Go Food Gardening

Setting Up Your Compost Bin

A compost bin or heap is an essential part of any sustainable food garden. First look at the different options available from garden centres and hardware stores. If they don't suit your pocket use your imagination to make your own from scrap materials.

• Stout wire mesh, such as chicken or bird wire, can be made into a cylinder and lined with 80% shade cloth or with an old carpet.
• Old doors, corrugated iron sheeting and all manner of discarded panels can be used to make simple containers.
• You can construct bins from precast concrete walling panels and make a front section of sliding wooden planks.
• If you are in a rural area you can make a bin with hay bales. It is insulating and works like a charm. You eventually use the hay as 'brown' material.
• The simplest is just a pile on the ground, covered with 80% shade cloth folded double, or weed guard sheeting.

Find a shady spot, on top of soil, not paving, for your bin. It will dry out too quickly in full sun and you want earthworms and other beneficial organisms to move freely between your compost and the soil underneath.

Loosen the soil where it will stand. Then add a handful or two of special composting earthworms to the soil. You'll find composting earthworms at the garden centre, or ask around. Someone will know where you can get some. Also try angling shops, they sell them as bait.

Four Compost Making Requirements

When making compost there are four basic requirements, and since these four requirements apply to pretty much every life form on the planet, including us humans, they shouldn't be too hard to remember.

Our aim when constructing a compost heap is creating the right environment for the billions of organisms that make the compost happen.

The first requirement is air. A happy compost heap will have a balance of air and water, just like a squeezed out sponge: the whole surface area is coated in water, but there are air spaces in between. There will also be good airflow in a happy compost heap. This is why compost bins always have holes for air circulation.

When adding material to the compost bin we need to keep this air-water balance in mind. The micro-organisms that we want to dominate the compost bin are all aerobic (with-air) organisms.

As indicated above the next requirement is water. Aerobic organisms also need water to live.

Next is food. We all know the importance of a balanced diet, and the same principle is true for a compost bin. We need a balance between 'greens' and 'browns'

And the last requirement is warmth. The right balance of materials provides the perfect environment for an explosion of microbial populations. Colonies of bacteria can double every hour as long as there is enough warmth.
This is why compost bins often start rotting during the cooler months. Because they are small, they lose heat, and without heat to drive off moisture they tend to get over-wet.

What are you doing to create the ideal environment for micro-organisms in your compost heap?

Start Growing Compost Crops

Growing a variety of crops specifically for compost making ensures a good supply of green material and it provides a diverse diet for the microorganisms in the compost pile.

If you have limited space you can grow these crops in between ornamentals or you can grow them in the food garden during the cooler months. In larger food gardens we devote specific beds to year round compost crop production.

When sowing the crops you can mix the seeds that go into the bed and you don’t need to worry too much about spacing. Most food gardeners mix the seeds beforehand and then broadcast sow them into the beds.

A good mix during autumn and winter is fava beans (a.k.a. broad beans or ‘boer bone’), peas and herbs such as borage and rocket. In large gardens wheat can be added to the mix. All these crops are very good energy-traps (they produce lots of compost material) without taking too much from the soil. You’ll find seeds at the agricultural co-op.

Compost crops will need to be ‘harvested’ whenever they reach a height of 30cm to 45cm. Do not pull out the crops, cut them about 10cm from soil level. Never allow your compost crops to flower and set seed as this will take too much nutrients from the soil, and it may cause one or more crops to become ‘weeds’.

Blue Cheese Pork Fillet

In today’s recipe from The Seasoned Chef the herb flavours enhance the pork whilst the blue cheese adds an unexpected dimension. Do not make this recipe with dried herbs as it will ruin the dish.

Serves 6

1 pork fillet, about 1 kg
1 tsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, sliced
2 sprigs rosemary, broken into pieces
4 sage leaves, roughly chopped
½ cup blue cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Place fillet in a baking pan. Brush with oil. Sprinkle garlic, rosemary and sage over top. Press lightly into meat. Roast about 1 1/2 hours or until desired doneness is reached. Remove to serving platter. Scatter cheese over fillet and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes before carving.

How Nature Composts

The way nature composts is by laying down leaves and other debris in the form of a mulch. In time this breaks down and becomes food for the earthworms and other soil organisms. The mulch also holds moisture in the soil, prevents erosion, and shelters the soil from the drying effects of sun and wind.

Autumn and winter is a great time to mimic nature by covering all bare areas in your garden with a 5 to 10cm layer of mulching material. That includes bare soil pathways. Start with what is available in your garden: fallen leaves, grass clippings and comfrey leaves. You can even use newspaper. If you collect material from a few non-composting neighbours as well you'll never need to spend a penny on mulching material. And you'll be building your soil the way nature does.

Composting Systems

The best ‘green’ thing you can do in your food garden is developing your own composting system.

In a nutshell, compost has a dual function. It improves the structure of the soil – which means the soil will be easier to work, will have good aeration and water retention, and will be resistant to erosion. Compost also provides nutrients for plant growth and soil life, and its organic acids make nutrients in the soil more available to plants.

“Whatever type of soil you have, compost will improve it. I’ve heard people talk about how compost is only a ‘soil conditioner’, as though somehow this was not really important. I think they mean that compost does not add much in the way of nutrients to the soil, but this is not the point. Soil conditioning really means adding humus to the soil. Humus is stable organic matter in the soil and it acts like ‘glue’, holding on to nutrients and water. In effect humus adds life back to the soil: doing this is the most important thing we can do for the soil and it’s ridiculously easy.” – Nicky Scott, author of How To Make Compost, The Ultimate Guide

Five important benefits of adding compost to your soil are:

• Compost feeds your soil, which feeds your plants.
• Compost adds life in the form of microorganisms.
• Compost improves the physical structure of the soil.
• Compost reduces the need for fertilizers.
• Compost reduces the need for pesticides. (Healthier plants means there is less need for pesticides.)

This is a good time of the year to re-assess your composting system. What are you doing to enrich your soil?

Successful food gardeners use a combination of the following: bokhasi bins, worm farms, compost bins, compost heaps, manure, compost crops and green manures. How many of these are you using? How many of them have you mastered?

Mint or Coriander Chutney

This is a great variation on the normal chutney recipes. Add or omit chilli peppers to taste.

1 cup mint or coriander, finely chopped
4 small onions, finely chopped
1 jalapeno, deseeded, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp garam masala
4 Tbs lemon juice
2 Tbs water
Salt to taste

Combine all the ingredients in a blender until smooth. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours before serving to allow the flavours to develop.

Food Gardening Guide - Week 13/2012

To understand the thinking behind this guide and to discover how to set-up and manage an abundant organic food garden, enrol in the Go Food Gardening e-Class.

Weather permitting, and where possible, I try to garden by the moon. The days indicated with some activities are therefore the best moon gardening days.

Digging

• Prepare beds for planting using 'subsequent bed preparation' technique. Best days: Mon.

Planting Activities

• Sow leaf crops: celery, cress & mustards, kohlrabi, lettuce, marogo, Oriental cabbages, spinach and Swiss chard. Best days: Mon - Tue.

Growing Activities

• Do your daily observations. First note the general appearance of crops, and then start looking at detail. Note any pests and tasks such as watering, thinning and weeding that needs to be done.
• Water when needed.
• Fertilize. Check condition of heavy feeders and fertilize them if needed with a good quality, water soluble, organic fertilizer. Best days: Fri - Sat.

Harvesting Activities

• Daily Needs. Harvest daily for the table as needed.
• Harvest for storage (those crops that store well). Best days: Wed - Thu.

Composting and Mulching

• Sow green manures and compost crops. Best days: Mon - Tue.
  Make compost and mulch beds. Best days: Mon - Tue; Fri - Sat.

Recipe: Tarragon Beetroot

The liquorice flavour of fresh tarragon and the earthy flavour of freshly harvested beetroot is a match made in heaven. When you don’t have tarragon use dill or chervil.

Peel hot, cooked beetroot and serve immediately tossed in the dressing:

1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs soft butter
1 – 2 Tbs finely chopped fresh tarragon
1 tsp sugar
vinegar to taste

Food Gardening Guide - Week 11/2012

To understand the thinking behind this guide and to discover how to set-up and manage an abundant organic food garden, enrol in the Go Food Gardening e-Class.

Weather permitting, and where possible, I try to garden by the moon. The days indicated with some activities are therefore the best moon gardening days.

Planting Activities

• Start sowing peas. Best days: Mon.
• Sow root crops: beetroot, carrots, radish and turnips. Best days: Mon, Fri & Sat.
• Sow legumes: broad beans. Best days: Mon.
• Sow/plant bulb crops: chives and garlic chives, garlic, leeks, onions. Best days: Mon, Fri& Sat.
• Plant chilli peppers. Best days: Tue - Thu.
• Sow or plant flowering annuals. Best days: Fri & Sat.
• Take cuttings of perennial herbs. Best days: Mon.
• Repot pot-bound herbs. Best days: Mon.

Growing Activities

• Do your daily observations. First note the general appearance of crops, and then start looking at detail.
• Note any pests and tasks such as watering, thinning and weeding that needs to be done.
• Water daily if needed. Best days: Mon.
• Weeding. Best days: Fri - Sun.
• Trim plants where needed to increase their growth. Best days: Tue - Thu.
• Pests and Diseases. Best days for control measures: Fri - Sun.

Harvesting Activities

• Daily Needs. Harvest daily for the table as needed.
• Harvest for storage (those crops that store well). Best days: Tue - Thu.

Composting and Mulching

• Make compost and mulch beds. Best days: Fri - Sat.