon-rich layers of dry leaves or paper. Add organic materials like eggshells or manure occasionally to boost decomposition. Avoid adding cooked foods, dairy, meat, weed seeds, diseased plants, or invasive species to prevent odors and pests.
Maintain your compost by regularly mixing or turning it with an aerator every couple of weeks to provide oxygen that speeds up decomposition and ensures even breakdown of materials. Keep the compost moist but not soggy—similar to a wrung-out sponge—and cover the pile during rainy seasons to control moisture levels. The compost process typically takes a few months to produce a dark, crumbly, soil-like substance that you can then spread around garden beds as rich fertilizer.
Preserving Tomatoes as Paste
To preserve extra tomatoes, you can freeze them as paste, either directly or after freezing in ice cube trays. Wash tomatoes before preparing, then pare out stems and any rotten spots. Cut tomatoes into pieces and liquefy them in a blender. Strain the liquefied tomatoes to remove seeds and skins before boiling down to a desired consistency. Freezing tomato paste in individual freezer bags or ice cube trays before transferring to freezer bags is an efficient way to store them.
Different methods exist for composting and preserving tomatoes. For example, "add-as-you-go" composting allows you to continuously add materials to the bin and requires less turning but slower decomposition. On the other hand, "hot pile" composting involves active turning and heating, which kills pathogens and weed seeds faster.
By building a compost bin and preserving tomatoes as paste, you're not only reducing waste but also enriching your soil and creating a sustainable gardening practice. Happy composting and preserving!
- To further nurture your lifestyle and garden for the upcoming growth season, consider implementing home-improvement projects like building a compost bin and preserving extra tomatoes as paste.
- Embrace a home-and-garden lifestyle by using your compost bin and preserved tomato paste to enrich your soil, save money, and reduce waste in the home-improvement process.
