Compost pile to grow things

Not much of a compost heap. I kept adding leaves,  grass cuttings, dead plants, large palm leaves, old soil from pots, top soil  and sand to get to that height. Kangkong as one of the compost material, survived and emerged out of the compost heap. No need for fetiliser, they feed on the reservoir of good natural food, COMPOST HEAP. Kangkong  grown in the normal way, don't look half healthy!


It is quite practical to start off a vegetable bed by piling up organic material to a reasonable height with additional sand and soil. Once the heap look dark brown, with everything almost decomposed, the site can be further ploughed into a good vegetable bed. 

How Compost Works Good compost makes plants resilient. Compost matures into what soil scientists call active organic matter, a dark, flaky soil, that's rich with micro-organisms and earthworms, as well as the useful waste these life-forms release. Adding compost to garden soil increases its water-holding capacity, and provides wonderful plant nutrients. Compost also contains matter that helps plants react well to challenges from insects and disease.

Kangkong seems happy feeding on compost heap

........... b a n g c h i k      a n d      k a k d a h ..........

j o h o r

being away from home.

The right to live, the right for voices to be heard, and finally the right to vote in democratic countries. Plants Kingdom operates on a similar system, every single plant or grass has the right to grow. And grow they did, to a point some will suffocate and overrun  the others. Over time plants make adjustments to live happily, when bigger plant grow taller and stronger giving shade to weeds on the ground. What looks like a decent offer from bigger plants in the form of shade and cooler surroundings, is in fact very detrimental to weeds. Then weeds has less chance to grow in shady area, but make no mistake, they are always ready to surge and grow once the shade is gone. 

Chili plants are not dense, therefore no real shade on the ground. Weeds and chili plants fight for space in their plant kingdom. But a gardener like me, set out to grow vegetables such as chili, but definitely not weeds / grass.   I jumped in to intervene and pulled out weeds. The weather was a little bit hot and dry.

 ............    b e f o r e    t h e    w e e k e n d     ............

2nd and 3rd of June 2012

weeds suffocating rows of chili

 I am guilty for being away too often, 

neglecting our little vegetable garden.

weeding had just started

 I need the whole weekend 

to clear up the weeds

heap of grass and plants.

............       a f t e r        t h e       w e e k e n d      ............

pictures taken on Wednesday 6th June 2012 at noon.
after a  good workout over the weekend.

VEGETABLE GARDEN : low view

GARDEN FROM BALCONY: The left side

GARDEN FROM BALCONY: The right side

GARDEN FROM BALCONY:  The centre

The pathway is for Kakdah to get to the cloth lines,
one on the right and another on the left. The clothlines are more than enough for the two of us, so the left cloth lines are dedicated to markisa / passionfruits vines.

At the far end, there are 2000 polybags of chili also planted over the weekend.
I will write about the project soon.  Pictures are displayed here to show
how much can be done over the weekend
to clear up the weeds,
a good scrub,
a haircut,
a facelift.

We keep pulling out weeds, but weeds keep coming back. 

It's a reminder that we are here to co exist 

and learn to adapt.

........... b a n g c h i k      a n d      k a k d a h ..........

j o h o r

Mulching, with Kantan leaves

Mulching is a technique to reduce water loss from the soil,  reduce weeds and  improve soil structure. Kantan leaves are  very  handy as mulch. There is a cluster of kantan at the corner of the house. After a while leaves will dry, so in between roselle, is a suitable place to put them.

two rows of roselle, kantan leaves in between

Kantan leaves, as mulch

Pokok Kantan / Torch Ginger ( Etlingera elatior)  as a plant is very showy indeed, especially if grown far from anything else. New shoots keep coming out forming a neat round shape. It is grown primarily for bunga kantan, it's beautiful pink flower. Kakdah would add the pink bunga kantan for her special menu: asam pedas, masak lemak and not forgetting laksa. Sometimes she would slice the flower as addition for her kerabu. Thin sliced onions, young mango, ulam raja, , carrots, a bit of chili, and carrots. A bit of sugar,  salt and lemon juice will complete the taste. Of course we can vary the contents to suit with what we have and the appetite of the day.

The plant which grow in a nice cluster cools the surroundings a little bit. I find dead leaves so convenient as ground cover, giving colour to the ground around roselle and keeping the soil  from drying up.

Pokok kantan / torch ginger /  Etlingera elatior

Kantan leaves as mulch may not look neat, but it helps on sustainability,

 that things eventually need to go back to the soil,  recycled.

........... b a n g c h i k      a n d      k a k d a h ..........

j o h o r

The flexibility of composting.

I saw a composting machine costing RM1,500 during one of the trips to Putrajaya Flower Show. It is alright if one wish to spend that much. But there are other means of composting, practiced all over the country.

Farmers pile up palm leaves in neat rows in oil palm plantations to rot. Old oil palm trees are felled and chopped to pieces and left to rot too. On a more rural setting, leftover rice are just thrown under coconut trees, chickens rush and pick,  and some are left to decay, food for roots.... Allowing plant parts to degrade, and decompose... is composting.  There are so many ways to do it.

Over here, I make it so simple, simply because there are not many things to pile. Weeds, cuttings etc are all thrown into a bag. It will dry up a few months later. As mulch, dry garden waste is excellent....

 weeds, cuttings etc, all in the bag.

 dry weeds ready to be used as mulch,

bangchik and kakdah
Tanah Merah

composting the small way

The general understanding of composting is that the activity is good and it helps improving the soil. Thus nothing is wasted. Decomposition of living matter has been going on for zillion of years. Man is not a necessary party to the way nature sees decomposition. It has been the job of bacteria, and other little insects. Snails and slugs love to bite leaves, and worms love to eat dead leaves and leave their black poo on the ground. Termites will bite woody material to feed the young. So that's how it goes with decomposition.

Now that man values the black gold of humus so much, decomposition becomes a man made adventure. The other day, at Putrajaya Floria 2010, a guy was selling composting machine at RM1000. Man decides to turn composting as a business venture.

But my little vegetable garden in Putrajaya Malaysia, with its constraint of space,  keeps doing it the natural way. The heap will take it's own sweet time, to heat up and transform itself into powdery dark brown material called compost.

a compost heap

another compost heap

yet another compost heap
these are dead banana leaves.

references:
Fundamental Principles of composting ~compost org
Basic Principles of Composting ~LSUAg Center
Composting in the Tropics ll ~infonet-biovision.org

bangchik

Composting banana leaves

composting banana leaves is easy. They are big and dont get blown away by wind. Organically healthy, but i am not too sure if neighbours are happy about it. I never ask and they never complain. Is that enough as a measure of social acceptance. So composting is still part of our gardening feature.

Compost Tea, 3 months later

Compost Tea

Lets be fair to plants. After creating healthy environment for them to grow with fluffed soil, compost, mulch, food and water, we can always expect better things to come. Pest even though is problematic, is always dependent on the health level of the plants. healthier plants seem to gather enough strength to ward them off. On the other hand caterpillars, grasshoppers hunt only the best leaves. Aphids suck nutrient from weaker plants until they succumb to death.. As plants get weaker, pests come like an army to share the bounty... I think we are concerned with the younger plants, to ensure they survive to maturity, and having seeds to continue its legacy. So compost tea is an attempt to safeguard them.

Now, lets see how my first attempt at compost tea comes out.[old post under label compost] . Seven 1000ml bottles altogether. Each bottle has its own composting material which includes banana peels, papaya peels, roselles residue, banana leaves and stems, tapioca leaves, dragon fruit peels, and spinach old leaves. Each bottle received brown sugar as brewing media. Yesterday was the due date, 16th Mac 2009 after 3 months fermentation.

I plan to do a controlled fertilizing. Each bottle is meant for a specific plant and I probably hold on using the usual fertilizer for a month just to see the difference... huh!

 

3 months +

 

7 bottles of compost tea.

Lets do composting
~bangchik and kakdah
Putrajaya, MALAYSIA

Venturing into compost tea.

A lot has been said about compost tea.., the benefits and all. But how many actually do it, and use the home made product and put to good use in garden. There was a highlight in local prime time 8 oclock news on this recently... A woman was showing how to do it. She was holding a 5 litre cooking oil plastic bottle and put veggie leftover and some brown sugar into it... and a little bit of water. I think it was about greener world drive. After three months the compost tea can used as foliar fertiliser and as cleansing agent to clean up dirty bathroom tiles....

We gave it a try. Leftovers of papaya peels, and other veggies were pushed in .... By mid September, a home made liquid fertiliser shall be tested on its effectiveness!!... What a long wait.

The second bottle [ FN orange ] has pieces of banana stalks and leaves. I place dry grass as well. Other bottles are queeing.....

From time to time, I open up the cap, then there is a ziiiiipppp sound coming out. I suppose the material is fermenting alright, and they are releasing CO2 gas [is it?]. I just close it and give a good shake before placing the bottle back somewhere far from sight.

our first attempt
at making compost tea


Anybody done it before?

These could be useful for further readings.
1 What are the Benefits of Aerated Compost Teas vs. Classic Teas? -
2 How to Make Compost Tea :: Harvest to Table
3 Compost Tea Recipe
4 Recipes for Compost Tea

Oil Palm composting.

We were on our way to the north.... Too hot!.... I took a break, stretch the limbs and look around. The palm leaves are cut off regularly to facilitate the harvesting of the fruits.... They pile the leaves in rows in between palms, and leave it to nature to take its own course.... rot, disintegrate, to form humus/compost.

When these palms had been around for 15 years or so, they become to tall to harvest, so they have to be chopped down. They normally slice the trunks into thin slices using chain saw, and leave them to rot..... Within a month or two new seedlings will be planted in rows... such a sight!...

The practice of palm composting has been around for a while, and now leading the pack, in organic farming ........

leaves left to rot.

and other leaves too

Crude composting

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?