What is it? Well, bokashi is a great way of composting food, especially if you want to keep that bucket of compost in your kitchen from stinking.
You put your kitchen scraps into an air tight container and sprinkle some bran onto the scraps. The bran has had good microbes embedded into it which ferment the scraps. A couple of weeks after the container has been filled, you can dig the contents into the ground and they are well on their way to being broken down. This makes for a quick decomposition in the ground and a rich area in your garden.
30 March, 2009
21 March, 2009
Soil Preparation
This week turned out to be a week of soil preparation (and not so much garlic planting).
Having started with pretty typical acidic Australia soil, I've been put a moderate amount of lime onto the beds each Spring and Autumn. This is gradually bringing the acidity levels down and thus making the soil better able to store and release nutrients.
Rather than adding a large amount in one go, I've been spinning it out over several seasons to allow the soil to adjust and develop more gradually. After this addition, i'm expecting that I'll only need to add a small "maintenance" amount each year. The difference in growth has been noticeable this year as we've crossed a threshold!
We also built a compost heap which we'll use in spring. According to biodynamic practices, the first six weeks, when the compost should get hot, is the break down stage. The following few months, which is often left out, is the building back up stage. It is during this second stage that additional goodies are developed in the compost heap.
Having started with pretty typical acidic Australia soil, I've been put a moderate amount of lime onto the beds each Spring and Autumn. This is gradually bringing the acidity levels down and thus making the soil better able to store and release nutrients.
Rather than adding a large amount in one go, I've been spinning it out over several seasons to allow the soil to adjust and develop more gradually. After this addition, i'm expecting that I'll only need to add a small "maintenance" amount each year. The difference in growth has been noticeable this year as we've crossed a threshold!
We also built a compost heap which we'll use in spring. According to biodynamic practices, the first six weeks, when the compost should get hot, is the break down stage. The following few months, which is often left out, is the building back up stage. It is during this second stage that additional goodies are developed in the compost heap.
13 March, 2009
Gorgeous Garlic
It doesn't seem like long ago that we pulled up last season's garlic crop and now it's time to plant again. I saved 3kg of the best and juiciest garlic from the last crop to plant this year. We'll be planting on Tuesday, so if you'd like to be involved then get in touch... we'd love to have you there.Cold weather seems to develop the flavour and texture of the garlic, which is just as well as we won't be harvesting this crop until November. And the garlic will see quite a few days of frost between now and then.
Hopefully the vampire population won't have built up too much before the end of the year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)