Michigan DEQ recommends not burning your leaves

Well, duh. Common sense recommends that too. I compost my leaves every year and by the end of summer I have a wonderful pile of nutrient-rich dirt to add to my raised beds. Folks, that is free (and environmentally friendly) fertilizer you're missing out on when you burn leaves. Anyway, leaves will be falling soon all across Michigan (due to the summer heat and lack of rain mine aren't even turning color - they're just dropping) and it's much better all around for the environment to compost those leaves than to burn them. Granted, there is something about the smell of smoldering piles of leaves on a crisp autumn day that take me back, but it's just not a sound practice. I'm not turning hippie here, I just happen to agree with the Michigan DEQ and think that a sounder solution is to compost those leaves.

If you don't know much about composting you can feel free to visit a page I made entitled, A Lazy Man's Guide to Compost. You don't need a lot of space (which you'll see at my guide) to compost. I use a 4' x 4' enclosure for my main composting and in the fall I just dump my leaves in a pile next to the compost bin. Come springtime the heavy winter snows have compacted my pile of leaves and I can transfer them to the compost bin.

Michigan senator wants yard waste back in landfills

State Senator Patty Birkholz has introduced a bill that will bring yard waste back into state landfills 13 years after yard waste was banned. She claims it will help create methane (quicker than current garbage residing in landfills) which can be harnessed for power. Since we still see fit to import trash from Canada I just don't see the benefits (nor any actual scientific data) to back this bill.

Community compost piles and individual compost bins are the way to go (in my humble opinion). I use a mulching blade on our mower and I don't even have to worry about raking grass. It all goes into the ground to become nitrogen and help feed the lawn.

For more information on how to compost, what to put in compost, etc. see The Lazy Man's Guide To Compost.

Learn how to build a raised bed and make great compost for your garden

I have just completed two new web pages (they call them 'lenses' at Squidoo) at Squidoo with a gardening theme. Follow my step-by-step instructions to build your own raised bed garden at www.squidoo.com/Raised-Bed-Gardens/. I have created a companion eBook as a PDF that you can download here (right-click and then choose 'save as'). At the Raised Bed Gardening page I also show you how to grow potatoes in a container, how to winterize your raised bed, and how to build your raised bed for under $10.

At the Lazy Man's Guide to Compost I show how to build a simple compost bin on the cheap, what to put in your compost (as well as what not to put in), my recipe for 'Lazy Compost', why you should screen your compost, and the gardener's secret source for a great garden - Compost Tea. Learn all about Compost.