Composting is all about letting the organic material to breakdown and turn into finer material. We just pile up remnants of plants, grass cuttings, dead leaves and occasional paper. I notice that the pile seldom end up as real compost, because we take these material as needed for mulching/ground cover for the new plants. We just took out a bit of these for the recent choi sum, pak choy and roselle .... Even if these material are used at an early stage, soon they will also decompose on the vegetable bed...
For those with small vegetable gardens, are you attempting at home-made compost?
Lucky you! If we have a pile of stuff on our lawn, we will receive letter from the home owner association reminding everyone to tidy up the garden.
ReplyDeleteCompost is great to make for any garden I think, including flowers. It makes the soil better. I prefer it when it's not too fine, and find it's a great mulch. I notice you put out egg cartons. I find cardboard rots down well, also old clothes that aren't synthetic. I often find odd buttons in the compost, and sometimes a zipper. I use the shower water on the compost and it rots down quickly. Vuejardin, you could maybe use a wooden frame or bin to make it look neater for the fussy home owner association?
ReplyDelete> vuejardin ..
ReplyDeleteNobody complains so far.. Anyway the pile never last long, it ends up as mulch, and no kitchen waste in the pile.... I think people are interested on the plants and veggies as they walk past, that pile never catch their attention.
~ bangchik
> catmint
ReplyDeleteI found knife and spoon the other day as I worked through the pile... haha... A bin is neat. I tried putting grass cuttings in a plastic bag with holes by the side, and it proved effective as well.....
you should check out the nature mill in home composter...I just got one and it is great and fast...
ReplyDeletewe use ours for mulch also and let some break all the way down. ours is basically a huge random pile.
ReplyDeleteI have had a compost pile in the garden in the past, it does well. Salt water in the high tides makes the compost not useable. Am doing worm composting now.
ReplyDelete> toil-in-the-soil
ReplyDeleteI will check and see how it fits here.
> Josie
> Janet
I have been gardening here for one and a half year, and I notice how the soil color changes from orange/brown to almost brown/black.. i suppose all due to organic fertilisers and mulch!!
Luckily we are far from sea, janet. I am thinking of venturing into worm composting!
~ bangchik
I'm a bit of a lapsed composter, since our city introduced a Green Box organic waste recycling program. I do compost the leaves in the fall and let them break down over winter, adding them to the garden (mostly flowers) in spring. However, I've been lazy over the past few years, putting my kitchen waste into the Green Box. However, I'm going to try going back to this over the summertime.
ReplyDelete> Helen....
ReplyDeleteOkey helen.., lets all try a little bit of home composting ...