Gaiam

Living in a city doesn’t usually go together with making your own compost, but there are plenty of city dwellers with small gardens, rooftop gardens or even just a tiny scrap of backyard or balcony to grow a few pots of tomatoes and herbs, who would love to be able to turn kitchen scraps into rich fertile compost. Yet it seems like such a cumbersome messy process. This spinning composter takes all of the hard work out of it and promises to produce compost in a month, or just a little more, when used correctly. The easy spinning motion aerates the compost, adding oxygen and speeding the decomposition. It’s perfect for urban gardeners and for those of us trying to reduce the amount of refuse sent to landfill sites. If you make more compost than you can use it’s easy enough to give it away to gardening friends or even sell it! The capacity isn’t huge, but it’s enough for a small family. Many users plan to get a second one so that compost making is continuous.

Priced at $199 at Gaiam
(plus $18 for compost activator to get you started)

Composting is great for the garden and great for the environment but sometimes not so great for the kitchen. Let’s face it, little bowls of peels and fruit bits waiting to go out to the main compost bin get smelly pretty quickly, especially in the summer. And they soon start to attract fruit flies and other bugs. The answer is to have a mini compost bin in the kitchen to collect the bits in, so that you don’t have to run out to the main bin in the back yard every time you peel a potato. This affordable lidded compost bucket has a carbon filter in the lid which allows ventilation but prevents odors. Because the air can get in, things can start the compost process without getting stinky and the flies don’t even know it’s there! The carbon filter lasts for 8 months or so and is replaceable (a pack of three filters costs $5.99).

Costs $19.95 at Amazon

If composting seems like too much effort to you, let the worms do the hard work for you. Having your own worm farm means that you can transform your organic kitchen waste effortlessly into rich compost. The worms digest the scraps and soon you have fertile worm casting compost for your plants. This worm factory is made from recycled plastic and has a stackable tray system. As the worms make their way up into the next tray you can empty out the bottom one, now filled with compost, into your garden. This is perfect for small backyards and can even be kept inside an apartment to feed and nurture your pot-plants as there are no odors.

Costs $109 at Real Goods
and $18 for an additional two trays.

Plants, snails, live shrimp, algae and ferns live in this self-sustaining ecosystem. All it needs is a bit of indirect sunlight ….this would be perfect for my office that has no windows!

$89.00 at VivaTerra
This one, available from Hammacher Schlemmer, claims that it was developed as the result of years of research at NASA! This is one smart ecosphere!! It is 5 1/4″ diameter.

$199.95 at Hammacher Schlemmer

One from Amazon has a life expectancy of two years and also contains standard ecosphere fare of red shrimp, algae and seawater. I read the reviews and one person loved watching the little shrimp swim around and found it very relaxing ….another reviewer thought it was pathetic and a fine example of animal cruelty. You can decide for yourself! It is 4″ round.
$65.00 at Amazon

Got a bare spot in the yard you’d like to decorate, but don’t have a power outlet nearby? Class it up with this terra cotta fountain that’s powered by a solar pump, but also includes an AC adapter for indoor use.
$109.95 at Amazon