Composting

There are a lot of options out there for the would-be composter. And anyone who's trying to green up the planet a little bit will acknowledge that composting is important. But what is the best method for you? The large plastic bin to set next to your garden? A heap on the ground? Worms? Manure?

Here's what we do. We've tried the plastic bin, and it's not for us. The compost takes too long to break down, and when it's sitting out next to the garden, we forget about it, and go throw the veggie peelings to the chickens instead, so it really doesn't get used. Friends of ours, however, find it works perfectly for their small garden. They just open the trap door, scoop out the finished compost from the bottom of the bin, mix it into their soil in the spring, and leave it until next year. Sounds fine, as long as you keep adding stuff to make new compost by next spring.

We create heaps on the ground from the big stuff. Like when we muck out the stalls in the barn or change the bedding in the chicken coop, we cart it all to a big pile out of the way. Each time we do that, we create a new pile, so we have several in different stages of decomposition. This is what I'm going to use when I build my raised garden beds as some of the layers for next year's garden soil. But, we've tried this with the kitchen scraps, and what ends up happening is that a watermelon plant pops up in the middle of the heap, or it spreads too far to really end up composting properly. It gets tilled into the garden come spring time, but there really isn't a place to compost during the winter with this method.

Manure is a good additive to your garden soil, but it can't be fresh. It has to be at least 6 months old before you mix it in, or it will be too rich and burn your plants. A good idea is to add it in the fall, till it in, then let the garden sit for the winter. It's going to be another one of my layers in my raised beds which will break down all winter long to create lovely nutrient-rich soil in the spring!

This spring, we bought 1000 red wiggler worms, and they have defied all of our attempts to make mistakes. At first, I had them in a rubbermaid tub that I'd drilled holes in. The holes were too big, and some of the worms escaped, but they still made some lovely compost while they were in there. Then my dad built a big 'row box' after visiting a vermicomposter in Calgary. It's hard too keep the moisture in this box and sometimes I've forgotten to feed my wigglers, but they're still thriving in there. The only problem is using the compost that they are currently living in. My next step is to buy one of those dedicated drawer system vermicomposting bins, where the worms can migrate up from drawer #2 into drawer #1, leaving behind pure compost that they're finished with.

In the meantime, it's looking like I have a couple kilograms of usable compost already. I would just have to sift through the whole box to get the worms out so that I can add it to my garden. I think I'll do that when I get my drawer composter. For now, the little wigglers are still happy in their big box, and enjoying all the fruit I just threw in for them!

Which reminds me, the kinds of things you'll want to feed to your worms are fruit, veggies, tea bags, egg shells, coffee grounds, stale bread, cardboard, leaves, paper, and hair.

Things that are no-no's include manure, animal products, citrus fruits, grass clippings, pineapple and other acidic fruits. And light. Keep it nice and dark in there for your little crawlers!

p.s. did you know that worms don't actually eat the food you throw to them? They eat the bacteria created by its decomposition. Cool, huh?

That's it for today.

From me to you, Happy Small Farming.

Gardening in General

Now, nobody knows best what your soil can do than you, but I wanted to pass along some valuable information that I picked up last winter, but have yet to put into use. The common terms are companion planting, biodiversity gardening, French Intensive, square-foot gardening, or permaculture. They are very popular in Europe and Africa, I am told, and the point is to get the maximum benefit from the least amount of space. Think around 500 times your seed value in produce!

It’s more than container gardening, but less than traditional row planting. The key is raised beds and strategic placement of certain plants. For example, there is the Terrific Trio. Native Canadians used to plant corn with beans spaced in between, and sprawling squash nearby. The benefit of this pairing is that the corn provides a sturdy stalk for the beans to climb, the beans add nitrogen to the soil which the corn and squash adore, and the leaves of the squash spread out and keep the soil moist and cool for the corn to thrive. All three plants do better together than if they were planted separately in rows.

Now, you’re probably thinking: How am I going to reach the beans and corn without stepping all over the squash? And the answer is: Raised Beds. Building a frame to raise the soil not only aids in drainage, but you don’t have to walk in them so the soil will not compact. This makes weeding a breeze in such nice loose soil. And if you make the beds around 4 feet across, you can just reach in from both sides and access anything you need!

Now, it takes a little work to get this set up. This fall, I’m going to build four or five 4 foot by 20 foot raised beds, probably 12 inches high, and I’m also going to rig them up to accommodate hoop houses for the spring. Before the snow falls, I’m going to layer in some straw, soil, composted chicken manure (for nitrogen), newspaper, leaves, etc., covering it all with cardboard to hold it in. Over the winter, these layers will break down, and I hope to find wonderful nutrient-rich soil in the spring when I open them up!

I’ve also drawn up some garden plans, with appropriate companion plants arranged for maximum impact, both for my crop yield, as well as for pest control. For example, Marigolds are an excellent trap-crop, attracting insects that would otherwise be chomping on your strawberries. There is an excellent list of companion plants at www.gardensablaze.com, which shows compatible and incompatible pairings of many common garden plants, herbs, and even trees! You’ll have to search a little harder to find more exotic plants, but there is always trial and error, if you can’t get a solid answer from a Google search!

So, while your raised beds are composting beneath the snow, you can spend some time dreaming about what you’d like to put in the ground come spring. Here’s one of my plans that I’m hoping to try out next year.

Picture here...eventually!

Another thing that will help in an unpredictable growing season like the one we live with here in Southern Alberta, is hoop houses.

I’m bolting rebar pieces to my raised beds, so all I have to do to create one of these babies is bend a piece of PVC pipe over the bed and attach some tarp or poly and voila! Instant tiny greenhouse! So there will be no need to start hundreds of tiny peat pots inside, which you then have to transfer to larger containers, then transfer again when it’s after May long weekend. This is what can happen when you planned on doing this but let other things get in the way!

Picture here...eventually!

Since the soil in the raised bed is above the permafrost, it is already warmer than the ground, and adding the hoop house on top makes the best use of whatever sunlight you get, trapping the heat in the small amount of air above your soil. Then, when your plants have a good start, you just lift off the hoop house, and away you go!

If you want more of a three-season greenhouse, a hoop house also delivers, warming a target area on its own, or improving the impact of a space heater. You’ll have to reinforce the hoops with cross braces so they don’t fall in on each other, but using pipe and poly, it’s still cheaper than a greenhouse kit, and completely portable!

So here’s the best part about gardening this way: It can be completely organic. Using trap-crops to manage the pests means you won’t need chemical pesticides. Planting different crops next to each other where one adds nitrogen, and the other adds something else means that you won’t have to use fertilizers other than what’s already in your lovely composted soil. Planting close together and making use of shade plants means your soil holds its moisture better, and you’ll use less water. And nice loose soil means that weeding will be easy to do by hand (oh, did I mention that the over-winter process of composting the soil is supposed to help limit weed growth!), and you won’t need to use herbicides. Now, doesn’t that sound great?

I’ll let you know how it goes.

But for now, Happy Small Farming.