So if you’re looking for a great way to improve garden soil, stop throwing away your egg shells! Seriously.

If you’d like to see how I make the easiest-ever compost tea, be sure to catch my instructional video below.

And if you’re looking for the best germinating seeds I’ve ever experienced, combined with an amazingly organized website that will help you find exactly what you want, even if you don’t know what you want (seriously), I highly recommend TrueLeaf market for the best seeds I’ve ever ordered online. And I’ve tried a lot.

Plant some egg shells

Among the many benefits they offer your garden, egg shells are said to help prevent blossom-end rot in tomatoes.

You see blossom-end rot on tomatoes when they’re not getting enough calcium. Often over watering compounds the problem because if a tomato plant gets too much water it can’t absorb the calcium it needs.

So we monitor our watering and we like to add a few tablespoons of dried, crushed eggshells to our soil right before transplanting our tomato seedlings. We also sometimes work them in the soil around the tomatoes. While we crush them up before we work them in, you really don’t have to be too particular about it. Keep it simple. There are enough complicated things in your day. Boosting your garden soil’s calcium and mineral content doesn’t need to be one of them.

Our garden is looking great this summer, and I’m sure our egg shells have a lot to do with its success, especially the success of our tomatoes. Well, I’m sure a little composted cow manure doesn’t hurt either.

Of course Scout would love to have her run of the garden. Thankfully our fencing keeps her at bay.

This post contains affiliate links. Go here to read the full (ultra fun) legal disclosure about that.

Count the cost

Seriously. Using egg shells in your garden will not only cost you zero dimes, but it’s possibly the easiest thing you’ll ever do to improve your soil.

Of course you don’t have to literally crush your shells and work them into your soil. You can get eggshells in your garden in other ways too. Read on for my favorite way.

Take a second to subscribe here on SoulyRested and you’ll have immediate access to all my ebooks and other goodies in my Resource Library, starting with my newest ebook–Composting: The Low-Down on a Few Things You Should Know.

By the way, I’m gonna interrupt this post with a little public announcement. I just recently stumbled upon this amazing site–Nature Hills Nursery is the largest online nursery. Ever. Seriously.

And these folks treat their plants right. Not to mention their customers. If you’re looking for a huge variety of plants, shrubs, and trees this is it. They even have many rare plants that are rather hard to find these days. And they never spray their plants with hormones to make them bloom, like so many stores and nurseries do right before putting them on the shelves, ya know, just in time for you to cart them home, covered in chemicals. When you purchase a plant or tree from NatureHills.com you’re purchasing a plant that has been grown and tended to with care and is shipped to you right from the field. How awesome is that?

Yes, by the way, Nature Hills Nursery asked me to partner with them cause they wanna meet my readers, meaning my links here are affiliate links and if you do decide you’d like to order from them they send me a tiny percentage. But it doesn’t cost you a penny extra. And I truly love this company and their beautiful plants, so I am elated to introduce you to them.

Take the easy way out

The most common way I add egg shells to my garden? I choose the easy-as-pie way.

But let’s just pause for a second and contemplate why “easy as pie” is even a saying. I’m sorry. I’ve made lots of baked goods in my day. (Mostly ones made with maple these days. Mmmmmm… Like the Maple Blueberry Pie recipe I share in Sweet Maple.) And pie is definitely not the easiest. Yummy. But not easy. Just sayin… If you’d like a little help with your pie crust, I share my Grandma’s Perfect Crust recipe right here.

But back to my egg shells. . .  Whenever I’m baking or mixing up some eggs for breakfast, I toss my shells in a small compost pail that I keep on the counter. Well, it’s not really a compost pail, per se, but it’s an old (really old) aluminum canister I snagged on a lucky trip to the dump. We have an amazing Give-And-Take room at our town dump (ingenious, no?), and someone else didn’t see this old aluminum canister labeled “sugar” as quite the treasure that I do, I guess. I often muse over the irony that it’s labeled sugar and houses some smelly, rotting banana rinds, old coffee grounds, and slimy egg shells instead of anything remotely “refined” like sugar.

Of course, in the end, it’s kinda sugar for my garden.

So that’s it. When my canister is full (or starts smelling not-so-good), I take a walk down to the compost pile and toss the contents on my compost bin. That’s it. Piece of cake.

Wait. . .  there’s another kitchen metaphor that’s not so easy either. I mean from-scratch cake is heavenly (and gives me lots more egg shells for my garden), but I wouldn’t call that too easy either.

Of course you may not have an amazing little tucked-away corner on your kitchen counter like I do.

I’ll admit here that I love the fact that my kitchen layout offers me a treasured little counter “nook,” beside the fridge, that literally no one ever sees. Unless they wanna toast something or pull out our air popper. So I make sure to always do the toasting and the popcorn popping when we have company over.

Cause those things really are as easy as pie.

If you need to be a little more concerned that your compost bin looks nice, there are plenty out there to purchase–I love the simple, classy look of this one–and, bonus, it includes a handy charcoal filter that keeps the odor at bay too.

Feed the worms

I have neighbors who vermicompost and they say their worms love eggshells too. So whether you have a typical compost pile, a compost bin (this is a classy white one I also really like), or a vermicomposter (this is the coolest vermicomposter I’ve ever seen, if you want to own cool worms that is), your worms will be happy with an egg shell dessert now and then. And of course happy worms equal a happy garden.

I have always loved any product I purchase from Lehmans, and they have some great composting options. Click any picture to see what I mean. (These are affiliate links.)

Give your plants a little compost drink

In addition to egg shells, and coffee grounds (read more about coffee grounds in the garden here), I often add some compost tea to my garden (and house plants!) Check out this live instructional video from my facebook page for more information on that.

Some other gardening tips you’ll love:

Using coffee grounds in the garden.

Reasons you may want to NOT compost.

How to make your own garden trellis for FREE.

10 simple planters for succulents.

And check out the virtual seed rack at my favorite online source for amazing seeds right here.

Hope you join me!

If you’re already a regular around here (if not, subscribe right here), feel free to follow me over on any social media where we haven’t met yet.

Just click any (or every!) icon below:

The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Isaiah 58:11

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Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera on my Resources page and even purchase your own here.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

And hop over here to find out why SoulyRested was considered to be one of the Top 20 Must-Read Homesteading Blogs of 2018.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

And please follow along!

Please take a second to follow along here on SoulyRested to not only win those free seeds, but to catch up on a few of my memorable mishaps, discover fascinating things about my centuries-old farmhouse, glean a little parenting/homeschooling insight from this momma who’s been failing at the effort for almost 2 decades, or enjoy the inside scoop on the secrets other legit homesteaders might not tell you.

I hope my focus always encourages you, because simple joys require hard work. Let’s face it, we all need all the encouragement we can get! As soon as you subscribe (in the box at the end of this post), you’ll have immediate access to my Resource Library, which includes many useful printables–including ones about crafts and how to clean a braided wool rug–my FREE EBOOKs, and amazing recipes for things like whoopie pie cookies, maple sap switchel, and my grandmom’s perfect pie crust.

If you already ARE a subscriber, just hop over to the Resource Library here and enter your personal password. (If you don’t remember your password, no fear, we always include a personalized reminder in every Thursday email, “Hard Work, Simple Joys.”)

The post What every gardener needs to know about egg shells first appeared on Souly Rested.

Why compost with coffee?

Coffee increases the acidity of soil, so it’s a great fertilizer for plants that thrive in more acidic soil, like blueberries, strawberries and peppers. (And if you want your hydrangeas to be a gorgeous blue, be sure to add coffee grounds into the soil around your bushes.) But keep reading for the full scoop.

How does coffee do triple duty?

It turns out coffee grounds are a fantastic treasure in the kitchen that can do triple duty! Not only do they provide a wonderful morning drink, they then offer you lots of other uses that I bet you’ve never thought of. (Just a few repurposing options are listed below.) Once you’ve repurposed your grounds, then make sure to toss them into your compost bin, and your plants will thank you.

Air freshener—just leave grounds out on your kitchen counter, in a pretty little bowl, and they will do double duty as an all-natural room deodorizer. They actually absorb odors!

Refrigerator deodorizer—yep, just like baking soda. But free.

Watercolor paint—this one’s a little unusual, but when my girls were little they loved painting with water. Old coffee grounds tint it a lovely shade of brown.

Deodorizing hand cleanser—it may seem a little counter-intuitive to wash your hands with coffee grounds, but they really do the trick at removing foul orders, similar to the way I use lemon juice, except, again, grounds are free. Plus they give my hands a bonus exfoliation.

You might like this post, where I compile the 5 things every gardener should do. (Or pin it here.)

Or maybe you’d like to learn some pretty amazing facts about dandelions here.

Catch some intriguing details about irises here.

And enjoy the fascinating history of lilacs and old farmhouses here.

What is the right way to compost with coffee grounds?

It really couldn’t be easier to compost with coffee grounds.

The fastest, no-brainer way would be to simply toss the grounds on a compost pile. If you do so, keep in mind that they are considered green compost material and will need to be balanced with the addition of some brown compost material. Download my free ebook to read lots more about that topic.

But you can also sprinkle old grounds right onto your soil in your garden or around shrubs as fertilizer, then lightly work them in with your fingers or a small rake. Bonus, the grounds will improve drainage, water retention, and soil aeration. Go figure! Plus they attract earthworms; I guess even worms like a good cup ‘o Joe.

Subscribe right here and download all my free resources today, including my ebook all about composting.

Will composting with coffee grounds make my soil acidic?

Maybe you’ve heard that coffee grounds will raise the acid level of your soil, which is great for certain plants like azaleas, rhododendrons, irises, and hydrangea.  

While this is true, it’s only the case for UNUSED coffee grounds. You see, while fresh grounds are acidic, used grounds are completely neutral. Which is still great as a fertilizer. I just don’t want you sprinkling your old grinds on your hydrangea every day this summer and then wonder why you never get blue flowers.

This is the second in a Summer Series on composting. Catch the first one here. Or pin it here.

So there you have it… Composting with Coffee Grounds 101. My momma would be proud.

I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. Jeremiah 2:7

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The post What every serious gardener needs to know about coffee grounds first appeared on Souly Rested.

So as I sit here, as close to the wood-burning stove as I can get on an oh-so-chilly April morning in our old farmhouse, I wonder how long until spring decides to actually tarry here in New England this year? But it’s not so bad because I have little planted pots of California sunshine to tide me over.

It seems every year spring drags her feet. It’s like she’s lingering under the bed covers of winter, not wanting to put her toes down on the cold ground. So I decided to reassure myself that she will indeed be here soon by ordering a little bit of warm California beauty to be delivered right to my cold New England front porch.

I’m talking succulents. Why succulents? See my list below…. it’s more like, why not? But I just recently discovered this source in California, and I gotta tell you they are amahzing! Beautiful plants, beautiful containers, all beautifully packaged, and delivered– coast to coast–in 2 days (with free shipping!), backed by beautiful customer service. You all know I’m never on here doing a commercial for anybody, so you know this company knocked my muddy muck boots off.

I was so tickled with the packaging, btw, I hopped on a fb live right away to show you all these amazing, magical, compostable peanuts. Did you even know such things existed?

Why I Love Succulents

1. They have chicks. I mean come on… a plant that has chicks? (Not to mention no rooster problems.) What’s not to love about that?

Photo Credit: Mountain Crest Gardens.

2. They reproduce easily. Seriously. In addition to the whole “chick” thing, there’s also leaf propagation. You can just take a leaf from a succulent and create new plants. How cool is that? I’m sure it’ll involve some trial and error, and patience, but it is magic to watch these babies grow. And, let’s face it, there’s always plenty of trial and error… okay often more error… on this homestead, so this fits right in.

3. They’re low maintenance. These sweet plants barely need to be watered at all. Add in a little compost as I plant them, and they’re even more drought tolerant. How about this! I may have finally met a house plant I don’t neglect!

4. They look beautiful in anything. Really. And I’m not just talking about the totally cool enamel pans I snagged at the Give and Take room of our dump. (Gosh I love that room. Locals call it our “mall,” which is extra funny if you ever saw our town… I’m 11 miles from a stop light; 30 minutes from a town; and about an hour from an actual “mall.”) Succulents can be planted on a wreath ladies and gentlemen. And hung on the wall folks! Just look at all these options under “planters.”

5. They’re a perfect little gift to brighten someone’s day. And don’t even get me started about how perfect these are for wedding favors! There’s no wedding in our family’s near future, but I thought of another excuse to give away a bunch of these adorably cute little pots of spring promise… more on that in an upcoming post…

UPDATE: Weeks later, I wrote all about our farmhouse celebration (which included lots of succulent party favors).

6. They’re hardy. Some succulents can even overwinter in New England. Seriously! I emailed my newfound friends at Mountain Crest Gardens, and they assured me that 3 varieties of succulents (Semps, Heufellii, and Sedum) can be planted outside in zones 4-5. Now that’s saying something!

But did I mention I can order them wholesale? A whole bunch of them? And pay no shipping–from California to New England? Now that’s saying a lot!

Full disclosure here: Mountain Crest Gardens will give me a tiny commission if you decide to order from them, but I would be telling you about them even if they didn’t very sweetly offer me an affiliate connection to them. Seriously, I love this company, their products, and their customer service.

I love my new succulents so much, I right away ordered some for my Mother in Law, and a gorgeous planter, as a Mother’s Day present.

Think there may be a few things you forgot to tell your Mother-in Law on Mother’s Day? I’m sure of it. Read this post to see what I mean.

Wanna see that gorgeous succulent planter I made my MIL? Watch this little video where I put it all together.

 

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Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera on my Resources page and even purchase your own here.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

 

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

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The post Seriously? I can order succulents online? first appeared on Souly Rested.

The solution? Visit a local flower show. Even better, again not ingenious, but better… volunteer at a local flower show, and enjoy all the promises of spring, all day long, for free.

And boy did I need a little bit of spring. Don’t misunderstand me. I love winter in New England. For the first 4 months. I’m ready now for the final piles of snow to be gone and the trees to be in bloom again. But for now, I revel in the little things. Like the fact that the chicken and duck finally get to free range again, after being forced to only venture where the plowed snow paths would allow. It’s nice to be greeted by them pecking around the back yard, where I haven’t seen them since fall.

And the syrup? It sure is pretty… all 11 gallons of it! In fact, now that I think of it, maybe I should have entitled this post “THREE things to make sure you do every spring” and included making–or at least baking with– pure, delicious maple syrup.

I talked with Melissa K. Norris recently about how our family makes our own maple syrup and why you should consider swapping out refined sugar for pure maple in this post. She’s a new fan of maple. You can listen to that podcast, or read my post, here.

My daughters inspired me.

But I can’t take credit for the not ingenious, yet brilliant, idea of volunteering at the Maine Flower Show. My teen homesteader–or you may know her as my teen gardener, or the young lady who is the true inspiration behind the beginnings of our family’s homestead–she was my inspiration. She simply did some online research, found a great show nearby (well, “nearby” for us means within a 2-hour radius of our rural farm), and made some contacts.

If you’d like to know a little more about the makings of our homestead, read this post I wrote years ago.

If you’re intrigued about our maple syrup operation, first of all let me tell you it is more delicious than you’re imaging. It’s also so. much. work. Check out this post about the whole process, step by step.

Turned out my other teen–my entrepreneur-sprited, extremely creative daughter–saw the opportunity to boost her YouTube channel views by offering a very unique talent of her own. She offered to make a promo video for the flower show.

You too can (almost) breathe in a little bit of spring if you’d like to see the Maine Flower Show through her eyes. And if you hop over to her channel and subscribe, you’ll make her day. Plus, I have a feeling you’ll love her content. Her theme is a teen who is homesteading. What’s not to love?

So it was a win-win-win. And I’m still smiling.

And the spring inspiration continues!

It was just enough excitement to carry me right into tomorrow actually. Tomorrow is the day my own presentation in the Grow Your Own Food workshop begins. I love that the Self Reliant School asked me to present a workshop on composting. Honestly, it’s like the best of what Dad taught me in the garden and Mom taught me in the kitchen. And I love sharing this knowledge! My only regret is that they aren’t here to appreciate it. They’d be so very excited that I’m sharing my knowledge–their knowledge–with tens of thousands of others.

Have you been watching the Grow Your Own Food Workshop?

Download your quick start guide (it’s a freebie when you register) and start learning right away. Have you seen the line-up? Check it out, get all the scoop, and sign up for free right here.

If you’re considering purchasing the Grow Your Own Food Workshop, NOW is the time to do it, during the sale-priced promotion.

Here is what you get…

18 Expert Gardeners, teaching:

• ​​Seed Saving
• Companion Planting
• ​Vertical Gardening
• ​Composting
• Growing ​Herbs
• Raised Bed Gardening
• ​Vermicomposting
• Gardening Basics
• Basics of Organic Gardening
• Growing ​3 Medicinal Herbs
• Growing A Year’s Worth Of Food
• ​Growing Tropical Plants
• Which Gardening Method Is Best For You
• Getting Started With Hydroponics
• Starting Seeds Indoors
• …and MORE!!!

The workshop is FREE but if you purchase it you’ll get everything that is currently showing for free this week PLUS over 30 more videos and lots of printable downloads, full of detailed inform as well. Find out more information about how to purchase this great deal right here.

But you’ll get a Grow Your Own Food Quick Start Guide and Planning Calculator just for signing up. But hurry, I really don’t want you to miss this! It’s totally online and viewable from the comfort of your own home! But only for a limited time.

Two things to make sure you do every spring

So, yeah, I love both of these ways I found this year to usher in spring, from volunteering at a local flower show to signing up for the fantastic Grow Your Own Food Workshop, it is going to be an amazing spring indeed.

Whether you do these two things the way I chose to this spring, or in your own unique way, I highly recommend that you do them:

1. Get out there and find a promise of summer! Find a flower somewhere–anywhere–to revel in and enjoy. Even if it’s just at the floral section of your grocery store, stop, look closely, breathe in the promise, and assure yourself that summer WILL come.
2. Learn something new to be more prepared to enjoy summer this year than ever before. The Grow Your Own Food Workshop is doing that for our family this year. But you could also pick up a great new book at your local library or watch a documentary about a summer topic you are longing to know more about.

If you already ARE a subscriber, just hop over to the Resource Library here and enter your personal password. (If you don’t remember your password, no fear, we always include a personalized reminder in every Thursday email, “Hard Work, Simple Joys.”)

The post 2 things to make sure you do every spring first appeared on Souly Rested.

Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links.

Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of today’s post for easy-peasy ways to enter for a chance to win 10 Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Packets… whatever 10 YOU choose… seriously… Don’t miss this!

Because I LOVE Baker Creek seeds.

So, that opinion I was about to voice about the one thing every gardener should do? Compost.

Yep, save food scraps and dead plants. . . Play with food scraps and dead plants. . .  And then play with them again and spread them all around. That’s the one thing every gardener should do. Why? In my own experiences over the years, I’ve found that composting is the most important thing I do as a gardener.

I’m gonna break down lots of details of why and how in upcoming posts.

Today, I’m gonna start with some reasons you may NOT want to compost (yes, a little tongue in cheek) and what some illustrious folks have thought of composting throughout history–from the Bard, to an architect, to an explorer. In future posts, we’ll dig into lots more composting details. Yes, I’ll admit it, the hokey pun was intentional, but cut me a little slack, because I’m really excited about this new series!

I’m potting some beautiful plants.

One thing I can do to usher in spring a little sooner–or at least plant some beauty indoors–is plant some of my favorite potted beauties. I wrote about the 6 reasons why THESE plants are my favorite plants ever here. (But #3 is my hands-down favorite.)

Photo credit: Mountain Crest Gardens.

Spring IS coming. It IS.

Meanwhile… around the homestead…

I always know that spring is surely around the corner when Mr. Big Fat–my beloved rooster who is named for his attitude, not his size–develops new, spring-time interest in having “special moments” with his hens. If you’ve never witnessed a rooster woo a hen, you’ve missed out on a funny little roo dance (complete with a ruffled-feather neck), a quick nibble at the neck, and a walk-on-her-back rumba that is over before it starts. She closes her eyes, and then it’s over. While the roo shakes his feathers and puffs up post-conquest proud, his hen is back at pecking for a bug in the dirt like the little quickie never even happened.

So, yeah, our busy chicken, and the new eggs they’re finally giving us after their winter egg strike, assure us winter is nearing an end. Our seedlings sprouting in our sunny window ledges remind us as well.

If you too have a rooster, please glance at this popular post about the huge mistake I made with my rooster so your young hens will be safe.

And if you’re ready to start your spring seedlings, glance at these 6 ingenious seedling planters we’ve used over the years, and find out which ones I like and which ones I’m not so crazy about.

But this week, and for many to come, we’re in the in-between season of New England.

We’re sandwiched between the elegant frosty beauty of winter and the wet, mud-covered days of spring. These days are a median of sorts. Not hovering between snow and mud, but offering a crazy combination of the two. Some days, as much as we love the promise of spring that lingers over the farm, we’re thankful for the shot of winter and dusting of snow carried in by the next sunrise, because the colder temps refreeze all the pits of mud we’ve been chartering through.

The sap is doing its dance.

And, of course, maple sap holds its own special celebration during this “sandwich season” in New England… you know, the season “sandwiched” between winter and spring? It’s our fifth season, so to speak. We have the four typical seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter. And then there’s our fifth season: sap season.

The sap freezes and lies dormant every night but dances with the promise of spring if temperatures rise above 40 as each morning gives way to a new afternoon.

My youtubing teen made this alluring video to commemorate our new season. What I tend to express with the written word, she tends to express visually. And I happen to think she does so quite brilliantly, no?–>

We had been enjoying a great run of sap last week. We’ve added taps this year. Now we’re up to 110 taps and have boiled 5 batches of sap to equal 27 pints of syrup so far. But as I sat down to write this, temps have dipped and it looks like we’ll have a few quiet sap days ahead.

So, when I’m bored in early March, my thoughts turn to summer. Gardening. Dirt. And glorious fresh vegetables.

Thus, it’s the perfect time to start a compost series here on the blog. During our “sandwich season” of sap and syrup, snow and mud, why not start dreaming of the best sandwich ever… a fresh-picked, warmed-by-the-sun, giant-tomato sandwich?

I’ve learned over the years that composting is imperative for me if I want to grow perfect tomatoes. I truly think composting is the one thing every gardener should do. But I thought I’d let you know, right off the bat, 5 reasons you might NOT want to compost.

You might not want to compost if…

1.You might not want to compost if you don’t like the old ways of doing things.

Personally, I think there’s a lot of good in the good old days.

Even though the tradition of improving the soil by adding “black gold—named for its dark color—is growing in popularity” according to this article in National Geographic, I gotta wonder why so many gardeners still don’t compost. And I wonder if some of the hesitation is simply because it is the “old fashioned” thing to do.

It is true. Composting does have a long history. One as old as dirt, really. Just consider what these illustrious folks thought of composting throughout history:

Of course Shakespeare knew that composted matter made everything grow. Remember when Hamlet told his mom (you know, sweet Gertrude, who knew her new husband killed her old one?) “Don’t spread the compost over the weeds in your heart; it’ll only make them ranker.”

Henry Morton Stanley, the brave explorer who went searching in the heart of Africa for David Livingstone, knew about compost back in the 1800s. He was also pretty wise about the condition of the human heart… “Religion acts as a moral gardener, to weed out, or suppress, evil tendencies, which, like weeds and nettles, would shoot up spontaneously in the wonderful compost of the garden, if unwatched.”

And Henry David Thoreau knew that all of us indeed WILL know about compost, in one way or another… “But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool’s life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before.”

Then William Kent, an amazing landscape architect in the 1600s, knew that future generations would reap the benefits of composting and organic gardening when he said “Garden as though you will live forever.” Indeed, when we see how Big Agriculture is essentially destroying our soil, depleting it of its nutrients, the future of food is in the hands of small gardeners, working small family gardens, and rejuvenating our land in large ways.

So when did composting become old fashioned? In the mid 1800s, scientists started noticing that plants gained nutrients from chemicals, and before you know it a bag of fertilizer seemed much more effective than the old-time ways. Not until the mid 1900s did anyone pay much attention to the idea of composting, well, except for all those rural farmers like my granddad who never knew how (or had the means) to farm any other way.

In 1943, Sir Albert Howard, a British agronomist, published a book that spelled out the benefits of organic gardening with plant matter and manure and the old ways got some new attention.

Of course my examples don’t begin to give true insight into the full history of composting. This article and this one do a pretty good job at that.

Somehow archaeologists mentioned in the National Geographic article I linked to above have figured out that farmers on the British Isles were composting many thousands of years ago. But I didn’t need an archaeologist to tell me this. Of course farmers were adding organic matter to the ground to feed their crops. It only makes sense… but that is skipping ahead to #3. First, there’s this point…

2. You might not want to compost if you don’t have a garden.

But if you think you need to have a large garden to justify composting, well, you’d be wrong.

If you think your garden is small and you figure composting would be more headache than it’s worth, you’d be wrong again.

If you don’t think you have space where you can compost, think again. (We’ll talk about that in a future post.)

In fact, even if you don’t have a vegetable garden, or if you live on a tiny plot of land, you need to keep reading. Turns out there are lots of uses for compost, even if you have a small yard, or none at all, and even if you have no garden to tend.

If your garden just consists of potted veggies on your back porch, there’s no better reason to compost, in my opinion. I struggle with getting vegetables to grow vibrantly in small areas or in pots; compost makes the effort toward vibrant plants in small containers much more attainable for me. And, today many cities offer compost options. I just read the other day that New York City boasts of this fantastic composting program.

3. You might not want to compost if you’re not into common-sense good food.

But before I explain the details of how to compost, in upcoming posts in this series, I should warn you. This common sense attitude is addictive. Of course, gardening is too. If you know what I’m talking about, you’ll wanna snag a free copy of my book, Beautiful Gardening, for free, like right now… in my Resource Library. 

Once you start realizing that so many things you would typically throw away are actually valuable, you’re suddenly on a mission to promote as many things as you possibly can from trash to black-gold-treasure status.

Now that I’m a true fan of composting, I hate waste more than ever. Take the apple that rotted the back corner of my crisper last week. It would tear me up that I wasted a beautiful apple and had to toss it in the trash, if I didn’t have a compost bin. But knowing that that apple will be loved by my chicken as they root around in the compost bin this afternoon and then what’s left of it will be food for hundreds of microorganisms who miraculously turn it into glorious food for my tomatoes next summer, which of course will provide me with that fresh-picked, warmed-by-the-sun, giant-tomato sandwich, the thoughts of which started this whole post, well my rotten apple isn’t so rotten after all.

In this series, in future posts, I’ll be going over composting options, how to choose a good location for your compost, what to make sure you always compost, what you want to never include in your compost pile, how to make a compost tea, and how to use your compost.

If you agree with George Washington, “For the United States to succeed, we need to become better farmers,” you wanna follow along.

4. You might not want to compost if you’re not big on obsessions.

I mean really, for me, once I nailed down a system and had the joy of covering our garden in a luscious black carpet where our plants could prosper, I’m a compost addict. I can’t go back!

Even in the winter, when there’s an extra dose of difficulty to feed my composting addiction, I keep at it. Because we choose to keep our compost bin behind the chicken coop (I’ll explain why in a future post), it’s a treacherous, icy, downhill walk to get to our compost bin and dump our day’s worth of compostable material. But it’s worth the effort.

Of course, nothing’s easy when it comes to homesteading.

And cold winter days are the #1 reason on my list of why I might someday give up this crazy thing we call “homesteading.”

5. You might not want to compost if you can’t figure out a way to occasionally shoulder guilt.

I’ve been known to obsess over if I can get my used tea bags and banana rinds home.

When I’m out of state.

For days.

But I do sometimes drive myself crazy if, for whatever reason, I have to throw away something that I could be composting instead.

So why not give it a try?

In the end, no matter what reasons you may come up with for NOT composting, seriously, you need to give it a try. You (and your veggies) will be glad you did.

Take a peak at my garden and farm; you’ll see we have lots of manure for rich compost and a sweet little garden as a result.–>

More About Composting

What every gardener needs to know about coffee grounds.

What every gardener needs to know about egg shells.

Links to great composting supplies.

And check out the virtual seed rack at my favorite online source for amazing seeds right here.

And now for that giveaway!–>

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds is giving one lucky reader his or her choice of 10 seed packets!

(Here are the “fine print” details, if you’re into reading such things: The giveaway begins Monday, March 5, 2018, at 5:00 am Central Time, and ends on Sunday, March 11, 2018, at 11:00 PM Central Time, and is open to US residents age 18 and over. Giveaway Tools will choose a random winner. We will notify the winner who will have 72 hours to respond. If the winner fails to respond a new winner will be chosen. The prize will be shipped directly to the winner by Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.)

Enter using the form below. Be sure to follow the directions by clicking on each individual link for each entry BEFORE typing your name or email in each box. Simply filling in your email in each entry box does NOT subscribe or follow each blog. To qualify as an entry, you would need to follow links and follow the directions. But don’t worry, each entry is easy-peasy.

Oak Hill Homestead – How to Start a Container Garden

Spring Lake Homestead – Garden Planning

Bloom Where You’re Planted – My Favorite Seed Company Is Giving Away Seeds!

The Farmer’s Lamp – DIY a Free Pallet Garden in 4 Easy Steps

Lumnah Acres – Starting Our Seeds

Mid-Life Blogger – Swiss Chard: Stained Glass in the Garden

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The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.

Psalm 24:1

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Many readers often ask what camera I use to take the images you find here on SoulyRested. I love my Nikon; you can read more about my camera on my Resources page and even purchase your own here.

Glance at my Resource Page if you’d like to get a glimpse of all the supplies I use and recommend for everything from gardening, to homeschooling, to chicken care, to nature journaling, to maple syrup making.

I’d love to connect!

To find me in some other neck of the woods, just click any (or every!) icon below:

And please follow along!

Please take a second to follow along here on SoulyRested to catch up on a few of my memorable mishaps, discover fascinating things about my centuries-old farmhouse, glean a little parenting/homeschooling insight from this momma who’s been failing at the effort for almost 2 decades, or enjoy the inside scoop on the secrets other legit homesteaders might not tell you.

And have you tried my a-MAAHZ-ing Maple Sugar Cookie recipe that’s in my Resource Library? You won’t find this deliciousness anywhere else… until Sweet Maple is in print, October 1st.

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