Saturday 25 August 2012

Making our own compost

I want to spend every spare minute I have in the garden right now. The light is beautiful and it's not too hot. Yet.

I always get distracted from what I'm supposed to be doing. This morning was no different. I took my camera down and took a few pictures.

1. Our first snow peas are ready.
2. My little experiment with nasturtiums. We used to grow nasturtiums in England to eat, but right now I want them as a companion plant. Aphids love nasturtiums, so the plan is they'll love my cabbages and broccoli a little less. The thing is I can't get hold of nasturtium seeds through my plant man, so I went for a little walk and took some cuttings. They sat in water in the kitchen for a couple of weeks until I noticed some roots. Luca and I are after plenty of brilliant orange flowers so I stuck them in the poorest soil I could find near the brassica beds (nasturtiums don't like rich soil; you get more flowers if you hold back on the fertiliser and compost). Fingers crossed.
3. I'd actually forgotten I planted cauliflower. I got quite a surprise when I poked through some leaves and found this creamy white head.
4. A bed all ready for this season's crop of tomatoes and basil. It had sunk down a fair bit through the winter, so I followed the same no-dig garden method and topped with alternating layers of carbon (hay, cardboard) and nitrogen (mushroom compost, veggie scraps, lawn clippings).
5. Our first homegrown broccoli. Lovely but not quite the tight heads I was hoping for. Or does that not matter? And does anyone know why it's all going to flower so quickly?
6. Tomato seedlings in.

Then I got stuck into the one thing I've been looking forward to for weeks. Filling a compost bin to make soil. Number one compost bin is already full and takes the odd bucket of scraps from the kitchen but it's time to start another one.

Making compost is more than throwing in kitchen scraps at the bottom of an empty bin with the occasional bit of cardboard and grass (just because they can go in) and hoping for magic one day. We composted this way for years and abracadabra all we got was slime. With broken egg shell.

I've learnt there's a little bit of science. Much like no-dig gardening.  

I'm not exactly sure why I love filling a compost bin. Is it because I like adding a bit of this and a bit of that, put a lid on and leave the rest to nature? Is it because I find it incredibly satisfying to put household waste (newspapers, office paper, vegetable peelings, ahem urine*) to really good use? Is it the thrill of making something else other than food from scratch and saving a bit more money?

Probably all of the above.

The boys shredded paper. I filled buckets with water and a dash of molasses (blackstrap molasses does wonders for the micro-organisms, which help break everything down, and gets all the worms rushing in).
We filled the bin with different layers of carbon and nitrogen including some roadside alpaca poo and store-bought chicken manure, and finished it with a layer of molasses-soaked hay.


It'll sink down in a few days leaving us room to add our scraps.

Then abracadabra we'll have homemade compost. Very soon.

Congratulations to Libby who wins Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion.



* Graeme often 'waters' the garden when he gets in from work. You know, when it's dark and no one can see. He walks through the door and announces he's given the beds a good dose of nitrogen. He'll be doing the same to the compost bins as long as I remind him. Seriously, if you garden, urine is a valuable resource.

12 comments:

  1. How long do you think it will take? I have my first compost bins at our new home, I have filled it with scraps, paper, chicken poo from the chook pen, I have turned it only once..... mmmm.... interesting! xx

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    1. Well, if you were to fill to the top and turn it regularly, apparently you'll have beautiful rich soil in as little as 8 weeks. But I'm working more on 3-4 months. It depends on so many things: how small everything is chopped up; if the bin is in the sun (and not in a damp shady spot) so it can heat up easily; the ratio of carbon and nitrogen; and turning it every now and again to get air in there. Plus another tip is to always cover veggie scraps with a layer of carbon, so shredded paper or hay. And to give them a good soaking before they go in to add moisture. I'm guilty of adding scraps to the top all the time, which I won't do now that I've got a second bin. I'm going to leave it, and just turn it. I'll do another post when the first bin is ready. I can't wait.

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  2. oh, yay, i've been meaning to start making some compost, hate throwing away all those useful scraps. where we used to live, our green bin was for compostable kitchen and garden waste, and the council made compost from it. everyone driving into our town can see into our yard, so we will need to think of an alternative nitrogen source, i think ;) congrats to libby!

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    1. Or you could save it and pour it on later.... :-)

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  3. Our compost is neglected and somewhat stinky. I think I have too much wet to not enough dry (or whatever the terminology is!). Still, whatever is at the bottom of the barrel is still going on the garden next weekend, no matter what!

    x

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    1. This is what our compost in England was always like. Stinky and slimy. It was because we added far too much nitrogen-rich vegetable and fruit scraps and not enough of the carbon layers (think cardboard, toilet rolls, egg cartons, dried brown grass cuttings, paper). You want about a ration of 2:1 of carbon to nitrogen.

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  4. Oooh! Excited I won! Thanks Vanessa. :)

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  5. Thanks for the tips. Our compost is always pretty stinky and gross, we've never used it on the garden as I had no idea how to make it work. Our yard has been out of action for 5 VERY long months due to DIY Landscaping/renovation (3 months waiting for materials thanks to an incredibly unprofessional local timber yard) but I will get it back this weekend and Im sooooo excited about starting my garden and vege patch again with a clean slate, your advice is awesome.

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  6. I wish I had homegrown broccoli! It's my favourite! And I must add, that I love your laughing profile pic. I see it often when I comment on blogs - gorgeous! x

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    1. Aw, thanks Elisa! My husband loves it too and chose it, but I'm still not convinced!

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  7. I bought some snow pea seeds the other week but do you think it's too late for me to plant them? It's still fairly cold and wet here in Perth...

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  8. Oh, I wouldn't have thought so. But then I'm only becoming familiar with this zone we live in i.e. temperate... Have a look at this planting guide which I sometimes refer to: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/vegieguide/. Also, this is another gardening calendar that might be helpful that my gardening teacher gave me: www.gardenate.com.

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