Check Out our Healthy Soil!

Spring is finally here and that means more garden work. This means more weeding, tilling, watering, planting, trimming...the list is never ending. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to make your life as a gardener easier and make your garden happy. The application of finished compost! Not to be confused with the compostable waste that we collect, incorporating finished compost in your garden or houseplants is one of the best things you can do for the continued health of your growing environment

Compost has many benefits, the main one being that of nutrients! Often times more "traditional" gardening methods utilize chemical fertilizers that feed the plants directly. This sounds like a good idea at first, but your plants are only a small portion of the ecosystem of your garden, and any unused fertilizer from your plants can build up as dangerous salts in your soil or worse, seep into our water supply damaging native plants and animals. Compost on the other hand feeds the soil. Microorganisms, nematodes, fungi, and more thrive on the nutrients available in compost. Their presence and waste materials provide both the nutrients your plants need, and act as a natural pest control as many of the organisms that thrive in a compost rich environment also predate the common pests your garden might have to battle though the year, further reducing your need for chemical pesticides and producing healthier and safer food for you and your family. On top of the nutritional benefits the application of compost saves you precious time by retaining water. Compost particles are larger than regular soil and can absorb more water, acting like a nutrient dense sponge for your plants to drink from all season long. We mix our compost into the soil of new garden beds directly at a 2:1 ratio of topsoil to compost or by tilling in around 1"-2" of compost to 3"-5" of existing garden soil.

For houseplants or areas where you do not want to disturb the existing soil, we recommend making a simple compost tea. It is a little time consuming, but worth the wait. The first step for compost tea is dechlorinated water, we don't want to kill off all the beneficial bacteria! If you do not have access dechlorinated water simply set out a large open container of water for over 24 hours and the chlorine and other preservatives should evaporate out. Once you have done this, add 1 part compost to 5 parts water in an unsealed container, remember to put a lid on and give it a shake each day to speed up the process. After about a week of brewing the tea will be ready for you to pour into your houseplants as a liquid fertilizer providing nutrients without disturbing the soil of you more sensitive houseplants.

As our Compost Club members know we distribute free finished compost to our members as rewards right to your door and sell additional amounts, in sizes from from buckets to dump trucks, on our website. Visit us or reach out to Compost@theurbancanopy.org for prices, recipes for more complex compost teas, and our other ever expanding line of garden additives

Compost for the environment

There is no “waste” in nature, dead plants and animals feed the ecosystem they are a part of as their nutrients are diffused through the trophic levels and back into the earth ready for new growth. In opposition to this the breakdown of food wastes in the waste stream is one of the leading causes of methane emissions from landfills. This powerful greenhouse gas is nearly 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide and is a major contributor to the environmental impact of landfills. Through separating these materials and properly composting food scraps not only are these emissions avoided but the nutrients that would have otherwise rotted away are captured and re-used in our communities' soils! Farms and gardens (and even houseplants) that utilize compost for nutrients benefit greatly from a fertilizer that stays within the soil feeding the local mycelium and microorganisms that create healthy soils for the plants we grow and consume. Traditional fertilizer instead requires large energy inputs to produce and then eventually runs off into our lakes, rivers and streams causing algal blooms and a host of undesirable consequences. Utilizing compost removes the negative impacts of food waste from our environment, adds valuable water retention and nutrients to our soils which in turn provide us with healthy food, all while removing the need for harmful chemical inputs into our environment. It’s all a cycle and composting keeps us a part of it!

https://porch.com/advice/expert-advice-food-waste

Chicago Composting 101

Chicago Composting 101

In the US, over 20-30% of trash that goes to the landfill is food scraps and compostable yard debris. With an average of nearly 4.5 pounds of trash a day per person, that’s 325 pounds(!) of soil material being tossed in the dump. Once that food waste is there, it slowly turns into methane, a greenhouse gas, and becomes a part of the toxic waste landfills are full of. However, thanks to the many Chicago compost services and food scrap pickup options, we can divert almost all of that food waste into healthy living soil. Urban centers are even more susceptible to food waste finding its way to the landfill. Whether you’re barbequing in Berwyn or having a Lake Shore wedding, composting in Chicago and the greater Chicagoland area means you can be a part of building a full, complete food system. When you sign up for a compost service, Chicago gets a little greener. 

The Benefits of Composting

Composting in the city means helping create a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable urban environment for you and your family. Whether it’s food scrap pickup options, wedding composting in Chicago, zero waste events, or a regular Chicago compost service, there are a plethora of ways to start closing the gaps in the food cycle. The way in is easy, and the start-up costs are low, especially when working with a long-standing company like the Urban Canopy.

Many choose to compost at home, and this is a fantastic way to get involved in the process. One of the most popular ways is vermicular composting, which involves red wiggler worms and any strong container to break down food scraps. This process, sometimes called cold composting, services Chicago in minute ways, but is highly effective. However, the process takes much longer than “hot” composting methods, and can only handle a small amount of food waste. It also doesn’t break down pesky weed seed husks. It’s a perfect option if you have a giant backyard, a lot of dedication to pull weeds, and a place to house twenty or so worm bins. But for the rest of us, it makes a lot more sense to pool our resources and take advantage of our community’s ties while building a stronger food network. 

Community-Centered Composting in Chicago 

This is where a composting service in Chicago comes in handy. In a single day, thousands upon thousands of pounds of food waste can be salvaged through a food scrap pickup service. Many of our neighbors choose to pool their resources to compost for a whole building, block, or condo association. Event composting in Chicago can do even more to create a more sustainable environment. With a little planning and the right composting system, almost any gathering can become a zero waste event in Chicago. While many compostable items like cutlery aren’t easily compostable with a home setup, a larger composting service in Chicago can handle just about any kind of organic material, including scraps from the grill at a Fourth of July celebration. Wedding composting in Chicago is also a cinch and simple to plan, and it means you don’t have to worry about the often serious carbon footprint a huge (and wonderful) celebration can leave. 

Find the Composting Service that Fits You

From Oak Park to Evanston, we’re all looking for ways to make our lives a little more environmentally friendly. A compost service in Chicago is an easy addition to any lifestyle, no matter how hard the hustle and bustle is. Slowly add your table scraps and yard waste to an airtight bucket provided, and one of our transporters can come by once a week, biweekly, or just once a month to swap it out for a fresh bucket. This food waste gets pooled with all the rest we collect around the Chicagoland area, and it slowly becomes the carbon- and nitrogen-rich part of soil that helps sustain farms like ours in Englewood. Read more about how the Urban Canopy can kick-start your sustainable journey today!

Check Out Our Healthy Soil!

Spring is finally here and that means more garden work. This means more weeding, tilling, watering, planting, trimming...the list is never ending. Fortunately, there is a simple solution to make your life as a gardener easier and make your garden happy. The application of finished compost! Not to be confused with the compostable waste that we collect, incorporating finished compost in your garden or houseplants is one of the best things you can do for the continued health of your growing environment

Compost has many benefits, the main one being that of nutrients! Often times more "traditional" gardening methods utilize chemical fertilizers that feed the plants directly. This sounds like a good idea at first, but your plants are only a small portion of the ecosystem of your garden, and any unused fertilizer from your plants can build up as dangerous salts in your soil or worse, seep into our water supply damaging native plants and animals. Compost on the other hand feeds the soil. Microorganisms, nematodes, fungi, and more thrive on the nutrients available in compost. Their presence and waste materials provide both the nutrients your plants need, and act as a natural pest control as many of the organisms that thrive in a compost rich environment also predate the common pests your garden might have to battle though the year, further reducing your need for chemical pesticides and producing healthier and safer food for you and your family. On top of the nutritional benefits the application of compost saves you precious time by retaining water. Compost particles are larger than regular soil and can absorb more water, acting like a nutrient dense sponge for your plants to drink from all season long. We mix our compost into the soil of new garden beds directly at a 2:1 ratio of topsoil to compost or by tilling in around 1"-2" of compost to 3"-5" of existing garden soil.

For houseplants or areas where you do not want to disturb the existing soil, we recommend making a simple compost tea. It is a little time consuming, but worth the wait. The first step for compost tea is dechlorinated water, we don't want to kill off all the beneficial bacteria! If you do not have access dechlorinated water simply set out a large open container of water for over 24 hours and the chlorine and other preservatives should evaporate out. Once you have done this, add 1 part compost to 5 parts water in an unsealed container, remember to put a lid on and give it a shake each day to speed up the process. After about a week of brewing the tea will be ready for you to pour into your houseplants as a liquid fertilizer providing nutrients without disturbing the soil of you more sensitive houseplants.

As our Compost Club members know we distribute free finished compost to our members as rewards right to your door and sell additional amounts, in sizes from from buckets to dump trucks, on our website. Visit us or reach out to Compost@theurbancanopy.org for prices, recipes for more complex compost teas, and our other ever expanding line of garden additives

What’s the Difference Between Compost and Fertilizer?

What’s the Difference Between Compost and Fertilizer?

At the most basic level, fertilizer feeds plants, while compost feeds the soil. Proper composting services in Chicago and elsewhere can help you create your very own, living and natural fertilizer with just a couple steps. While this is a little reductive, knowing the benefits of composting vs simply adding fertilizer to balance the soil’s ratio of vital plant nutrients will help us explore the difference between compost and fertilizer more fully. Below we dig a little deeper into the question of fertilizer v. compost. 

The Benefits of Compost v. Fertilizer

If you’re interested in building the right kind of soil for your garden, knowing the difference between fertilizer and compost is crucial. Simply stated, compost can be an essential part of seasonal fertilizer, and its application over time can reduce the need for store-bought fertilizer altogether! Generally, when composting in Chicago, a backyard in Evanston, or anywhere you want a healthy, living soil, you are seeking just the right amount of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and other macro- and micronutrients. Inorganic, inert fertilizers are a great way to help quickly correct an imbalance of nutrients in your soil right before a growing season, but its effects are limited and brief. On the other hand, a soil built from compost can sustain seasons upon seasons of growing and harvesting. Whether you carefully maintain your own home compost bin or utilize a devoted compost service in Chicago, the rich ecosystem created by compost-led soil is just a few steps away.

How to Turn Compost into Fertilizer

If you have already taken the steps to turn your food and yard waste into compost, then it’s only a couple of steps to get your compost garden ready. It should be noted that a backyard compost or vermicompost may not have the right ratios of nutrients for your soil, and it may be difficult to properly sift out any lingering materials that have yet to decompose. Test your garden soil as well as your composted material to find the ratio of nutrients right for your plants.

Or, you can take advantage of a compost service in Chicago that has the full capacity and range necessary to compost anything found in a standard food waste pickup, including that of wedding event composting, school composting programs, and whole neighborhood blocks. With the proper bulk, a compost pile attains the right heat to break down harmful chemical compounds, large food waste items like bones or seeds, and destroy harmful bacteria that can persist in smaller programs. 

Build a Stronger, Healthier Soil with The Urban Canopy

Whether you’re interested in zero waste events in Chicago or an easy compost service that arrives right at your doorstep (or apartment door or alley), The Urban Canopy can help supply your soil with proper nutrients to keep it thriving season after season. At least, it certainly does the trick for our own farm in the Englewood neighborhood in Chicago. Compost club members can receive a gallon of Healthy Soil Compost every ten food scrap pick-ups, and our event composting around Chicago has you covered wherever the winds take you. Get in touch today to take the first steps to a closer food community.

Chicago Composting 101 - What is Compost?

Chicago Composting 101

In the US, over 20-30% of trash that goes to the landfill is food scraps and compostable yard debris. With an average of nearly 4.5 pounds of trash a day per person, that’s 325 pounds(!) of soil material being tossed in the dump. Once that food waste is there, it slowly turns into methane, a greenhouse gas, and becomes a part of the toxic waste landfills are full of. However, thanks to the many Chicago compost services and food scrap pickup options, we can divert almost all of that food waste into healthy living soil. Urban centers are even more susceptible to food waste finding its way to the landfill. Whether you’re barbequing in Berwyn or having a Lake Shore wedding, composting in Chicago and the greater Chicagoland area means you can be a part of building a full, complete food system. When you sign up for a compost service, Chicago gets a little greener. 

The Benefits of Composting

Composting in the city means helping create a cleaner, healthier, and more sustainable urban environment for you and your family. Whether it’s food scrap pickup options, wedding composting in Chicago, zero waste events, or a regular Chicago compost service, there are a plethora of ways to start closing the gaps in the food cycle. The way in is easy, and the start-up costs are low, especially when working with a long-standing company like the Urban Canopy.

Many choose to compost at home, and this is a fantastic way to get involved in the process. One of the most popular ways is vermicular composting, which involves red wiggler worms and any strong container to break down food scraps. This process, sometimes called cold composting, services Chicago in minute ways, but is highly effective. However, the process takes much longer than “hot” composting methods, and can only handle a small amount of food waste. It also doesn’t break down pesky weed seed husks. It’s a perfect option if you have a giant backyard, a lot of dedication to pull weeds, and a place to house twenty or so worm bins. But for the rest of us, it makes a lot more sense to pool our resources and take advantage of our community’s ties while building a stronger food network. 

Community-Centered Composting in Chicago 

This is where a composting service in Chicago comes in handy. In a single day, thousands upon thousands of pounds of food waste can be salvaged through a food scrap pickup service. Many of our neighbors choose to pool their resources to compost for a whole building, block, or condo association. Event composting in Chicago can do even more to create a more sustainable environment. With a little planning and the right composting system, almost any gathering can become a zero waste event in Chicago. While many compostable items like cutlery aren’t easily compostable with a home setup, a larger composting service in Chicago can handle just about any kind of organic material, including scraps from the grill at a Fourth of July celebration. Wedding composting in Chicago is also a cinch and simple to plan, and it means you don’t have to worry about the often serious carbon footprint a huge (and wonderful) celebration can leave. 

Find the Composting Service that Fits You

From Oak Park to Evanston, we’re all looking for ways to make our lives a little more environmentally friendly. A compost service in Chicago is an easy addition to any lifestyle, no matter how hard the hustle and bustle is. Slowly add your table scraps and yard waste to an airtight bucket provided, and one of our transporters can come by once a week, biweekly, or just once a month to swap it out for a fresh bucket. This food waste gets pooled with all the rest we collect around the Chicagoland area, and it slowly becomes the carbon- and nitrogen-rich part of soil that helps sustain farms like ours in Englewood. Read more about how the Urban Canopy can kick-start your sustainable journey today!