On Fri, 27 Jun 2008 20:57:20 -0500, cat daddy wrote:

"ArcherB" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 27 Jun 2003 18:09:39 -0500, Ruth Shear wrote:

G'day

Cindi wrote:

I'm fairly new to gardening and wondered how all of you keep
roaches, ants and rodents out of your compost heaps?

Elliot Richmond replied:

Keep it moist, well stirred, and well aerated

Do not keep it sealed

Also - do not add meat - keep it to plant material (produce),
eggshells, teabags - newspaper if they use soy ink (if you are going
to use your compost on a vege garden).

DrRuth

Which brings up a question I had. I was going to use "The Greensheet"
as a weed-stop mechanism, but read that some papers use lead in their
ink. How are we to know which use lead ink and which ones don't?

http://ohioline.osu.edu/cd-fact/0122.html
"Lead was banned as an ingredient in ink by the EPA in 1985 and is,
therefore, no longer a threat."

"Ingestion of inks used on newsprint has not been an issue because
the
ingredients used in the inks are not considered toxic in either the
liquid or dry state."

First, thank you very much for your reply. While it was very helpful, it
still leaves some doubts in my mind.

I read that article and saw this:
These trials and ink references are for the black inks used in newsprint.
The trials do not include the waxed or glossy inserts or supplements that
accompany newspapers, nor does it include colored inks used on those
publications.

The "GreenSheet" uses mostly green ink (thus the name:-) which was not
tested here. Searching their website only gave me information how to buy
and sell stuff, which I already know how to do (which is why I have so
many greensheets laying around). Rather than recycling them and paying
for some other method of weed control, I thought I'd eliminate the
middleman and recycle them myself.

What I'm worried about is lead or some other dangerous materials making
their way up the root system and into the tomatoes that I am going to be
feeding my family. If it were just me, I wouldn't care, but I have a
little girl to look after and want my home-grown produce to be as safe
and healthy as possible.