Monday, March 27, 2017

There's exotic, and then there's...this

The tomato plants have blossoms, Repulsive the BSFL bucket is starting to squirm, and the cleavers have both blossoms and burrs--spring has well and truly sprung. Which apparently means it's time for my mind to turn to new and different ways to make up for the continued lack of holes in the ground or unused outdoor space in which in which I might practice lazy "cold" composting.

Bokashi is the best apartment-dweller method I've found in all my years of searching, but it isn't perfect on its own. So I experiment now and then, when I have the time, and I read up on other people's experiments. Always happy to steal a good idea!

Within reason. It took me a great deal of effort to learn to appreciate Repulsive, and I'm still far happier if he's securely, as well as discreetly, contained. Gigantic bone-hued armored maggots are nothing I want to see. Years with a sufficiently hard freeze, like this one past, he dies out. Sorry, Repulsive, but you don't get indoor space. Ever. Under any circumstances. I might move a worm bin inside--have done, in winters past--but no longer, as Repulsive tends to colonize them. There are limits.

So you can imagine how I felt reading the last line of this article about bokashi from the New Indian Express. Lesser-known sounds good to me--I desire no closer acquaintance than just seeing those words on my screen.

Eww.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

The cost of discretion?

My life has changed a bit since the last time I posted here. These days, my time is a more limited resource than my money--but I still very much prefer not to toss perfectly good plant food into the trash where it becomes a problem instead of a solution, and I still adore bokashi, because those lovely little microbes mean I don't have to do that. Now if only I could find some less unattractive containers for my plant-food-in-progress! Hiding and disguising cat litter buckets works, to some degree... I'm eying that Mr. Eco bucket, though, as being rather more discreet than the current solutions, and possibly more efficient, too. The opening appears to be pretty much ideal for my kitchen-bokashi needs. If you opt out of the disposable bags, maybe add some pine pellets for absorption, this should work as a first-stage fermenter. Think I'm adding it to my shopping list. Stay tuned! DSF