We are starting a garden in our luscious backyard! We've already got pots and pots of seedlings sitting around the house and soon they will fill the yard and then later our bellies with the yummy veggies and fruits that we can grow!
We are also making our own soil from the compost we collect in our kitchen. We are sort of learning as we go, but here's what I know so far:
Use kitchen debris like fruits, veggies, egg shells, coffee grounds, napkins, tissue, small bits of paper, hair, sawdust, flowers, and tea bags.
Avoid things like cooked or baked food, oil, rice, pasta, bread, plastic stickers on fruit and veggie labels, tea bag staples.
Make a big pile and add some dirt or grass clippings, sawdust, wood chips, or manure and turn every three to four days. We keep adding more kitchen goo, so we have yet to make use of the soil, but we plan to make another pile so we can make sure one will turn to soil faster while the other pile can keep growing.
If the pile gets too dry, we add water, manure, or other high-nitrogen materials. If the pile gets to wet, we add more shredded paper, sawdust, or other high-carbon materials.
As long as we keep meat and baked food out of the pile animals will not visit. The bugs that visit are helping with the decomposition. We've even had a few worms join in the decomposing party.
Unfortunately, compost stinks (especially when it first gets started) and the neighbors are not very nice about it...though I believe they can't really smell it except when they pass our yard to get to the gated parking lot next door. One evil neighbor went so far as to pour paint into our compost heap one night after I told him we weren't going to move it away from the fence. What a jerk! Fortunately, the paint did not get into the main part of the compost and we ended up moving it out of paint's reach just in case.
So, once the weather gets consistently nice, we will begin our outside planting projects and hopefully by then we will have some compost that has turned to good planting soil. YAY!
To avoid smelly compost heaps, use WORMS !
ReplyDeleteLombicompost (in French) / Vermicompost (in English) are more discreet, and the worms eliminate smells.
Here are a couple of DIY in French.
This one is the cheapest, and perhaps also the more ecological because it recycles fishmongers' boxes that are particularly toxic if burnt :
http://www.sicoval.fr/documents/Lombricompostage_Ecosphere.pdf
This one is the more lasting :
http://www.letri.com/compostage-domestique/le-lombricompostage/fabriquer-un-lombricomposteur.html
In English, but less convincing :
This one gives you the basic steps, but the problem is it doesn't allow for drainage at the bottom. Don't forget that the liquid that gathers at the bottom is also a fertilizer, to be used - diluted - directly on plants :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFFTNv2cE34&feature=fvw
From Australia, easy and fun.
You can build several of these, in various sections of your garden :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIyEQoxgocY&feature=related
AND, just for a laugh, because what you need are RED worms, not white :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK-Oo7NwPiQ&feature=related