For the next growing season I want to 1) stop relying exclusively on store bought soil and 2) stop wasting all my food scraps. I’ve started looking into vermiculture (and in particular a multi-tray DIY-solution), and I am currently looking for some good resources (books, in-depth article or video series or online courses) that can help me learn, and I was hoping that people here would like to share some resources they have found to help them on their journey to become composting masters.
I don’t only want to understand how to do this in practice, but also how any choices along the way impact soil quality and how to ensure I have soil of good quality for my home garden. So I appreciate any pointers to more general soil-related resources.
I’m super lazy when it comes to compost. There’s a few things that I do depending on the time of year. Also, I’m only composting plant matter. Any meat or bones that my parents eat usually gets sent to the city compost.
In the winter I usually cover my garden beds with fallen leaves. I’ll dig up a small area, chuck a bowl of food waste in that area and cover it up with leaves again. When it gets warm in the spring, the leaves and food waste break down really quickly.
In the spring I sort of scatter the food waste on top of the soil because I’m lazy. If nothing is planted, I might dig up a hole and bury the food waste there.
If the garden is established, I’ll have a few dumping spots in the garden and rotate between each spots so they have a chance to break down. I’ll also put layers of garden trimmings on top so the food waste is covered and broken down a little quicker, or so it seems to me.
I haven’t had any issues with smells or wild animals, yet. Between that and the free mushroom mulch substrate from the mushroom farm, my gardens do quite well each year.
I’m super lazy when it comes to compost. There’s a few things that I do depending on the time of year. Also, I’m only composting plant matter. Any meat or bones that my parents eat usually gets sent to the city compost.
Plant matter only here as well. I have access to two places where I can start composting: very small scale on an apartment balcony (where I would want to try vermicomposting), and a house with some more outdoor space, but no traditional garden (it’s got a slanted area with vegetation that is planned to gradually become some terraced beds).
If the garden is established, I’ll have a few dumping spots in the garden and rotate between each spots so they have a chance to break down. I’ll also put layers of garden trimmings on top so the food waste is covered and broken down a little quicker, or so it seems to me.
So you basically get a full batch of good compost from each of these dumping spots? How long would you say it typically takes from you deposit til you can use the compost?
Ah yeah. It occured to me afterwards that composting for an apartment or balcony would be a lot different.
I’m not too sure what would be a full batch. It’s only been a few years and each year is a little different. What I have noticed is that whatever is growing around those dumping spots tend to grow way more compared to other areas.
For example one dumping spot was surrounded by tomato and cucumber plants. I struggled to keep those plants trimmed and at a reasonable size. I’m assuming the roots of those plants grew in the direction of all that constant, fresh compost.
I’ll probably give the top layer of soil a good mixing next spring to spread out the compost. I’m trying to work towards a no till or minimal tilling for my gardens so I’m still experimenting and observing. I’m also trying to find a way to do this all with as few tools or products as possible while keeping it as local as possible.