Rigged to Succeed

Last fall, I bought the cheapest potting soil available to see how much of an improvement bokashi could make. Some of that soil, layered with bokashi, was put to as immediate a use as feasible; a few gallons of it I set aside to rest until spring.

The placement of those resting planters may have presented an unfair advantage. Though I wasn’t intending to cheat! It’s just that I have so little space (especially since I started measuring my life by the bucket -G-), and the matched set of five filled one-gallon planters seemed so very suited to stacking, so I stacked the things. And where else would a stack of planters go but next to the worm towers?

The first of my seed orders arrived last week, and there was a break in the weather today—must be time for sowing! Or at least mixing a seedling soil. Wandered out to bucketville intent upon collecting a bit of vermicompost (not pure vermicast, as that’s too strong for seedlings), maybe a bit of composted bokashi, and some potting soil. Figured I might add some Spanish moss for airflow, sand for certain crops, all the usual, but first the basic dirt-and-nutrients.

Verne, Sexton, and the third planter tower I keep pretending is only temporary and have thus not named were all overdue for feeding and ready for a harvest, so I collected some finished vermicompost (and such vermicast as had precipitated down into the reservoir layer). Reaching for planters gets to be kind of automatic by the time you’ve deconstructed three towers, so I’m not sure the difference in design really registered, though I did note the absence of a plant at the tower-top. A clay saucer?

Oh, right, I thought, this is the spring soil test. Well, it’s not really spring, but last-frost’s not too far off, let’s see what we’ve got. So I tipped the saucer off and hauled the top planter down to take a look. What I saw was yet more red wigglers living up to their name. Not, mind, so many as in the established worm towers, but probably enough to start a new wormery with. And I saw the same in every planter in the stack. Without the trivets and internal bracing I installed in the tower wormeries, too—apparently, composting worms are far less sensitive to pressure than I’d assumed. The soil was fairly wet, but responded easily to gentle forking, the ideal cake-crumb texture so often cited and so rarely seen, at least by me. Some volume reduction had occurred, as the bokashi broke down and the worms ate and the storm-waters flushed loose bits away, but I figure I’ve got about four gallons of incredible soil ready for the planting.

Can’t say just now how it compares to high-quality retail soil, as I haven’t got any of that. I did plan to buy some, but...why? My last batch of in-house mix from the Natural Gardener didn’t look as healthy as this! Feels like I’d just be throwing money away.

Not buying any worms this year, either. But I might be forced to invest in a few more seeds...

It never ends, does it?

Happy spring is about to spring,

DSF

The Add-A-Bag Garden?

We're enduring a small spate of seasonal weather here in Austin, so I can't do anything about this idea right now except record it--but I've just found my next post-bucket experiment, and I can't wait! Hardly revolutionary, nothing more than a small tweak, really, but if it works...

1) Choose a compostable bag* suitably sized for a determined garden space.

If you're a small-space gardener, that may well be a doubled grocery bag; folks with room for larger raised beds could use leaf and lawn bags or those canvas sacks used for coffee beans and other staples. Not sure about compostable plastics, but it might be worth a try.

2) Combine well-cured bokashi, dried leaves or shredded paper, and soil or a soil-based potting mix in the bag. Close and set in place. (If using a grocery bag, roll top down, then wrap bag with twine and tie, and placed with the rolled side down.) No need to clear the ground first, though if your greenery is especially vigorous, a layer of cardboard or several newspapers might not be a bad idea.

3) Secure and let sit the requisite two weeks? (There's a testable variable! But, sure, why not. Allows for starting some seedlings or a trip to the nursery.) Then,

4) Using a spade or shears, cut V-shaped holes into the top of the bag. Into each hole, insert a spadeful of best-quality potting mix and a transplant. Olla pot(s), if using, should be placed now, too. The garden bag having been planted, it should be treated as appropriate for the region and conditions. And finally,

5) Repeat when your next bucket's cured.

It's the Add-a-Bead model of gardening: Find a spot, plunk down a bag, go on your merry way. Come back in a fortnight to plant the bag-in-place and set another beside it. Continue until all the world's a garden. ...yeah, okay, maybe not. But every time I help build a raised bed, I'm surprised at how much dirt it takes. This way, you could start with such soil as you had and acquire more as the situation permits.


Will this work? No reason why not, though there are several variables to be tested. Is it worth collecting paper bags if you're not a slightly obsessed bokashi-er? I think so, though, again, this is as yet only a rainy-dayweek's dream.

Like planter-finishing, this does require messing around with the cured bokashi, though only once. (Oh, joy: another test! Using disposable liners here.) Still, it's not like dumping a bucket into a bag of leaves is all that difficult. Bags do mean less time-in-sight than with planter-finishing, and using the bag as a planter means less mucking about with soils, too. It's altogether a neat--pun intended--solution to the eternal question of post-bucket protocols.

With free or repurposed bags, plus dried leaves and shredded paper, this can greatly reduce the expense of creating a raised bed, and allow for that cost, as well as the physical labor, to be spread out over time. Not to mention keeping that carbon-source out of the landfill where it does no one any good at all. (Hey, it's phone book season again! Home delivery of entirely useless but easily compostable pages. Yippee?)

How much dirt to add? Well, ideally there'd be at least three inches of soil on what will be the top of the bag when it's placed--once you've got that, then for the rest, I'd probably start with my usual one cup per half-gallon of bokashi, plus an additional half-gallon of dried leaves or quart of shredded paper. I've found that to work quite well in producing slow composts and worm-food. More dirt won't hurt a thing, it's just the most expensive ingredient in that mix, so I tend to ration it. Put it up top, where it'll do the most good, and let the organics break down below. Though there are limits; I seem to recall the lasagne garden people citing six inches as the maximum between soil layers, and while this wouldn't be a pure compost layer, that's not an unreasonable place to start.

Not that it's an issue with grocery bags, but there's always the chance someone will fall for my reverse fence-painting line. "Hey, you know what'd be fun? I could come install a raised-bed garden on your property?" -G-

And, oh!, think of what a demonstration garden this might make. If it works, it's simple enough for kindergarten classes. Step right up and take a look at The Clean Your Plate Garden. So easy, even five-year-olds can do it! How's that for a pitch?

DSF


*No, the photo's not of a compostable bag. That's a "construction debris bag," as featured in a story a couple of years back on TreeHugger and GroovyGreen. And if I can get my hands on something in that line, or a more common landscape cloth bag, I'll certainly extend the test.

Tomorrow's News?

Interesting tidbit in my e-mail the other day, from our local bokashi retailer(!). Microbial Earth sends out periodic newsletters, not yet archived on the web site though I'm sure they shall be; for now, I hope no one will object if I just quote the relevant bit.

As this is, really, relevant to my situation and something I should very much like to try. Except that I kind of can't. The household feline has definite preferences in litter: sand, preferably raked in swirls.

Okay, so I'm not sure about that last part, but clean sand is completely irresistible to her, and plant-based litters utterly unacceptable. When she first came to me, we went through several different litters before finding one she found at all tolerable, and it took still longer to determine which sort she would use in preference to the area's informal bike paths where the grass is worn away. Small-grained clumpable litter is all that receives her, so to speak, her seal of approval, and the sharper the better.

Not the crystal litter. Not the attractively compostable corn-based stuff, not the newspaper litter that can be purchased or made at home. And not wheat bran. Nor even a mixture of sandy bits and something else. But for those felines who will use a bran litter:

One of the fascinating developments we have discovered at the farmer's markets is the use of the effective microbes in kitty litter. Since October, Microbial Earth clients have been using the solid form of the microbes (bokashi translates as fermented bran in Japanese) by applying 2 cups of bokashi to their cat litter boxes. This means that you don't have to buy new litter as frequently, and have less work every year due to the reduced number of changes, as well as expense.

EVEN BETTER!

Use 100% bokashi for your kitty litter and you can compost all of it in your yard, just like the bokashi food wastes.

Bokashi can be used in a litter box instead of other litters for cats to control odors from urine and feces. The most common litter on the market is made of clay and is almost always thrown in a landfill. Instead of landfilling, put the litter to good use as a fertilizer for your ornamental plants, trees and flower beds. Talk about a great way to recycle and save money!

Hmm. A bit more than a year ago, there was a kid who managed a worm-based kitty waste disposal set-up. I wonder how hard it'd be to convert a couple of those silly sieve-and-tray litter boxes into a wormery? But of course, someone else is going to have to do this one. I may be slightly obsessed with bokashi, but there's no way I'm borrowing a cat!

The household feline would not permit it.

Still...

DSF

{image from wheatmontana.com, a site I tripped over while searching for average bulk wheat bran prices}

After the Bucket: the Bag

Could be worse: at least it's not novelty saltshakers. But I am currently collecting dried leaves. Not, I hasten to say, for pressing! This is not a new hobby, nor am I planning on stockpiling the things for some eventual later use. Not even trying to gather every bag generated within an X-block radius during time-span Y.

I'm collecting leaves by the bag. Different leaves from the oak/pecan/elm/mulberry mix I sweep too infrequently from my patio; different bags than the paper leaf-and-lawn ones approved by the city. See, I'm trying to make sure some of my particular post-bucket techniques are not specific to my particular EC. And wondering whether some leaf mixes or bag types might produce better results. Eventually, I suppose, I'll have to break down and buy a few plastic bags of various sorts (black v. white v. clear; compostable/degradable v. industrial strength), but I figured I'd start with what my neighbors were actually using.

The clear plastic bags have a few benefits and a couple of disadvantages, so far:

+ If properly sealed with adequate space for expansion, plastic bags do serve to keep out pests, unlike the paper leaf and lawn bags which must be protected against scavengers.

- Plastic bags prevent volunteer macro-digesters from joining the fun. (Sow bugs, composting worms, earthworms, etc.)

- If inadequate space for expansion is provided, plastic bags can split open and spread material rather farther than one might expect, even before the scavengers get into the act. (Splitting is an issue with planter-finishing, as well. If sealing, remember to leave some slack!)

+ Properly sealed plastic bags hold moisture, so assuming a properly moistened mix went into the bag, no additional water need be added. Also, temperature variance within the bag increases condensation and re-absorption, which seems to speed the composting process.

- If too much moisture is present, the microbes cannot work to full efficiency, and the mix may go anaerobic--in the negative sense. As in, rot and stink.

+ Plastic bags withstand wet weather better than paper, and can be easily moved during the process or once it is complete.

- Some plastics may not degrade, and dirty plastic garbage-sized bags are difficult to recycle.

And one that may be either an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on the climate, situation, and desired end results:

Plastics can absorb and retain heat, and reflect or focus light.

I don't know, yet, how that will affect this particular post-bucket technique. Will a black plastic bag work as well as a black plastic planter? Might it work too well, and melt? Would the contents of a clear plastic bag placed in full sun solarize rather than compost? Etc. It's winter here, despite the day's garden-perfect forecast But I expect to be playing with bags for some time yet, especially though not solely in combination with the disposable buckets. At some point, I may even manage to try the long-delayed "office bokashi" test series with a commercial soil inoculant and shredded paper in place of dried leaves!

...novelty salt shakers might be simpler. But not nearly so useful. -G-

DSF

there's a hole in my bucket

...matches the one in my head, as in "I needed that like." Winter is not my favorite season, and I chose to live in a place with vast strings of 100+ days and no rain for months on end in exchange for not having to deal with much of that horrible below-freezing stuff. Sigh. But the recent record-breaking cold does have one benefit, looked at from the right angle: empty planters.

And I haven't sent in my seed orders yet.

The garden budget hasn't recovered from last year's excesses yet, so I really did try to keep myself within reasonable bounds. Tried. Failure has not yet been declared, but the year's still young. We'll see.

The focus was on filling in spaces in my collection, plus a few new-to-me leafy things and a great many multiple-harvest crops. (Okay, maybe a few flowers and some groundcover for the apartment grounds, but I mostly grow vegetables and herbs, with the odd grapevine for the fun of it.) That last category has me feeling like there's a great big hole in my learning, and it doesn't seem like there's any convenient well of knowledge from which to draw.

Here's the question in a nutshell:

For my zone and growing conditions, what sweet potato variety will produce the most succulent, tender leaves?

I'm utterly and completely fascinated by all the things I have grown before but didn't know I could eat. Last year, I was a worse garden pest than the locusts so far as the sweet potatoes were concerned, harvesting so many leaves and vine-tips it's a wonder I dug up any tubers at all (hey, the tubers are cheap at the store, and not too bad even at the farmer's market. The greens are hard to buy! No contest, not once I'd tasted them). This year, I want to play with a bunch of things like that, and there's a wealth of possibilities. Radish greens I already eat, carrot I'm not too fond of, but squash? I knew about the blossoms, but the leaves, too, can be eaten.

Why did no one tell me?

Are all squash leaves edible, or only some? If not all, how do I tell?

How do I pick a proper variety for my region and needs, considering the fruits, flowers, and leaves?

Clone that frustrated query-set for beans (the leaves arguably have more nutritional value than the parts we harvest), peas, tomatoes (do the leaves of heirloom tomatoes have more tomatine? Do romas have drier leaves? etc.), etc. Seed catalogues are no help at all when it comes to these--though I did see a passing mention to beet greens as a "bonus" harvest. But as to which variety might have the least bitter, tenderest, most heat-resistant leaf? Not a word.

So I'm making some more or less random selections, though I have decided one thing: I am not buying the snow pea variety listed as nearly leafless. Snow pea tendrils have begun to appear on local-food menus in season, and I'm a big fan--but the leaves are sometimes the best part! Also, if the vines have few leaves, doesn't that mean they need to keep them all?

Speaking of things I need like a hole in the head. Where on earth am I going to put more climbers? Guess I should add some more round tomato cages to the list, since they can be fitted into the inevitable buckets.

Oh, how I long for spring! Green sprouts promising more varied crops to come, migrating worms, and warm enough temperatures that the curing buckets don't have to stay in the kitchen, in an ever-increasing and increasingly alarming tower structure. How much more winter is there?

DSF

Wormy Christmas!

...and a fermented new year, too. Happy holidays from all of us at bucketville, and may your buckets, too, be busy.

DSF

image from a great post on MomLogic!

Neither Snow Nor Sleet Nor...

Okay, so we haven't exactly had any of that stuff folks used to swear wouldn't impede mail delivery, but two hard freezes (temps in the twenties) put paid to all the unprotected tender greenery, and some of the protected as well. Amaranth season is well and truly done, most of the basil melted, and so on.

Verne & Co. didn't even slow down.

The planter towers are all several planters high just now, so not even the largest of the overturned buckets I used to protect the plants on top would have offered any protection for the lowest ones. But I harvested the towers before the first expected freeze of the season and consolidated the unfinished vermicompost and worms into one or two planter trays per tower, adding a few cups of cheap potting soil by way of insulation just below the next tray of worm food.

And it seems to have done the trick. The shepherd's purse may have been slightly damaged by frost, but the wriggle's just fine. On schedule for the next feeding, even! Which is something of a problem, as their next meal isn't finished yet. (Oops.) I hadn't expected them to be so active with the temperature just above 40...guess that insulated not-quite-a-bucket test might not have been necessary after all. Expect for giving me something else to post. -G-

DSF

Time to feed the wriggle