1. Turn Yucky Yard Waste Into Yummy Fertilizer

Do you have to mow the lawn? If you caught all that grass, stuffed it into plastic bags, and piled it in the backyard, you could end up with over 1,000 pounds of grass clippings in a year. That’s a lot of trash -- too bad we can’t recycle it. Wait a minute, we can recycle it! If you leave grass clippings on the lawn after you mow microscopic bugs eat it and release nitrogen, which is a nutrient grass needs in order to grow. Leaving grass clippings on the lawn makes the grass happy and is less work for you.

Is raking leaves in the fall one of your chores? If you put all the leaves you rake all year in one big pile they would weigh at least 300 pounds. Fortunately, we can recycle those leaves too! Leaves left in a pile for a year will be eaten by the same bugs that eat grass clippings. They chew the leaves down into 30 pounds of a dark brown crumbly material called compost. Compost helps plants grow strong and healthy when it is added to the soil.

According to Indiana state law it is illegal to put leaves in landfills. Sometimes cities will suck up leaves with big vacuum trucks and compost time in a huge pile. If you leave grass clippings on the lawn and compost your own leaves at home you can save your city $120 a year! If you composted 300 pounds of leaves each year for the next 70 years, how many pounds would that be?

For More Information:

Backyard Composting by Harmonious Technologies is a fun, step-by-step guide to all types of composting. Look for it at your local library.