An easy way to start your seeds indoors is to use toilet paper or paper towel rolls. There are two advantages of using toilet paper rolls. The first is that they are free. It’s likely that you already have both items available in your apartment. Ain’t no better price than free. The other is that […] An easy way to start your seeds indoors is to use toilet paper or paper towel rolls. There are two advantages of using toilet paper rolls. The other is that that they can be put directly into the soil when transplanted because the cardboard will biodegrade into the soil. What you’ll need to get your toilet paper roll seed starters made: Toilet paper or paper towel roll How to make a seed starter pot using a toilet paper roll: Cut the toilet paper roll in half using your razor and scissors. Take one of the halves and cut four slits about 3/4″-1″ or so up the roll. Fold the toilet paper roll into each other to form the bottom of the seed starter pot.

Use tape to secure the bottom. To fill put your soil inside, followed by your seed and cover with more soil. [flickrset id=”72157623905884153″ thumbnail=”square” overlay=”true” size=”medium”] After a few weeks, when the seed is ready to be transplanted into the soil, you can undo the bottom of the toilet paper roll and stick the whole thing into the soil. The toilet paper roll will biodegrade into the soil. Case of 80 Rolls (550 Sheets Per Roll) Scott 1000 Tissue, 27 Count Bidet Fresh Water Spray Non-Electric Sears, Roebuck & Co.: Catalogue No. 114 Outhouse Tool Shed Wood Project Plan Nature's Head Composting Toilet Pork Sausage Meat Case For a number of years, we have used a composting toilet (often called a Joe Jenkins Sawdust Toilet) when our water / sewer solution would not support a flush toilet. up to 40% of our water usage is used to turn fertilizer into sewage, by mixing it with drinking water. Then we go out and buy chemical fertilzers to fertilize our plants.

This seems idiotic to me. Here is a sanitary way to turn "waste" into fertilizer. It starts with the collection device, and ends with the composting device designed to make fertilized dirt. There is no "waste". You can get the complete bucket and lid - http://goo.gl/6zOny Or provide your own bucket, and just get the lid - http://goo.gl/yF9M1 or http://goo.gl/9VHYO4Step 1: Cover MaterialShow All Items What makes this sanitary and earthy smelling instead of just a bucket of crap is the cover material. Cover material can be grass clippings, Peat Moss, Coconut Coir (recycled coconut fibers), ground up corn cob, or even sawdust (raw wood preferred, not kiln dried). Our favorite is the Recycled Coconut Coir (a waste product from the food industry) and the ground corn cob. Put about 3" in the bottom of the bucket before use to act as a liquid absorbent  and after every deposit, cover with another inch or so. http://goo.gl/xZAyT Some folks use a plastic bag liner, especially when camping.

This makes it easier to keep the bucket clean, but harder to compost, as the bag needs to be disposed of. Biodegradable bags exist, but still problematic for composting. Perfect for camping in the woods.»  » Using Cardboard and Paper Wisely in the Compost and the GardenIvy Leaf Towel Bar Using Cardboard and Paper Wisely in the Compost and the GardenReal Estate For Sale Edgefield Sc Q. I'm a devoted fan of your show looking for composting advice. Lhasa Apso Puppies Sale North YorkshireMany gardening websites recommend adding shredded paper to your compost pile. I'm concerned that the ink on printed paper contains chemicals, and I won't have a truly organic compost come next spring. So should I add paper? ---Anne in Doylestown, PAA.

Unfortunately, many people who give composting advice have never actually done it, are not thinking their recommendations through, or both. I've composted for 25 years, tend to think things through maybe too much, and don't like the idea of composting paper for many reasons. Paper is one of the most easily recycled materials in today's enlightened world. Virtually everyone has an easy way to get old newspapers, magazines and mixed paper into a stream where it gets turned into more paper, tissues, toilet paper or some other essential element of modern society, thus reducing the need for the raw material needed to make virgin paper (otherwise known as 'trees'). While some modern inks (like the soy-based inks that have become popular in newspaper printing) are fairly innocuous, inks that are made for some other purposes still use petroleum and metals in their manufacture. (A good example is slick paper, where soy inks dry too slowly to be practical.) In addition, some paper itself has been bleached with chlorine, a particularly nasty player whose breakdown produces dangerous dioxins.

Most importantly, there is little to no nutrition left in processed paper, and it won't add much—if any—fertilizing or disease-preventing power to the finished product. That's why I'm always yelling at allayouse to collect and shred massive amounts of fall leaves; shredded leaves make the finest disease-preventing, soil-enhancing, plant-feeding compost. If you have a compost pile where the predominant "brown materials" are paper instead of leaves, you are creating the equivalent of a heavily-processed artificial fast food for your plants. Compost made with shredded leaves is minimally processed, high quality slow food—and it's local too! Q. Mike: I read that burying wet newspapers around plants will prevent weeds from coming up. Should I try this? Could I use old magazines as well? And exactly how would I do this? Regards, ---Catherine in Nokesville, VA Q. My son purchased a home last year that has an unused vegetable garden he and I want to bring back into production. I have gardened organically since the 70's and have never used any paper or cardboard because I believe that both contain chemicals I don't want in my food—so I told him that his idea of mulching with cardboard is a no-go.

But how about brown craft paper? He wants to use it in the walkways that we will create between long rows of raised beds to keep down the weeds. I worry that as the paper breaks down it will leach chemicals into the soil which will be taken up by roots that grow near or under the pathways. What do you think?---Sandy in Kutztown, PAA. The last time I tackled this question in print (back in 2004), I, like you, worried about the possibility of glues and such in cardboard. Afterwards, I received a very thoughtful note from someone in the industry who gently explained that there is no single thing known as 'cardboard'; it's a catch-all term used to cover a wide array of heavy duty paper-based products. He added that he was in the cardboard box business and was pleasantly surprised to learn that corrugated cardboard shipping boxes are very clean—just about all paper, no glues and no bleach. As a result, I have become more enthusiastic over the years about the idea of using cardboard and black and white newsprint as a weed block under soil or mulch.

(Note to Catherine: Not just "around plants"; it has to be used correctly.) (Your 'brown craft paper' is yet another animal. As far as I can tell, it's actually called 'kraft paper', a term ('krafting') that refers to a special manufacturing process that makes the paper very liquid proof, thus befitting its preferred old-time use for wrapping meat and fish. Some kraft paper, I am told, is also oiled or waxed to make it even better at resisting leakage. I'm pretty comfortable with it being used as weed barrier; but you'd have to go out and buy it, whereby most of us have a lot of old cardboard boxes and daily newspapers sitting around, begging for re-use.) Now, how to use cardboard and newsprint: I recommend that gardeners planning to build raised beds level the soil, mark out the areas for the beds—no more than four feet wide but as long as you want—lay down single pieces of cardboard or entire sections of newspapers over the bare ground and then build and fill the raised bed frames overtop of that.

(See this previous Question of the Week for more on raised bed building.) Same with the walking lanes (which should be two feet wide by the way); lay down cardboard or newspapers and then cover this rustic weed barrier with the mulch of your choice. (Don't waste your precious shredded leaves or compost for this necessary chore; this is one of the only good uses for shredded bark and wood chips.) Is this plan 100% free of potential chemicals? Of course it isn't. Neither is rainwater, animal manure, or scraps from conventionally grown produce. You pays your money and you takes your choices. I, for instance, will mix some horse manure into my compost piles when it's available, knowing that the horse may have been medicated. To me, it's still a great use of a nutrient rich ingredient, and I accept the small amount of risk. Whereas I see no benefit and way too much risk in making compost from paper—too many problems; too many other and better ways to reuse the paper; too much really good compost available elsewhere.