Growing Local

In response to my little survey, not as of this posting completed and what's in my head this rainy day, I have decided to write at least partly about compost. Compost has more than one definition and it seems to mean something else in different areas.

In the United States, we tend to think of everything that we throw into a compost heap as compost. In more British areas, I believe that they tend to think of the final product from a compost heap, and potting soil as compost. I have had a few clients ask me if I can deliver some 'soil' to their garden for topping when what they really mean is 'compost'. All that really matters is that you reader, wherever you are understand what I am saying.

OK, so where was I? Growing local, yes, I am trying to establish a self-sufficient garden, but I have imported a lot of material into it. The 1st is compost, meaning the final product. I get mine from a local source, Agrecycle. I also use Agrecycle to dispose of yard debris, both my own when it's bulky, and that of clients. They compost it and sell it right back to me. So that means that the compost that I have topped my garden with is local.

I also supplement my garden with various fertilizers. I am not a scientist but I try to balance out my various plants need, especially my tomatoes. This year I am finding it easier to fertilize them with my bokashi, which because it allows meat and cheese waste, is richer than other self-produced fertilizer. I also have buried a lot of pet hair and some alpaca fleece waste(I started spinning last fall after I acquired some very inexpensive western Pennsylvania raw alpaca fleece).

I became very interested in hair and other things composed of keratin after I heard about smartgrow. Smartgrow is simply a mat made out of human hair which sounds really bizarre. I won't explain it here, visit their site. Anyway, it seemed to me that I could replicate smart grow results just by using my hair, my pet's hair and all the alpaca waste I accumulated when I carded my fleece.

Anyway, It occurred to me today that not only am I reducing the waste I am producing but I am truly turning my garden into a locally grown garden in more ways than I thought. And by doing so I am greatly reducing my carbon footprint. I am also reducing my fertilizing costs.

And I haven't even discussed my rainbarrel project. There are multiple levels in which that is beneficial. But that is a future post.

Enriching your garden

Since it's spring It is time for gardeners to help out their garden beds, if they didn't get to it last fall or whatever. I will attempt to talk about what I have done to help others and my own garden without looking for somebody out there that says it better.

In this neck of the woods it's a good idea to top your beds with about 1 inch of organic material a year. This approximates the amount of organic material that will break down into nutrients for your plants. If you are starting out with poor soil, you might consider going considerably thicker than that. Then you can mix it into your beds as deeply as you either have the personal energy or cash to pay someone else(like me) to mix it in for you.

I get my compost from a local supplier, usually Agrecycle who is the same place I go to drop off my yard waste. In theory we all should keep our yard waste on our own property and compost it ourselves but... maybe you just moved in somewhere where the soil is really poor. You really are better off bringing in some organic stuff that has already been composted. Composting takes time! Maybe you don't have room. Personally, I don't exactly have a compost heap. I still have a few areas that I dump some yard waste, that is areas that are sorta weedy still that I haven't fixed up yet. This yard waste helps(I HOPE) keep down the weeds. Anyway, last year I imported a LOT of compost to my yard. This compost by the way is made of the yard waste that is brought to them and composted for 8 months or so. It's good stuff and is almost always full of happy earthworms.



Last fall I had a customer that had me top her bed with as much compost as would fit. Her beds were in decent shape but now she doesn't have to really do anything with them for a few years if she chooses. It's sorta traditional to do compost in the spring, because things are growing and compost's nutrients are pretty available and to top with mulch in the fall. Mulch is not as broken down and it helps insulate many plants that may be a little tender. Really in a year most mulch resembles compost anyway, depending on how thick it is spread and what kind it is. The mulch I prefer is 'double shredded bark'. It smells nice, sorta like sandalwood to me and is dark. It just makes me think of rich people's houses.

Some people do raised beds which depending on how raised they are and perhaps whether the soil is toxic should be filled with soil and then topped with some compost.

If you liked that lovely picture of my truck click on the composting label below.

Why is Bokashi a better Composting method?

On facebook a friend asked me "Never having heard the term bokashi, much less contemplated it, how is that different from putting our food scraps and lawn clippings in the compost bin the city gave us?" I must continue to preface what I say by admitting that I am new to this and am not an expert but bokashi... here's me trying to paraphrase what's said on numerous sources which I believe to be true...

• Bokashi is speedier and safer than tiger worms and cold composting.

I got rid of my worm bin last fall because it was high maintenance. I had a problem the 1st year with it becoming infested with fungus gnats which in turn did damage to plants in my house including seedlings I was attempting to start for my vegetable garden outside. I believe those gnats killed half of them at least. Then last summer it got infested with some other weird fly, not a housefly but something large resembling a mayfly. To keep my wormbin going I had to bring it inside and some worms also would escape. It was just kinda messy.

• Acidity kills human and plant pathogens

I hope this is true. I have avoided putting pepper scraps in because they eventually sprout, or at least that's what they did in my wormbin. Other seeds did too and it was kinda annoying. Considering that I am putting bones and cheese in here, I am increasing the likelihood of more weird bacteria. I don't fear it.

• 2-3 weeks turn-around
  

This is actually true but that's sorta a cheat. When you empty your bucket, it is not broken down compost that you may dress your plants with. What you have is pickled compost. You need to bury it somewhere and let that go for a few weeks. In theory this breaks down very rapidly, at least you may plant something in that area when the acidity dissipates.

• All your food waste, including meat may be composted
  

This is true and I love, love love that. That means you truly get to keep your actual trash can odorless. No more freezing Chicken bones and other mysterious meaty things!

• Bad smells are eliminated
  

I have found this to be true so far. It certainly has made my trash can less stinky. The stuff under the sink has not offended my nose yet, not the stuff sitting in the basement. The stuff in the backyard that is buried is not stinky either.

• Less pests around to annoy

My wormbin as stated above had some very unwelcome guests. No only that but the bin I kept under the sink kept attracting fruitflies. The bokashi bucket under my sink just doesn't provide a home for them so they are gone. Houseflies that could get into the regular trash if I had to throw old meaty waste have no where to go either so they are GONE. I LOVE this.

• Less work and less THOUGHT required

A motto I have is "Don't make me think!" I don't have to think "Can I put this in my bin?" If it's foodwaste, it's OK. I don't have to think about when the trash goes out. I don't have to think about the seeds sprouting from stuff I throw in. It all goes into the bucket!

Anyhow, I hope that this will be my last post on this for a while. What is pictured over there is some yogurt being added to the bucket. This adds Streptococcus thermophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, from some old yogurt in the fridge. I hope that this will help with the mix of micro-organisms.

Here's hoping for some real spring stuff happening soon. I might actually plant a few seedlings to get a slight head start on greens. I think it's time. I'll update for that as it occurs. I think I've address a lot of bokashi concerns here, but again I urge anyone interested to google it and help me correct any mistakes I make here.

Bokashimania

I just wanna show my method of layering my compost. I use the newspaper method. I like this because it is neat and free.

1. Here's what the bucket looks like when I open it. You see a soggy newspaper. I use that instead of wheatbran which is usually used. It's just plain newspaper. Some people inoculate the paper with stuff, but I choose not to bother. See the blog below to see how this is a risk.

2. Here's my kitchen scraps. There's lots of coffee grounds and in this batch some of my spent forced flower bulbs. There's also egg shell and often moldy cheese, shrimp shells and other mystery things from the refrigerator. The most risky thing I have put in this bucket is a whole turkey carcass, I've done this twice. If this decomposes quickly I will know that I am a success.

3. Here's some fresh newspaper. I guess 2 layers work better than one. This makes the next step less messy.

4. Here's me packing it down with my fist. Bokashi is primarily an anaerobic method of composting. packing this in reduces air pockets and also allows for more room to pack in more stuff. When I am done packing it down, I put the lid back on and I wash my hands.

In my house we generate a bout a layer a week. This varies quite a bit. I think it takes about a month and a half for us to fill up this bucket.

Aside from filling it up, every other day or so I check the bottom bucket for liquid. This I empty into my bokashi juice bottle.

See the bokashi link below for more on my trials and theories of bokashi. And PLEASE COMMENT!!! I'd love to have feedback on this!

More on Bokashi

I feel like I need to say more about bokashi. I am not an expert but based on checking around I have seen some claims that aren't completely true. Somebody out there claims that the bokashi method does not generate ANY greenhouse gases. That is simply not true.

I said in my last post that I am not doing this scientifically at all and that not completely true either. I understand some basic science, I took chemistry is high school though I have forgotten much of it I know that yeast microorganisms feed on sugars and that the end product is alcohol and carbon dioxide. Bokashi has some yeast in its mixture of efficient microorganisms (EM) therefore it must generate some CO2, unless there is another chemical reaction that changes it into something else after that and there isn't.

I live with a homebrewer, Todd which by the way is very nice and he has influenced me in daring to try bokashi without purchasing EM products from anybody. You see no matter what you do with your waste it will 99% of the time will decompose somewhere and somehow. The process is quite similar to brewing beer and winemaking.

Usually when Todd starts a batch of hooch he sterilizes everything that comes into contact with it and when his batch is ready he mixes in a specialized strain of yeast. I think he splits up most batches into several vessels to brew that he inoculates with different yeasts. The craziest thing he has done is to brew something with a 'wild' yeast, that is something that was just floating around somewhere and in many instances the end result has been very nice. This has been my approach to bokashi.

I will borrow from a discussion of hard cider. We start with a trusting free-spirit describing their method of making hard cider.

Trusting free-spirit:

1. buy a gallon of apple cider
2. take off the top
3. cover bottle top with cheese cloth
4. stir every day until fizzy
5. put an airlock on bottle
6. forget about cider bottle fermenting in the back of the closet
7. remember cider.
8. drink cider.

it's really that easy.

Todd's response:

she leaves the door unlocked.
this means friends might come over and give you a surprise party,
or you could come home and find your tv is gone and someone took a dump on the floor.

by using a known yeast, and sanitary practices, you can control more of the process and get reproducible results. to be fair, i have made a few brews from wild, spontaneous fermentations and haven't suffered yet. you can culture your own wild strain(s) like sourdough and use it over and over again

Bokashi is quite different from making hooch. You are dealing with a solid product that comes out solid and there are many varieties of micro-organisms involved. But I believe that the worst case scenario is better than that in brewing. If I have a batch that is off it will decompose anyway. And because I am thrifty I will try it. If I end up with a bunch of putrid batches I'll change my ways but so far I have emptied about a half a dozen buckets and they've been OK. In a few weeks I'll check the bed I've been burying them in. It's just thawing out so I don't think that they've had a chance to properly decompose but the bed does not smell bad.

My Bokashi

This is about an experiment. It all starts with this little blue bucket full of kitchen waste. Like many of you I tend to fill mine up until it is overflowing. I guess if it were warm out I wouldn't because it'd attract flies but right now that is not a problem.

There's lots of things I could do with this. I could throw it into the trash like most people do but I am a composter. I feel guilty when I contribute unnecessarily to our mountains of waste and I know that when properly processed by me, that this bucket will help my garden grow.

So I put it in this larger bucket beneath my kitchen sink. This is my homemade bokashi bucket. Bokashi is a method of composting that I started last fall. I like it because it is OK to put animal products like meat and cheese as well as the usual eggshells in the bucket. I even sometime put hair in it. It is supposedly less smelly than some other methods (I won't vouch for that until I pass a summer doing this) and it has reduced the fruitflies that have infested my kitchen to nothing. I think I find the flies most annoying and don't miss them.

My bokashi bucket set-up is this.

I have 2 buckets that nest together and a lid that fits on top. This lid is what keeps the flies out. I have 2 buckets because the one on top has holes drilled on the bottom of it to drain off any liquid from the compost. This liquid comes from liquid already in the compost and liquid that is created as it decomposes. If I let the liquid collect in the bucket with the compost it would get mighty stinky, but I don't.

Instead I let a bit collect in the bottom bucket and periodically pour it into a small bottle. In theory the liquid should smell like silage or beer or vinegary, but not so much like poop. In practice it has smelled like all of the above at different times.

This liquid is not a waste product. It is good for helping your drainpipes stay clear. The microorganisms that liquefy compost will liquefy whatever collects in your drainpipe. It also is a good fertilizer for your houseplants. I am inclined to pour the bad smelling stuff down the drain but that that smells edible, I mix with water for my plants. They seem not to have suffered from it.

Every source I have seen mentions inoculating your compost with the proper micro-organisms and that is something I have not bothered to do. I want to see if it is possible to do this without all the fuss described by others.

I really have not described in detail what this is about. What I have been doing is a primary stage of decomposition and it is mostly anaerobic. I cram the stuff in my bucket pretty tight. I put newspaper on top on each layer I so I can pack in in really good without getting messy. Sometimes I top it with a little bit of something like yogurt to give it some lacto bacillus to grow on, but lately I haven't. It sorta depends on what's in there already and how it smells.

My method is not scientific at all.

Eventually that bucket will get full. When that happens, I put it in the basement to sit for at least 2 weeks. Really, since I have 2 bokashi buckets set-up because my system is so cheap, it sits longer than that. That's what this final photo shows, my 2nd bucket sitting in the basement. I still drain out the liquid from the bottom like I do the bucket in the kitchen, indeed, in theory, this liquid should be more uniform than the fresh bokashi upstairs.

The next step is to bury your bokashi outside. My sources say that this compost that has thoroughly been inoculated by all sorts of micro-organisms will breakdown rapidly once it sees air. Note: it does not decompose in the bucket, it just starts to decompose, if anything it pickles.

For more information google it. Wikipedia is a decent start. There's also a few videos on youtube. I have a feeling that there will be more information out there.

I intend to update as my experiment succeeds or fails.

Tired

I am tired. I did 2 yards of compost today. The picture you see is not from today but last May.

Typically I go to this place and they dump a load in my little truck just like that. I told them it's OK to dump it on the roof of my truck. I guess some people don't like dirt on their roof, but I find it easier and they just can't dump it tidily in my bed.

I have a special tarp I call my 'supertarp' that I always keep in my truck. I have other tarps for doing other things but this one just lives there.

I have a special way I keep it spread on the bed so that the compost stays neater. I use at this point 3 bungee cords to hold it in place. In this picture you can see one bungee cord stretched from the tarp to someplace off screen which is my rearview mirror, there was another bungee cord attached the same way on the other side.

I've modified my method since last May by keeping the tailgate open and using a third bungee to keep the tarp secure at the gate. I also attached the other 2 to the actual corners of the tarp and higher up.

Not only does this keep my truckbed neater but it also makes it easier and faster to unload. I don't have to scrape my bed at all because when the compost gets thin, I pull the tarp and the dirt just slides down.

So anyway, compost humus, one small truckload is bout a cubic yard. If you have a garden, especially if you are breaking new ground, topping it with some compost helps a lot.

The compost comes from various sources, a good portion from landscapers dumping the yard debris from cleaning up things, this is weeds, branches, grass cuttings etc. This stuff is taken somewhere where it is composted with some other stuff, sometimes they accept roadkill, sometimes it's something else, like one place uses a lot of potato peels from a potato chip factory. Anyway, I do not know the specifics but they compost the stuff like you might if you had the space and were so inclined. It's good stuff.

Bokashi

This morning I discovered this. I currently have a worm bin but I'll tell you, there's a lot of trouble with that. Troubles I have had include fruit flies, fungus flies, other creepy crawly things and this year another weird fly.

I love the fact that I can put MEAT in this.

I'd post links but at this point all I've done is googled it. I've never heard of this being done in Pittsburgh. I will post pictures of what I do.