Recently in Composting Category

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Update 23 Aug, 1715. Most problems fixed now except that the forum is not working as it appears not to be supported by the new version of the software.

I just do not understand why journalists confuse manure and compost or even worse think they are the same. I have seen it time and time again over the years. Yesterday The Guardian ran a follow up piece on the contaminated manure fiasco which surfaced in the national press a few weeks back. The headline was "The question is the compost crisis over?" In the paper edition there was a picture at the top of the column showing worms in compost and in the online version it was someone emptying kitchen waste onto a compost pile.

If any journalist out there is interested in getting their facts right for once, I will happily show them the difference between manure (animal faeces) and compost (rotting vegetable waste.)

I have long thought that every school should have a food garden. Kids need to know where food comes from. Yesterday a local(ish) school had an open day. The Spire Junior and Infants School in Chesterfield is well know for its gardens and has won several awards. My interest was in the food garden and it is very impressive. This shows just what can be done and should be an inspiration to other schools to have a go.

Click on an image to enlarge

Each class has a Square Foot bed                                        The beds are thriving!











Squash in a compost bin                                                                    Red currants

I was surprised to see many ripe strawberries and currants, I hope the gardeners get to sample them! I know I would not have been able to resist at that age.

I have been looking at composters for a way to compost kitchen waste. There are several around including some that cost over £400! The I found this on YouTube. I have 3 of the plastic barrels used in the film... Have a look at TheUrbanHomesteaders on YouTube, there are loads more videos from this young US couple.

One of the problems of organic gardening is maintaining soil fertility. In a new garden the first year or two are fine, any natural fertility in the soil gives good crops but in successive years yields will decrease if active steps to build and maintain fertility are not taken.

There are the usual ways of managing soil fertility; using garden compost, farmyard manure, green manures, crop rotation etc. A more unusual method is to use 'humanure', yes, human manure. It is the ultimate recycling of nutrients.

A couple years back I picked up the book The Humanure Handbook by Joeseph Jenkins. He describes how he has used human manure for many years. There are plans for sawdust toilets and good instructions about how to safely use human manure.



For many this will be step too far! Before you dismiss the idea think about it. We happily use cow, horse and for me Alpaca manure since I won 5 bags full in the local gardening club raffle! So, what is the big deal with our own manure? In the past I have mentioned the subject of using urine as a compost accelerator and for deterring cats. One comment implied that it was dangerous to handle as it was full of nasty germs. My response was that if my urine was full of germs I would need to see a doctor immediately as I would probably feel very unwell.

Joeseph Jenkins is aware that there are risks, as with any manure, but is very clear that he has been using humanure on food crops without any problems at all. In a previous post I mentioned some outstanding projects that needed finishing off. The sawdust toilet is complete and ready for use. The shed to contain it is nearly done and we are almost ready to start the experiment! Photos to follow.

There is nothing much to do in the garden now apart from harvesting and weeding; so, it's time to resurrect some half forgotten projects.

One thing I have been meaning to do for a couple of years is to install a composting toilet. We need one as it is not really polite to ask volunteers and visitors to use the bucket behind the shed! I bought a copy of The Humanure Handbook by Joeseph Jenkins a couple of years ago. There are some plans in the book showing how to build a sawdust toilet. It seems quite straightforward especially as the local DIY store will cut the timber to size. Watch this space, I'll tell you how it goes!

The other urgent job is to complete the solar powered irrigation system. I have the solar power, the water and the pumps; it just needs connecting up. There are 4, 1000 ltr pallet cage tanks and 3, 30ltr rain water tanks. That will provide around 1750 liters. With some rain in summer there should be enough to keep the garden watered. The tanks are filled using another pump from water that appears at the bottom of the garden when it rains.

The other thing I have been thinking about is a solar food dryer. I want to preserve food but not rely on a freezer. The design comes from the US and I am not sure how well it would work in UK summers. This year it would have been a solar powered freezer! I'll maybe leave that idea for a while and see how things go.

One of the main problems of growing food in cities is soil fertility. Being truly sustainable means not importing anything into the garden i.e. everything required to produce food should be available on the plot. That is very difficult as Marc Boucher-Colbert, the gardener at the Rocket rooftop garden has found.

To find real sustainable food production go back to nineteenth century mixed farms. The stock, usually cattle, produced manure which was used to fertilise fields for cereals and other crops. By modern standards yields were low but the system worked well; a self-sufficient balance existed until the development of artificial fertilisers.

There are ways of producing plant nutrients on a small scale e.g. making comfrey juice and other plant based feeds.  A gardener can be almost fertiliser self-sufficient but there will always be a need for small amounts of supplements. Plant derived feeds rely of taking nutrients out of soil with the gardener converting them into a form that other plants can use. The supplies of nutrients in soil is finite and sooner or later the soil will become depleted and yields will fall.

Organic gardeners will tell you that compost is the only way to keep the garden going. While I agree in principle there are far too many variables in compost production to rely on it for all the nutrients necessary for healthy crops. The levels of nutrition in compost depend on what went into the compost bin/pile and how it was composted. Yes, it is an excellent way of recycling waste plant material to produce a good soil conditioner but for some composters that will be all they can do.

Then there are green manures - plants that are grown then dug into the soil. The most well known is the use of legumes to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere. There is no denying that it can happen but whether nitrogen is fixed or not depends on the correct levels of certain soil bacteria. To my knowledge there are no green manures that 'fix' all the nutrients required to provide a balanced plant feed. I am not saying don't do it but rather be cautious about the claims some people make, green manures are not soil fertility magic.

For many years I resisted using animal manure but now I am no longer fit enough to make compost in sufficient quantities to keep the garden going I use about a tonne of cow manure each year. I am fortunate that the garden is on the edge of a dairy farm so supplies of manure are easy to get but that soon might not be the case. With the rapidly escalating cost of chemical fertilisers many farmers are now loathe to part with manure and once again see it as a valuable asset rather than a troublesome waste product. That makes it increasingly difficult to obtain. The other problem is that some cities have banned the use of manure on allotments!

So, where does this leave city food production? My answer is - short of sustainable nutrients. Unless animals are kept nearby, city gardens will always have to import plant nutrients which will seriously affect their ability to be sustainable. At the very least sustainability dictates that all such imports should be certified as organic; there is absolutely no place for chemical fertilisers in a sustainable garden.

There is an urgent need for ongoing trials to find easily produced, sustainable plant nutrients. Part of this should be a comparison between different ways of feeding plants grown in the same environment. This could be done on a cooperative basis by existing amateur growers; it does not need complex projects requiring huge amounts of funding! Of equal importance is the need to ascertain which plant feeding regime gives the highest nutrient levels in the food produced. This is really crucial information to maintain human health.

There are answers to all these problems, my plea is find them in an ordered and rational way and not just assume that making food gardens in cities is the answer to the impending food crisis. Let's get it right first time and show just what can be achieved.

As a post script I should add that my gardening duties are now planning, hand weeding and other light, non-physical activities. The garden would not exist without the input of my partner Sally and the generous help of friends who give their time in return for produce.