No more plant food

[cybermule]

Disclaimer: not drug related. That shit will Fuck you up.

OK, the current mission is project compost, which temporarily stalled while both my compost bins were full. One has been sorted out, and I may shortly be borrowing a third bin, so things can get moving again. I'm lucky that my council will take food, plant and cardboard waste away, so it was being recycled, but I have a feeling that they might be first against the wall when the apocalypse comes (look what a few months of Tory policy have done) so I like to be able to manage my own waste.

To make compost good, you need a lot of brown waste like twigs and cardboard to supply your carbon, and some green waste like leaves and peelings to supply your nitrogen. Food waste has hygiene issues, but you can manage that too, as you'll see later.

First the brown waste, which always seems to be in short supply. I just got my shredder fixed, and my job means I can scrounge prunings, so this will get better. I can recycle my own card and paper into the system (composting is the new confidential shredding, don't you know) and opportunistically lift anything I see lying around.

Green waste is easier if you just stick to raw plant matter. Food waste has a pathogen issue, but you can actually deal nicely with this with a bokashi system or wormery, both of which encourage healthy populations of those lovely useful red worms.

I actually use a bokashi bin system:

http://www.leangreenhome.co.uk/bokashi/bokashi-explained/

These, as usual, cost too much to buy, but you can easily make your own and the bran is reasonably priced - I buy my in bulk in a co-op system with one of my gardening clients. I was in the right place at the right time and bagged two bins on Freecycle. They have taps on the bottom which you can use to drain the juice, dilute it and use as really stinky plant feed. Which I'm going to do from now on, hence the title. Interestingly, my compost bins were also blagged, so a zero cost system for me :)

Inside the bin - bran and scraps make neophyte compost. I always forget to put the strainer in the bottom :o)

I got to have these bins because the previous owner found the lids too fiddly, and to be fair, after the initial *eyeroll*, I had to agree. I strongly believe that things need to be convenient to actually be useful, so a little bit of waste plastic'n'elastic later, the bin looks like a jampot at an evil WI meeting, and the problem is solved.

The seething jampot, plus the really irritating and now discarded lid.

It's now just outside the front door, propped on two bricks for maximum useability.

Comments

[toxicpixie.livejournal.com]

We've been Bokatchi'ing for a bit - it's great, gives really good plant food and kicks the compost (sadly only one bin, but now getting to the 2/3rds full mark!) into gear :D

See Lakers garden for details :D

Nathan, the Toxic Pixie

Ps. the lids aren't fiddly, it's using them as a plant shelf that makes it difficult ;)

[cybermule.livejournal.com]

My lids are really fiddly.way too tight. I could probably manage with one bin too - I don't fill it that fast. I think you're supposed to leave them to stand for a while, but I vaguely remember that being something to do with meat scraps.

Anyhow, thanks for the blog link. Gonna have a look now :)

[toxicpixie.livejournal.com]

I like the stiffness of lids, they give a very satisfying click when you pop them on or off :D With two bins we fill one, leave it two weeks to mulch down then empty it into the compost & cycle back through them. The extra time means they're really full of goodness when they go in :)

We got ours via B'ham council - their recycling post collection is a bit duff but they are trying!

Hope you enjoy the blog - it's a labour of love on Bexs' part :)