Adventures in Composting

I've noticed a few of you like my garden. I'm lucky to have good soil and a little know how to condition poor soil. Some say it's a green thumb but I think it's just trial and error and a lot of reading.

Part of my garden is compost. As you know this is a new project for me. I blundered big time with my first go at it almost killing my family with the smell of Karma, as Joey so perfectly named it. Well I didn't give up. The second go I shredded paper before adding my kitchen scraps to my little kitchen composter. Thing have been going well. Until a few days ago when I notice these tiny little flies buzzing around my container. That's a no- no for me no matter how much I love the urban farm movement and greener living. Bugs in the house equals dirt to me. I put the little composter outside. Thankful it has not been disturbed by the local band of raccoons yet.

Today I'm taking my adventure to the next step. The Worm Cafe. About a month back on a field trip with Marysa I was talking to one of the rangers about composting. Telling him about my composting brown thumb. He mentioned when he was in the peace corps it was easy to teach people how to compost with worms and I might try that. There is no turning or aerating, no smell and the worms do all the work. We just feed the worms.

Here are some pictures of day one. Hopefully this is as easy as the ranger told me. I suppose we will find out soon enough and I'll let you know either way if it's a success and I'm feeding my beloved veggie garden with it or if I will be a Miracle grow urban farmer giving up my dreams of composting.

If you look hard you will see the red wrigglers in their first meal of coconut hull peat moss brick. They get this the first few days to get use to their new environment.

The worms live in tray 1. The cardboard packaging is under the coconut hull to prevent the worms from dropping down into the drainage tray underneath the cafe.

This is Ozzy checking out what I'm doing.

The Cafe not fully assembled.

Here it is set up in the shade away from the afternoon sun so our little worm friends don't dry out.

Wish me luck!

Learn from my mistake

This post may offend those with a weak stomach. Today I read this great blog post on composting in your kitchen. It answered all my questions except one.My composter has liquid in it. I wanted to know if this should be drained. No where can I find any answers to my liquid in the compost bin question.

I asked the director at Sonny and Declan's preschool. After all she is who inspired me to compost after giving me three little dried up turd looking things last year on Earth day and told me to throw them in my yard. Well the little turd where made by the worms in the kids compost bin. I put them in a flower pot and the most beautiful wild flowers grew. They lasted all winter and are still sitting on my front porch.

She told me there should be no liquid. I'm puzzled because the vegetable scraps drain their liquid. This got her excited and all of a sudden she's talking about ammonia forming as white powder and having to throw everything including the worms. Well what should I do? She tells me there should be a lot of news paper in the bottom to absorb the liquid and some on top.

Feeling panicky about the compost I come home and dump in in to a huge stock pot. It was that moment I thought I was going to die. Huge globs or goo, rot, mold, slime and red wriggle worms plopped in the pot. A putrid aroma overwhelmed  the kitchen, living room and everywhere in my house. The smell was so crud my dog whimpered to be let outside and stood at our back door barking. Sonny is telling me Declan pooped until yelling at me to change his diaper. Declan is crying I NO POOPED! My head starts to hurt from tensing my face trying not to inhale through my nose.

I quickly shredded news paper and spooned the strewing compost back in to the container. Every window gets opened, air freshener sprayed like a fire extinguisher and candle lit.

Joey calmly looks at me and says. "Is that the smell of Karma?"

What a bad idea. Don't take compost out of it's container in your house EVER.

Your answer to the liquid in your composter question from where I sit in a nasty oder. Wait until the night before the trucks come to get your trash and dump it outside and start again. Use plenty of news paper before adding kitchen plant waste and worms.  Or if you have a bigger compost thing going on outside........add your bucket of oozing death and a layer of lawn clippings on top of it.

Learning to Compost

Who'd have thunk composting would be so complicated. Like everything else there are a million ways to achieve the same results. I suppose finding what works for you is the key.

I want to use compost for our family garden, but there are several different ways to compost. From composting kitchen scraps, doing it with worms, even using pet waste. I like the idea of composting with worms, but apparently not just any old garden variety night crawler will work. Different worms like to eat different things. The red wriggler seems to be the compost worm. You'll have to keep checking back for my progress, but I'm going to start on a much easier project and build up to worms.

I'm going to start with the kitchen compost method: a composting kit with a filter and activator and a canister under the sink with a tight lid. The tight lid is important as I can't imagine rotting food under my sink smelling that great.

Some of the composting methods I have found are not allowed in all cities. According to the California state website, some cities require compost to be covered. I have also read it can take up to a year for some of the methods to produce anything worth using.

From what I gather, you can compost only what came from a plant. Colored paper, inks and bacon grease will poison your compost. Weeds are iffy; they say weeds are OK before they seed. I however am not educated in weed seeds so I'll pass. Egg shells crushed and coffee grounds are OK. Pet waste should not be added to compost for your vegetable garden.

The methods all include layers. If it's a pile in the back yard, in a bin or a tumbler, they all say to start with a layer of twigs on the bottom. After you add household waste you should add a thin layer of yard clippings. Leaves are better if dried and crushed or added as a compost tea. Moisture is important. Most of the blogs/websites I read say rain will do the trick but to not let it get soggy. Covers on piles or containers will help keep in moisture. Occasionally this will also make the compost steam. This is good. It means the compost is doing what it should.

The preferred compost methods depend on the size of garden. The kitchen canister is good for apartments and smaller gardens. The three-sided, outside compost bin or pile is better for large gardens. For a medium sized garden, a tumbler or a bin with holes should do.

Compost can be done a couple of ways. Some people will aerate it by turning it once a month or every six months. Some do the lazy method and just let it sit. Some add chicken or livestock manure. No matter how hands-on you are at stirring your compost, it will happen, and it will not smell like rot but sweet and earthy. Only one blog mentions it can take up to a year before you will get anything usable.

I am excited to try. Come back later to learn about compost tea; I am still learning about that. I hear it's great for lawns and will help your soil restore to an organic condition in about three years.

Links I read for my info:
http://www.simplegiftsfarm.com/compost.html
http://eartheasy.com/grow_compost.html
http://www.composting101.com/what-to-use.html
http://www.composting101.com/compost-bins.html
http://www.composting101.com/worm-composting.html
http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/Organics/HomeCompost/#BinPile
http://www.ehow.com/how_3541_begin-compost-pile.html

My work to resolve the resolutions has begun.

I'm home. My back is a mess and I'm trying to keep my mind away from Facebook 24/7 and Who's baby is it anyway on daytime TV. (You pick the show)

The weather still isn't right for out door garden work but in side I can PLAN!!!!! Hooray for the Internet and a lovely man to bump ideas off of.


The list:

• corn
• bok choy
• strawberries
• sweet peas
• Japanese Eggplant
• pumpkins
• melon
• tomato
• squash
• Sunflowers( Hopefully to make a fort this year)

My backyard is an empty slate. When we rented the house 5 years ago it was nicely racked dirt. The rain bring lots of wild grass and my itch to grow. You may have seen my garden a few years ago. It was good but this year it will be AWESOME!!!! As I've done before I will keep you posted on our progress.

These are the first pictures of the awful truth we need to deal with before ugly is pretty. Currently it's fun. It has a ton of ladybugs and hours of fun catching them.

First part of the adventure this year is the compost.

About 3 months back I filled a huge 80 gallon bin with yard clippings. I am hoping to use this as a starting place for my compost. So far it is 12 inches shorter than it has been.

Craiglist.org will be my starting place for a composting drum that I can easily turn the decomposing clipping and eventually organic kitchen waste. Wish me luck!