Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Compost your food scraps...and get food back for free

Last month, when I shoveled out my year-old compost (to spread on the garden), old food scraps started growing from the seeds that I had threw out. I was so excited that I already had tomatoes and cantaloupe growing without any effort.

I am not sure the quality of the cantaloupe and tomatoes considering they're GMO, store-bought, imported cantaloupe seeds. Although the cantaloupe and tomatoes that grew from my compost are from non-organic seeds, they look quite healthy; and they may turn out very well considering they come from the best nutritional source.

The underlying message is: composting is crucial to add nutrients to your plants, because it's the best fertilizer, soil, and mix to help your plants grow. You can grow starter plants in compost as well You don't need to buy garden soil, potting mix, and potting soil.  Another great attribute about compost is that it is free, as long as you make it yourself. Buying compost is a great option, but creating your own compost (in large quantities) is going to be more useful to you. A third great reason to have compost is: you may have the same experience I have had with my compost, and have fruits grow naturally without any effort!

The pictures I have posted below are of my volunteer cantaloupe and tomato plants. They have grown triple their size in just one week! What I have also noticed is that bugs aren't as attracted to these volunteer tomato plants in comparison to our non-gmo, non-hybrid, organic tomato plants. My partner and I had a theory that the GMO tomato and cantaloupe plants have been grown to deter insects while growing in larger proportions (but sacrificing taste.) Although these volunteer plants are growing fast, large, and without getting ate up by bugs, they may not taste any good D:

See what you can be growing next year:


Cantaloupe coming up from compost bin. Here are the same cantaloupe just one week later:





Tomato plants growing directly in compost bin that need transplanting.
Here's the tomato plants one week later:



Large mound of cantaloupes that my partner transplanted, here they are one week later:


Two, volunteer tomato plants that we potted in buckets.
Here's the same tomato plants one week later:




My partner and I have four of these individual mounds of cantaloupe growing
I have a post on how to compost, what compost is, what to use for compost, and why it is important for gardening here: What you Need to Know about Compost

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