Compost

I’ve kind of run out of places to put my compost. Looking around for more vessels I can recycle into containers so I can plant more stuff. And I’ll ask my neighbors if they can use any.

In the meantime, the composting thing has been completely satisfying. And I did find some bran so I can mix up my own microorganismic mash.

is in the can! now need to give the stuff time to do its thing.

I feel like I’m composting more food/organic matter than I’m consuming. that’s something to work on (by eating the rinds of melons and citrus? I don’t think so).

Need to find someone who needs my compost :)

(maggots?) are freaky and were found to be cavorting in the compost container outside when I turned it. Most online advisors say don’t worry about it, they’ll do no harm. Others say get rid of them – by various means.

I stirred the whole thing as much as I could before being too grossed out and now I’m going to leave them alone and hope for the best.

so batch one is sitting out back, almost completely broken down. starting to add it to my containers today.

batch two is sitting in the bokashi and just started draining juice this morning. so maybe this compost thing is a sustainable practice…

still in search of largish quanitities of bran so I can mix my own microorganismic mash.

to mix the bokashi myself (instead of importing from texas, which seems just – silly).

Turned the buried bokashi and it’s breaking down. Hopefully it’ll be ready to add to pots and plant some more veggies in this weekend.

the pickled compost is now sitting under the soil hopefully undergoing transformation. patience patience…while I wait for its next phase and browse seed catalogs and the Square Foot Garden book feeling grateful that here in SoCal I think I can grow stuff almost all year round.

that composting is one of the most satisfying things I’m doing right now. Which probably says something about a kind of malaise I’m going through – but also something about how incredibly satisfying it actually is – to save up the waste and turn it into usefulness.

I’m going out of town for about three weeks and my major concern now is… can my bf be relied upon to juice my bokashi (bokashi.com.au) when I’m gone? It’s the perfect amount of time for the stuff to sit, and when I return it should be ripe for burying. But apparently if you don’t drain the liquid every couple of days the whole thing is in jeopardy.

I should be worrying about watering the plants as well, but for some reason it’s the compost that’s furrowing the brow. Must start habituating him soon.

so apparently the micro-organisms are working away. after nearly three weeks my composter is about 1/2 full (I keep squishing it down, as the bokashi folks recommend). one of the features of the bokashi composter: the spout for draining the liquid generated during the fermentation process.

until yesterday, when I turned the spout – nothing came out. what could be happening in that dark anaerobic place? I wondered. then yesterday evening – about a teaspoon of a brown slightly viscous, but not grossly so, substance emerged. Juice!

Apparently it’s good for (after diluting) fertilizing plants and (undiluted) cleaning algae from the drains. I dumped it in the sink, feeling happy.

got a bokashi composter for my b-day and I’m filling it up. hope to find ways to use it for a porch garden which I can start when I come home from summer travels. (having a hard time being patient tho)