I agree with gardengal 48 and Jolj. And so do most university agriculture experts, extension offices, and documented and verifiable scientific studies. I am taking a course on this now. Oh, and to the comments about you can't have too much compost...well, that is inaccurate. One contributor said it is balance. I agree, but to know what the balance is or what is needed to maintain that balance requires testing. Most of us can't afford a complete soil test (it isn't just about NPK), so we guess as best we can. Sure, there are some NPK and other nutritional elements to compost, but compost is still considered an amendment, not a fertilizer. Part of it is WHEN or HOW do those nutrients become available to the plants. Anyway, this is several years after the original post, so I hope the poster is still gardening and is successful. :)

Thanks, everyone. Pro was here today and he wants to replace the outdoor coil temperature sensor. He thinks it is cutting off the cycle too soon. He also wanted to replace the board but I said no to that -- it seems to me that the board is working the way it is supposed to. While he was there I asked him to check the pressures just to humor me. He did and said, "Oh, it's low". He didn't have the sensor in stock, so he's coming back tomorrow to replace that and top up the system.

"Greeniness" of granite, recycled glass, and other countertops. 1. The huge amount of resources to extract natural substances from the earth. 2. The environmental damage in extracting substances from the earth. 3. The power to transport heavy, huge slabs to a warehouse to be prepared for shipping. 4. Shipping. 5. More transportation to a new, main warehouse in the country. 6. More transportation to warehouse hubs, to be wholesaled. 7. Power to prepare rough slabs for wholesale. 8. Power to hone rough slabs to be shown in retail stores. 9. More transportation to retail warehouses/locations. Transportation to consumers' homes. Power to fabricate slabs for consumer's homes. Ability to be recycled, or does the slab end up in a landfill. These things are involved in granite. Granite is beautiful, and I may get granite. But let's not equate granite with recycled countertops that will, in the end, be recycled again, and again, and again, and never end up in a landfill or cause environmental damage. Enviroglass is manufactured in my city, which is a good "green" advantage. All the power required for all that transportation noted above....not needed for enviroglass. Or concrete, for that matter, since that is made locally. The deal with concrete countertops, which are not by definition green, is that (according to one show I saw) they are usually made locally. So there is no transportation involved, to speak of. But unless it can be recycled, I don't know if this is a big enough green advantage. Still, the guy on the show acted as if the power to transport is a huge consideration (I guess because of the weight of concrete, in part). No man-made or fabricated substance is perfect. They all use power. They all do some damage. They all have drawbacks in their use, too (even granite cracks). But it seems to me that if something is renewable, that would be a flag that it is likely to be the "greenest" of the items. Maybe not, but it just seems common sense to me that if you can use an item, and re-use, and re-use it, then it is the greenest. Add to that any product that is locally made and requires little transportation, and voila, that would be the greenest. Seems to me, anyway. Maybe granite can be recycled? I don't know. I don't know why not. It can't be melted down, but it can be re-fabricated for a smaller countertop, I would think. Lots to think about.

That's so exciting to see how you layer your compost-pots. Very logical and it makes sense how you layer them. I like how you put chemical nitrogen to speed up the compost. Only one I would keep for plants: Microcure, a locally made trace element booster containing 4% Zn, 2% Fe, 2% Mn, 1% B and 1% Cu by weight. That's good stuff, most soil is deficient in zinc & boron and a tiny bit of trace elements can make a BIG DIFFERENCE. I like how you put high nitrogen, thus salty chemical fertilizer into compost, the rain will leach out the salt. I dumped a high nitrogen chemical soluble at 22-10-10 onto my grass, and it BURNT the grass, turning the patch brown for months .. wasn't worth it. Khalid wrote: " I observed nitrogen deficiency in my rose recently as my compost did not contain lot of nitrogen and during monsoon / rains, much of it leached out from the pots. I thought it might be a better idea to add chemical nitrogen heavy fertilizer that I have in the compost." AGREE TO THAT, pots need lots of nitrogen due to fast leaching. I spend 4 times money on Organic soluble for pots at $20 compared to $5 if I had used MG-chemical-soluble (higher in nitrogen). Plus it's constant work & constant fertilizing with organics, can't keep up with the fast leaching of rain through pots. One University Extension recommended stable-owners to add chemical nitrogen to their horse manure, after farmers complained how little horse manure has in nitrogen, due to the sawdust-bedding that robs the manure of nitrogen as it breaks down. I got horse manure yesterday, it's filled with maggots & special nematodes that horse owners put to kill flies-larvae. Zero flies, zero mushroom in the black composted horse manure (pH over 8). Horse manure is good for trace-elements, but I still need chicken manure and alfalfa for nitrogen.