Compost

I’ve had my current wormery for over a year now, and I think I have finally ironed out all the various death traps inherent in the system.  I used to murder the entire population once every six months or so, but now I think I’ve finally worked out how to avoid drowning, frying or starving them to death.  Hurrah!  The problem is that I still have too much stuff to put in there.  Kitchen waste is fine, but grass clippings and bits of shrubs and a particularly vigorous bay tree are never going to be processed in what is really quite a delicate ecosystem.

So, I’ve now set up with a compost bin.  It’s constructed from slats of wood which fit together in a cube shape, so that the whole thing is aerated and open to the elements.  I haven’t been following any of the advice I’ve read about compost over the years, layering, turning etc… but I have been watering it as I suspect that will help the process.  Apparently this is the ‘cold heap’ method, although I haven’t been breaking all the woody stuff down into small bits, which would probably have helped.

The problem is that I don’t really see how I’m going to get the compost out of it once it’s ready.  Turning the whole thing over with a fork seems to me to be nigh on impossible, and there’s no opening at the bottom to allow me to get to the lower reaches of the bin.  Is there any hope, or will I need to buy a different sort of composter?

Book review: The London Gardener

The London Gardener: Guide and Sourcebook

There is something very exciting about London gardens and London gardening.  The gardening tends to be on a fairly small scale, unless you are really lucky, space being at a premium.  Many Londoners seem to start with a window box and once bitten by the gardening bug are forever moving in search of bigger and more flexible spaces to fill with fruit, veg and flowers.  As a garden fan, there is so much out there, hidden away in nooks and crannies around the city, but it is difficult to know where to find them.

Elspeth Thompson has compiled a fantastic book offering a wealth of inside knowledge for gardeners around the capital.  The London Gardener discusses the challenges of London gardening and points out some excellent urban gardens, from squares and churchyards to ’secret’ gardens and parks.  The book ends with an really useful sourcebook with details of nurseries, garden centres, specialist shops, societies, designers, courses and even tree surgeons.  This isn’t just a big cluttered list, but like a section of Thompson’s personal black book of gardening, a real treat in which she explains a little about what can be found from each listed service.

It was last revised in 2006, so some of the information may be out of date.  The price of entry to the Chelsea Physic Garden is listed as £3 but it is now £8, so be warned!  Even so, this is definitely worth getting hold of if you can, for the sourcebook, and the great info on ‘proper’ London gardens which you can take your friends to and pretend you found yourself.

Ecoworrier 2 – Bokashi

A while ago I wrote a post about Bokashi, a system of pre-composting in which you add specially treated bran to your kitchen waste so that it will all break down more quickly.

After a dedicated 6 months worth of experimentation, I have two main findings.

The first is that it works, which is great news.  You can more or less Bokashi anything that has lived – meat, fish, tea bags, vegetable scraps, the lot.  It all breaks down quickly in the bin, then degenerates into the black gold that is home-made compost when you tip it onto the heap.  So far, so good.

Incidentally, you do have to follow the instructions.  Don’t skimp on the proper bins, because it’s supposed to be an anaerobic process so you need a tight fitting lid.  Believe the bit about how it won’t work with citrus peel or onion skins.  I was bunging them in anyway for a while, but they resolutely refused to play, so ultimately they bypassed the Bokashi and went straight on the compost heap.

The second finding is that it is rather a gungy process.  The bin smells of sweet vinegar which permeates the kitchen and a lot of liquid is produced.  You can tap this off and use it for house plants, which sounds fabulous when you first read it, one of those lovely permaculturist ‘everybody wins’ situations.  However it’s highly unlikely you have enough plants in your house to benefit from all this liquid, bearing in mind you have to dilute it with 99 parts water.  The inevitable result is that you don’t tap the liquid off nearly often enough.  The inevitable result of this, is that you end up with your carefully layered Bokashi marinading in its own juices, and consequently you don’t empty it very often.  Frankly, you’d rather spend half an hour practising self-dentistry with a pair of rusty pliers  (or watch Britain’s got talent) than heave a gigantic bran lasagne out of a bucket, dripping vinegary slime onto your slippers whilst the neighbours gawk at you from first floor windows with utter incredulity.  Again.

Perhaps I wasn’t using enough bran, but the fact that you have to buy it in the first place seems to me rather unfair.  If I chuck my rubbish straight into landfill it costs me nothing.  If I make an effort to save a cubic foot of Chinese dirt being flung into obscurity so that a black plastic bag of mine can putrefy in its place for a few millennia, I end up ankle deep in nausea-inducing bransagne.  And I’ve paid 8 quid for the privilege.

In conclusion, I’ve gone back to good old composting.  I suspect that if you have to buy some kind of gadget/stuff at great expense in pursuit of greeness, it probably ain’t worth it.

Update!

Er… not doing very well on the blogging front this year.  Sorry.  For those of you who are bored of the Eco Kettle rant, here is a picture of Wilb guarding this year’s crop!  Tomatoes, raspberries, strawberries and a stray potato which must be from last year.  I predict more frequent posts after May.  Hope you’re all well.

Ecoworrier – Kettle

Me (washing up):  So, I thought we could get a new kettle.

Him Indoors (reading paper on sofa):  Mmm Hmm

Me:  It’s this new ecokettle?

HI:  Hmm

Me:  And it only boils the amount of water you need?

HI:  Mmm

Me:  Which is more environmentally friendly?

HI:

Me:  Thing is, they’re £34 and we don’t really need a new…

HI:  What?? (Newspaper crashes to floor, sofa rebounds to full height with a thunk of weary springs. Wilb exits at full gallop, stage left.)

Me:  Well we don’t really need a new kettle, so it’s quite expensive.

HI:  £34??!

Me:  Yees.

HI:  What does it do?

Me:  It only boils the amount of water you…

HI:  Well just put less in the kettle!

Conversation over.  And he makes a good point.  The ecokettle’s major selling point is that it can boil “Exactly The Right Amount Of Water Every Time You Boil!”  Which is fabulous, but I concede that I could just remember not to fill the thing up to flooding point every time I fancy a coffee.

Him Indoors looks smug.  He always looks smug when he’s successfully pointed out another example of my whimsical ludicrousness.  So, quite a bit then.  Crisis averted, he returns to his sofa.  I gaze out of the window, wondering whether being green is more exciting if it involves spending money I don’t really have.  Well isn’t everything?