Photo: vjeran2001, stock.xchang

At Harvest, we know how to recycle, and that even applies blog posts. We combed through our content from last season and picked out our four favorite posts for the spring season. We hope these educate you and inspire some outdoor gardening adventures.

• What’s in Season in Your Region? There’s SOMETHING in season in every region of North America right now. Check out the chart in this blog post to see what’s ripening in your neck of the woods.

• Give Companion Planting a Try! Love tomatoes and basil?  Well they love each other too. Learn about companion planting, the half art/half science of designing your garden so that different plants actually help one another grow.

• Why Compost Tea Will Revitalize Your Garden Kind of like earth superjuice, “compost tea,” a liquid generated through the composting process, helps prevent soil diseases. Once you drench the roots of your garden with this stuff you’ll be a convert for life.

• Your Composting Resource Headquarters We blogged last week about a few home composting tips, and perhaps those pursuing composting for the first time are hungry for more information. Check out this post for a comprehensive list of great online resources for composters!

1. Compost only vegetative material. Peals, trimmings, apple cores, egg shells, tea bags: these discards become black gold in your backyard bin.  To save time when you screen your finished compost, remove all staples, rubber bands, foil, stickers and other non-compostable items before adding to your compost pile. Shredded newspaper and cardboard are fine to include in your bin – indeed, they are considered a “brown” so add them (see tip #2).
2. Remember the ratio of 3-to-1. Organic materials can be loosely divided into two categories: Greens (consisting of fruit and vegetable scraps, grass clippings and other yard waste, etc.) and Browns (dead leaves, sawdust, newspaper, egg cartons, ashes, etc.). Try to add a balanced blend of about two- or three-parts browns to one part greens.
3. Avoid meats. While advanced composting techniques like those we use at some Harvest facilities can handle meats and oils, they’re best to avoid when it comes to home composting. Meats and oils decompose more slowly than other organics and they can also attract unwanted scavengers. This also holds true for greasy pizza boxes or other materials that have been exposed to meat. When in doubt, throw it out.
4. Turn, baby, turn. Compost needs oxygen, so turning your pile early and often will help the organic materials decompose faster and more evenly. Depending on the type of compost heap you have, it’s also possible to get oxygen to the center with aeration devices like the wingdigger. And if you don’t like turning, no worries: it’ll just take a bit longer.
5. Anyone can do it! Even if you don’t have a back yard or garden, small indoor composting systems are available to suit the tiniest apartments.

For more compost tips, check out this excellent video – we especially love the advice about “garden lasagna!”

According to data released by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), approximately one-third of all food produced worldwide, worth about US$1 trillion, gets lost or wasted in food production and consumption systems each year.  Jose Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General said the 300 million tons of food squandered annually is more than the total net food production of Sub-Saharan Africa and could sufficiently feed the estimated 870 million hungry people in the world.

One of the challenges of this campaign is its mandate to reach a huge audience.  In order to meet that challenge the UN is taking Think.Eat.Save. global.  Everyone from families, supermarkets, hotel chains, and schools to national and world leaders has the potential to be part of this movement.  The campaign reaches local and national consumers and retailers worldwide by sharing tips on their website.  The content includes everything from advice for retailers on how to reduce waste in the hospitality business to allowing local residents to make food waste pledges.  Their website also provides a platform for those running similar food waste campaigns to exchange thoughts, ideas and stories. Find out how you can reduce your foodprint on the Think. Eat. Save. website, today!

1. Less than 10 percent of Earth’s surface is covered with usable soil. That’s all the land we have to grow the world’s entire food supply!
2. Soil is slow-growing stuff: A single inch of topsoil can take 500 years to form.
3. Soil doesn’t hang around forever. According to the NRI, the US currently loses topsoil at a rate of three tons per acre per year.
4. Crops grown in soil amended with compost have been shown to have equivalent yields to those grown with artificial fertilizers and chemicals. [Source: Rodale Institute]
5. Earthworms are nature’s plows – they loosen soil, allowing air and water in to help the roots of plants grow.  One worm can process the equivalent of its own weight in soil each day. With more than a million earthworms per acre in some places, that makes for very fertile soil.
6. According to the EPA, supplementing soil with compost improves the strength of the plants, which helps control certain diseases.
7. Soil stores 0.01 percent of the Earth’s water: that’s more than 32,000 cubic miles of water!
8. Soil comes in many colors. For example, red or yellow soil may indicate iron content, and black soil usually means a high concentration of decomposed organic matter.
9. Live somewhere rainy? Use the improved structural properties associated with compost to make your soil more absorbent: Just three inches on a slope can eliminate run-off from a two-inch rainfall!
10. One spade full of rich garden soil can contain a larger number of organisms than live in the entire Amazon rain forest above ground.

Keep these facts in mind as you plan next year’s garden, knowing that by gardening you’re helping spread green! While you’re at it check out Harvest Garden Pro’s wide range of natural soils and mulches.

Chris and Molly energize the soil scene!

This year we have hit the ground running with community events. Coming off a busy January with the Mid Atlantic Nursery Trade Show and a dynamic week with the US Composting Council crew, we thought we should take a moment and post upcoming highlights.

We hope to see you soon!

LOWER MAINLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA

• Compost Matters in BC, by the Compost Council of Canada (February 6-7, 2013) Nanaimo, BC: Join our speaker Dieter Geesing for a look at industrial organic waste management in the Lower Mainland. February 6^th & 7^th, Nanaimo, BC http://www.compost.org/English/PDF/WRW_2013_BC.pdf
• Fraser Valley Home & Garden Show (February 8-10) Abbotsford, BC: Stop by our booth! At the Tradex 1190 Cornell St, Abbotsford, BC V2T 6H5 http://www.homeshowtime.com/shows/2013-fraser-valleys-premier-show-of-the-year
• BCRPA Spring Training Conference (February 20-21) Surrey, BC: Stop by our booth! We’ll be at the Sheraton Guildford Hotel, Surrey http://www.bcrpa.bc.ca/recreation_parks/parks/spring_training.htm
• Methane Expo 2013 (March 12-15, 2013) Vancouver, BC: Visit our booth with BC Bioenergy Network, and our poster session that presents how we turn the region’s food scraps and yard trimmings into clean, local renewable energy and compost at the Vancouver Convention Center. http://www.globalmethane.org/expo/index.html
• Chilliwack Outdoor Décor, Yard, and Garden Renovation Show. (March 22-24, 2013) Chilliwack, BC: Stop by our booth! At the Chilliwack Heritage Park http://www.outdoordecorshow.com/
• North Shore Spring Home Expo (March 22-24, 2013) North Vancouver, BC: Stop by our booth! At the Karen Magnussen Arena http://homeshowtime.com/shows/2013-north-vancouver-home-expo

CALIFORNIA

• VerdExchange Conference (February 2-5, 2013) Los Angeles, CA: Come see our CEO Paul Sellew speak!  It’ll be a dynamic crowd.  http://www.verdexchange.org
• World Ag Expo (February 12-14, 2013) Tulare, CA: Come to the biggest farm show in the world!  See our partnership with the USDA’s publication on agriculture and soil structure. http://www.worldagexpo.com

ONTARIO

• Growing the Margins (March 4-5, 2013) London, ON: See Wayne Davis from Harvest Power in two sessions!  Learn how policy developments and economic drivers are fueling anaerobic digestion projects across North America. http://www.gtmconference.ca