Home » Posts tagged 'compost'
Tag Archives: compost
Greywater revisited
Greywater revisited Years ago I wrote about the sustainable greywater I installed in Cooran. It was always my intention to do this again, even though such systems, as sustainable as they are, are no longer ‘legal’. I couldn’t give a you know what anymore, the way things are panning out nobody else will either soon….. I actually […]
Towards a landscape diet and communal landscape management
Towards a landscape diet and communal landscape management Lately I have read two articles which both claim that small scale farming is (self)exploitive and that even with direct marketing such as farmers markets, there is no profit, hardly even survival. What nobody told me about small farming: I can’t make a living, by Jaclyn Moyer […]
The world-changing potential of hot composting
The world-changing potential of hot composting As long as there have been humans, we have taken the parts of plants we don’t eat and thrown them back onto the soil again, knowing it would turn back into soil to create more plants. Until we modern people came along, that is. Now we take our food […]
Is a key ingredient humans need to live about to run short?
Is a key ingredient humans need to live about to run short? Phosphorus is essential for all living organisms. So, it’s not surprising that humans get their phosphorus from other living organisms, mostly plants, that have absorbed phosphorus from the soil. The introduction of phosphate fertilizers made it possible to ensure that enough phosphorus for […]
A Homemade Vegan Version of Natural & Organic Fertilizer
A HOMEMADE VEGAN VERSION OF NATURAL & ORGANIC FERTILIZER Last year I worked a couple of gardens with a friend/boss, Buck, who has been cultivating these spaces for decades. Though some of his techniques don’t jive with my permaculture sensibilities, such as tilling every year and walking in garden beds, on many things we were […]
Turn Trash Into Treasure: The Easy Way To Make A Compost Pile Or Bin
Turn Trash Into Treasure: The Easy Way To Make A Compost Pile Or Bin Composting not only reduces trash in landfills but also improves your backyard at home. Your garden will produce healthier vegetables and more beautiful flowers with just the addition of a compost pile. Composting doesn’t have to be difficult and although it […]
How to Make Your Garden Have Less Weeds?
HOW TO MAKE YOUR GARDEN HAVE LESS WEEDS? In crop gardens, we sometimes get into a spatial race with weeds, and the solution is to replace the weeds with “designed weeds” to take up the space. This can be done with green manure mulches to fertilize the gardens and supply quality mulch. This is an […]
Humanure Part 2: Dealing With It
HUMANURE PART 2: DEALING WITH IT In part 1(1) of this article I explored a little into why humanure is beneficial to the planet, including the need to replenish our aquifers and for people to have access to safe drinking water, the high phosphorous content of human poo compared to the finite and dwindling supply […]
Reduce Waste: How To Make The Most Of Your Autumn Leaves
Reduce Waste: How To Make The Most Of Your Autumn Leaves The end of the summer garden is always bittersweet for me. I miss my daily fresh cut lettuce but I also love the falling leaves and bright reds and oranges of autumn. Luckily, those fallen leaves are more than just pleasing to look at. […]
How to Make Instant Garden Beds
HOW TO MAKE INSTANT GARDEN BEDS A common problem when just starting a garden is dealing with the fact that we’ve not had time to condition the soil, fostering it into something heaving with fertility. Or, maybe we just aren’t that far into gardening yet anyway and don’t know what to do. Basically, it seems […]
Common Composting Problems and Solutions for the Beginning Composter
COMMON COMPOSTING PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS FOR THE BEGINNING COMPOSTER Composting is standard practice on any permaculture site. This is the case for several reasons. It creates a closed waste cycle between vegetable scraps and vegetable production, often with the added bonus (an in-between stop) of animal fodder. It helps to rebuild or maintain healthy, balanced […]
Manure: An Overview of This Shi…ning Addition to the Garden
MANURE: AN OVERVIEW OF THIS SHI…NING ADDITION TO THE GARDEN Organic gardens really benefit from manure, and that is no mystery. However, it’s important to be aware of what kind of manure is at your disposal because they are not all equally desirable. Some manures, dare we say, are choice garden additions, while others take […]
Save Our Soils
SAVE OUR SOILS All terrestrial life depends on soil, directly or indirectly. Although our understanding of topsoil has grown by leaps and bounds over the past decades, we are still losing this invaluable resource at a frightening pace. Less than thirty per cent of the world’s topsoil remains in fair or acceptable condition. The fragility […]
Compost Worm Experiment
COMPOST WORM EXPERIMENT Every three weeks we have access to 80 to 100 kg of insect castings. These castings are from Meal worms, Cockroaches and Crickets. The waste is manure and leftover feed which is pollard and similar products. We use the waste in different ways and as the material is very high in nitrogen […]
How to Build a Compost Tea Brewer and Brew Tea
Compost Tea Brewing How to Build a Compost Tea Brewer and Brew Tea I had a free 55 gallon barrel that I decided to turn into a compost tea brewer. Compost tea is a great way to magnify your compost by breeding the beneficial microorganisms and spraying them on your plants. Plants sprayed with high […]
