Compost is King Pt.3.

After 100mm of rain and an arthritic ankle, I caught a break and got some work done on my compost.   

This is now the 3rd video in the Compost is King series.

Combining the two bins from the Pt.2. video.

Compost is King. Composting using the Gedye Bin system. Pt.2

 Pt.2 in the 'Compost is King' series. Composting using the Gedye Bin system

It's not all beer and skittles, there's some hard work involved, too.

Komposting with Gedye Kompost bins.

The beginning of a semi-regular series on how I use the Gedye compost bin system from Tumbleweed to produce all the Black Gold I possibly can.

Tumbleweed https://www.youtube.com/user/YourEarthMatters/feature

Great day to be out in the veggie garden.

Great day to be out in the veggie garden.

40kph winds, overcast with showers and drizzle.

Think I'll stay inside and do my online spring seed shopping.

But there's always compost kitchen scraps to empty into the compost bins.

What's happening in your veggie garden? Let me know in the comments, I've got all day to read them.🤭🤭🤭

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What goes into making compost. Gedye Compost Bins.

🍄 What goes into my Gedye compost bins and how I make compost.
🍄 It can be a little complicated but once you know what to look for this is a great way to produce compost for your veggie garden. 🍄 Tumbleweed Gedye Compost Bin https://products.tumbleweed.com.au/co... 🍄 Tumbleweed is a privately owned Australian company with a global presence. Our vision is to make a significant contribution to our earth’s environmental sustainability by designing and manufacturing innovative products that encourage consumers of all ages to reduce, re-use and recycle organic waste.🍄🍄

Saturday in the garden and compost.

A rundown of Saturday's jobs in the garden.

Like;

1. Rearrange the Compost Bins.
2. Water, water and water and then water some more.
3. Plant Lettuce.
4. Water.

ShareWaste

This interesting website/concept/app came into my awareness just the other day and I thought to myself, "what a terrific idea."

Below is a screenshot taken from the ShareWaste website explaining how it works.

Check them out and see what you think. ShareWaste

What do you think? Pretty neat, huh?

Mini Me

My 'mini me' version of a Charles Dowding no dig veggie gardening.

Though Charles has been at this for several decades I've only just discovered him via YouTube. I'm guessing at about the same time he also discovered YouTube and started posting videos of his no dig gardening approach.

I've also managed to sneak in a small experiment here too. Using two different brands of compost. one being Hortico Compost from Hortico, no less.

The other is Osmocote Professional Compost & Soil Improver from Scotts.



Cheers

Stewart.

Love to hear from you, leave a comment ot question below.

Charles Dowding, No Dig.

Hi all, who's seen this guy?



Since he popped up in my Youtube feed some months ago I've been slowly turning my garden around to a 'Charles Dowding' no dig garden.

I say slowly because it takes a while to produce enough compost to get started with his method. I have four Gedye compost bins full to the gunnels, I have my tractor tyres full and enough raw materials for another pile waiting for some spare space to put it all together.

The few small areas that I have managed to hobble together are encouraging and performing well.

I'm hoping this will help me get through our hot Summers which, with my red soil, dries out at the mere mention of a hot day.

If anyone else is using this method I'd like to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Cheers

Stewart.

Compost, Composted and Composting

Here's a couple of posts doing the rounds on Facebook and I thought how they go hand in hand.

I'm about to purchase my fourth Gedye compost bin so I don't need any convincing about the virtues  composting, it's getting enough materials and bins together where I struggle.

I've also rediscovered my enthusiasm for compost after watching a YouTube video on No-dig gardening by Charles Dowding. 




"It breaks our hearts to throw this much food away". Craig Reucassel visits a Banana Farm and discovers how much fruit is thrown away before it even hits the supermarkets. #WarOnWasteAU

Three bins is way better than two.

I bought myself a new Gedye compost bin cos I'm fed up with not having enough compost.

Came home from work and filled both the 400l compost bins with what I had so I now have 800l of green waste happily composting away.

I'll empty them out every two days and put it back in to keep good aeration in the bins and speed up decomposition.

The 220l bin is full of ready to use compost and I have a wheel barrow full as well.


Three bins is way better than two.

Cheers

Stewart.

Let there be compost.

And then there were three. Let there be compost.

I couldn't wait for next weekend to get here so I went and got my compost bin with a little (a lot) help from my friend Robbie. 

Cheers and here's to making more compost.

Stewart.

Gedye compost bin #3.

That's it, I can't take it any longer.

I'm fed up with not having enough compost.

So next weekend I'm going to buy Gedye compost bin #3.

Then I can have the 1st bin cooking, the 2nd bin brewing and the 3rd bin maturing.

I prefer making a big pile of compost and turning it regularly but I just don't have enough spare space to do this so a Gedye compost bin is the next best thing.

Cheers, still wishing for rain,

Stewart

My Veggie Garden Compost

I've got bugger all grass here at My Veggie Garden so the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Clover in this case, the neighbours, high in nitrogen clover and just what I needed for a good compost making session.

 Pinched the neighbors clover, added some prunings I mulched and a pile of horse manure and sawdust together and made a super pile of composting compost. 




Cheers, and I'm pooped now,

Stewart

Today/tomorrow

Stiff, sore and exhausted. Been digging and clearing all day so I can plant seeds all day tomorrow. 

After months and months of neglect it's starting to look like a backyard again.

Carrots, beans, tomato, spring onions, lettuce, basil and something else I can't remember right now all on the to plant list for tomorrow. Only managed to sow some Great Lakes lettuce today.

Still want to get a bed ready for some Sweet Corn so as soon as I get all those planted that will be priority #1. 

29° tomorrow and 33° on Wednesday, though, hot and dry too, not great seed planting weather.


 Damn the compost is full too. Need another Gedye Bin.

Anywho, 'till next time, happy gardening

Stewart.

On-site composting apparatus - Osca

Dear Santa, if you're listening, Santa, I may have found my Christmas present for this year. I promise to try very hard to be nice if you can get me one of these. I'll even pretend when I'm out driving my cab that all those people who say Australia is in a terrible state of affairs actually know what they're talking about if you like..

On-site composting apparatus - Osca

Osca is an automated on-site composting apparatus. It is the first of its kind designed and made in Australia.
Osca currently can handle waste streams of up to 1 and 2 tons of waste per week using little more energy than it takes to run a light-bulb. Osca is an aerobic composterer which produces safe high quality compost (meets Australian Standards). Osca is easy to use; waste is continuously loaded in one end and finished compost is ejected from the other end after a period of around two weeks. Osca is silent in operation and odourless.

 You can read all the details here if you like.

Cool huh? Anyone else want one? Maybe we can get a bulk purchase deal ;)

Cheers

Stewart...

Brown Beauty beans

 The Brown Beauty beans I planted in October have sprouted but I've found due to the heavy rains we've had a lot of the conditioning of my soil has been leached away and I needed to replenish it. This I've done by topping up with a side dressing of bean friendly compost. 

The soil had also crusted and become water repellent so the compost will help alleviate this problem too.

Just scattered around on the top soil and forked in with a hand trowel.

And water in well.

I'll head back up later this arvo when it's a bit cooler and water again as well as laying down some straw mulch and I should have some happy beans very soon.

It should also be a good time to start prep on the next sq. mtr patch for the next lot of beans.

It's now or next year!

Yep it's now or next year if you want to plant, from sown seed, watermelons and or for that matter, cucumber and pumpkins and rock melons and you know, all those creepy climby, viney things. You can still leave it for a month or so if you buy seedlings from your nursery, but if you are sowing your own seed you really need to get them in now.

They take about 70 to 80 days to produce fruit and need the heat of summer to produce good growth. If you move into autumn (this would probably exclude the sub-tropics and the tropics where they could be grown much later into the season) and get a early cold snap you probably won't get any edible fruit.

I grow the 'sugarbaby' watermelon here because of the limited space I have in my backyard but I also have a few planted down at the community gardens.

For soil prep I use one ten litre bucket of compost, one ten litre bucket of aged cow manure, a hand full of blood and bone and a small hand of sulphate of potash. I'll also apply another small hand of potash when the vines start to flower to help with fruit set and development. Creating a raised mound in the process into which I plant my seeds.

After planting four of five seeds into each of the raised mound/s at about fifteen to twenty millimeters deep I then water them well and keep them moist untill germination takes place.

Keep them well watered for the first 3/4 weeks then water as necessary. When the fruit is ripening back off all the watering as extra water at this stage will dilute the sugars and therefore the flavor.

Good luck if you plant some,
Cheers for now,
Stewart

Two and a bit weeks later.

Drunken Women post, 1st may 2009

Hi all, remember these guys.

The experiment using potting mix and different organic soil enrichment substances (fertiliser) I have around the place.







Well this is two and a bit weeks later.
(you really need to click on the photo to get a better idea of their growth)

From left to right is (as stated on the drunken woman post)
1. A mix of all
2. Half compost and potting mix.
3. Potting mix with two hand fulls of cow manure
4. Potting mix with a half a hand full of rooster booster fertiliser
5. Straight potting mix.


So far it's an even race between #1 and #4 and if you have ever wondered why your plants don't perform when planted into potting mix then just have a look at the lettuce in pots #5 to see why.

From what I can gather they are pretty gutless.
Only the potting mixes with some extras added perform.

I have to say I'm surprised with the growth rate from the pots with Rooster Booster in and had assumed the ones with compost would have done the best.
I also expected more from the cow manure pots, but I know that when I use it in the general garden areas it is a terrific soil conditioner, feeding the worms and helping to retain moisture in the soil.

From here it will be a test to see which one can or does maintain their fertility and growth.

Cheers and happy veggie gardening,
Stewart.

Talk about spoilt!

These are my Cabbage, Lettuce and Turnip that are about half grown and I decided to give them a treat. My Beetroot and Brussels also got the same treat.



First I added a light side dressing of blood and bone at about a hand full per sq/mtr.














































Then a side dressing of compost. I used about a bucket per sq/mtr































And then I covered it all over with my mulched prunings, again about a bucket per sq/mtr.