How to make
compost
&
How to make a
no dig garden
Repeat Harvest
Repeat
Harvest
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Get the best start in learning to
grow your own food.
To do well veggies need three things: sunshine, water and food. Give
them these and you will have success. You will have less pests and
disease. And you will get fresh tasty home grown food. And I can tell
you there is nothing better!
These toolkits are designed to give you the best foundation of
knowledge and to make sure the time you spend gardening is
enjoyable and rewarding. And I want to make sure you don't waste
any time or money in the process. So many times I see people spend
big money on a raised garden beds, compost bins, garden soil and
swags of seedlings. Only to see it fail after a few short months. These
modules will give you the infomatin you need to understand how
composting works so you can do it successful. And they will teach
you how to perfectly prepare a no dig garden. From where is the
best place to built it, to making it, to lookin after it for years to come.
As the saying goes "Proper planning and
preparation prevents poor performance."
Stephen Keague
So lets get started on your journy of learning! And remember I am
here to help at anytime. My commitment to you when you buy my
toolkits is that I am here to answer any of your questions at anytime.
All you need to do is email me, or post a question on my facebook
page. Remember #therearenosillyquestions.
Lets get gardening!
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MODULE
ONE
How to make
compost
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Repeat
Harvest
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Introduction
Composting is the ultimate in recycling. It’s magic in action
and the life and soul of a good garden.
Nothing, and no one escapes it. Some things can take
hundreds, if not thousands of years, others, a few short
weeks, but eventually everything is returned back to the soil.
Even if just a proportion of waste that households across the world
produce on a daily basis can be recycled by way of composting, then
the impact on landfill would be reduced. Waste such as fruit and
veggie scrapes, egg shells, coffee grounds and tea bags are the obvious
one, but also newspapers, cardboard boxes, grass clippings, spent
bunches of flowers, vacuum bags, weeds, dead leaves, old potting mix,
wood ash... the things that can be composted are varied, and can be
done easily, cleanly and with fantastic results for you.
When we compost at home our gardens reap the benefits from the
end results. The simple act of adding compost to your soils will feed
your plants, conserve moisture, control pests and disease, stabilize
pH levels and make nutrients freely available to your plants. Good
compost is full of microorganisms that work to make nutrients
freely available to plants and increases their natural immune
system. Worth its weight in gold compost is one of the simplest and
most rewarding things a gardener can do.
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How the system works
I’m often asked “What is the best way to compost?” Lots of people
tell me they have tried it before and ended up with a smelly, gluggy
mess or a hotel for rats and mice.
There is no one perfect way for everyone, because everyone
and every household is different. Yet the process of
composting is essentially the same in every system. Once
you understand how things are composted you will be
able to choose which system is best for you and know how
to manage it.
So what happens when something that was
once living dies?
Plants are the primary source of all organic matter in soils.
(Animals contribute as well, but we don’t put meat in
our home composts so in this workshop we will only be
looking at plant matter.) In the natural environment as
well as our compost bins eventually everything breaks down until
it is unrecognizable. For the soft, tender and juicy bits, this can
happen quickly, but for woodier, bigger pieces it can take longer.
In very cold or very hot and dry climates, or environments with
little oxygen like bogs, the process can take hundreds of years or
even stop altogether.
Composting, or decomposition, is caused by millions of living things
that use the plant parts as food. These organisms can be broken
down into three main groups. The first are tiny micro-organisms
like bacteria, fungi, moulds and actinomycetes that feed on the
organic compounds in plant matter. Unseen by the naked eye it is
these simple organisms that kick start the composting process and
form the foundation of a health system.
The second group are very smaller insects and invertebrates like
mites, springtails, wood louse, baby beetles and baby worms. Their
main food source is the first level consumers and the excrement of
the third level feeders. They also become food for
the third level consumers.
The third group is insects and small animals
like cockroaches, centipedes, earthworms,
ants and ground beetles that live in the very
top layers of leaf litter and eat plant
parts and smaller insects, breaking
them up and then leaving traces in
their excrement. The second and third level
critters can be seen with the naked eye and are
responsible for breaking down the plants into
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D
Mites
Winged beetles
EA
T
EAT
L
VE
LE
Earwms
D
3R
Centipedes
2N
LE
VE
L
Cockroaches
Springtails
Ants
Round wms
Flies & larva
Plant Ma
EA
T
T
EA
EAT
TE
Barctia
Fungi
1ST LEVEL
smaller pieces so they can become food for consumers further down
the food chain.
These three groups of consumers work together in a constantly
rotating system.
It would be easy to think that it is the bigger consumers that move
in first to start the composting process but it is the bacteria, fungi
and actinomycetes.
The first level consumers come in waves each taking little ‘bites’, the
first wave eat the amino acids, sugars and starches. Decomposition
causes a rise in temperature and once this happen the first wave
move to the outside of the heap where it is cooler and continue their
work. The second wave of heat resistant microbes then move in to
concentrate on proteins, fats, cellulose and hemicelulose.
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EA
TW
AS
TE
AS
TW
EA
Actinomycetes
The kiss of the sun
for pardon
The song of the birds
for mirth
One is nearer to
God’s heart in the garden
Than anywhere
else on earth
Dorothy Gurney
Humus is black gold
The end result of composting is what we call humus. This is what is
left once all the food has been eaten.
Essentially humus is micro-organisms excrement and it contains
large organic molecules made up mainly of carbon, hydrogen and
oxygen as well as considerable amounts of nitrogen, sulphur and
small levels of the trace elements. When the micro-organisms
eat the plant matter and excrement or larger order consumers,
they rearrange the atoms, forming them into new balls called
conglomerates, or humus.
Humus is dark in colour and gives soils their rich browns and
blacks. It is the perfect food source for plants as roots can easily
absorb the nutrients in this format. It also gives soils their structure
and a stable ‘crumb’ as it bonds together the other elements in soils
like minerals, clay and rock particles.
The final product that comes out of your home compost bin will still
have a large element of organic matter but it will also have lots of
good humus. As you watch your compost heap working you will see
the plant pieces get smaller and smaller and the volume of the pile
will reduce. You will know when your compost is ready when you
can no longer recognize any of the original plant matter that went
into it and it has a rich earth smell.
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What to put in your compost
For the composting system to work efficiently you need
nitrogen and carbon. Think of them as ingredients in making
the perfect compost and the perfect ratio is 2:3, nitrogen to
carbon.
The nitrogen ingredients are also The carbon is the brown things, they Then there are other things that
called “green” and tend to have used to be green and alive but have neutral.
dried out and some of the composting
high moisture content.
has already taken place.
NEUTRAL
NITROGEN
• Kitchen scraps eg vegetable
peelings, egg shells, fruit skins,
lettuce leaves, apple cores,
ground coffee, sandwich crusts.
• Fresh lawn clippings
• Green weeds
• Fresh hedge trimmings
• Manure from animals that don’t
eat meat
CARBON
• Dead leaves
• Small branches
• Dried grass clippings
• Straw
• Sugar cane mulch
• Newspaper
• Saw dust from untreated wood
• Coffee grounds
• Vacuum dust
• Hair from you or your pets
• Cooking water (this is rich in
minerals that are leached out
during cooking)
• Mushroom compost
Other essential ingredients are oxygen and water. Most of the water
comes from the green nitrogen rich ingredients and the oxygen
comes from having a well turned heap, and not allowing it to
compact down.
Without either water and/or oxygen the right combination of
microorganisms won’t survive or the rate of decomposition will
slow right down.
A great habit to get into when adding things to your compost is to
make everything as small as possible. This increases the surface
area making more space for micro-organisms to start working and
everything will break down at an even rate. I either chop the kitchen
scrapes up as I’m cooking dinner or I get the garden spade or give
them a good chop in a bucket before I add them to the compost bin.
This simple task can reduce your compost making time by a few
weeks!
Some things that should never be
used.
NEVER USE:
• Raw and cooked meat
• Dairy products
• Infected plant material that
have pest and disease
• Weeds and weed seeds
• Perennial grasses such as
couch
• Plastics and metals
• Manure from domestic pets
such as cats and dogs
• Dead animal
Others only a little but never in
worm farms.
AT A MINIMUM
• Onions
• Citrus
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From left to right: Hedge trimmings, dried leaves, dry grass clippings, shredded newspaper, green grass clippings,
coffee grounds, charcoal, vacuum cleaner dust, pet hair, animal manure, kitchen scraps and egg shells.
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Grass, poo & weeds
Grass clipping are one of the best things to put in your compost. The
lawnmower does an excellent job off cutting it up into small pieces, and
increasing the surface area.
But! When we mow we don’t always pick up the dog poo, and we know
that you can’t put dog poo in compost bins. So... you really must scoop
the poop before you mow.
Weeds become weeds
because they are
tough and can survive
extreme situations
Most weeds will be killed as part of the composting process, but not their
seeds. Bindi are a good example of this, those pesky little prickles are
relentless. The best way to deal with them is to get rid of them either manually
or with an organic herbicide*. If you do this BEFORE it sets seeds, life will
be a lot easier. If you pull them out manually you can make extra sure they
are dead by leaving them in black plastic bag in the sun or by drowning
them in a bucket of water. This can take a few weeks, but once you have
done that, they are right to go into the compost.
Don’t assume all weeds are dead because you pulled them out of the
ground. Weeds become weeds because they are tough and can survive
extreme situations.
*Traditionally herbicides and
pesticides are non organic
chemicals used to kill unwanted
plants and pests. Most of them
have massive knock on effects
that don’t warrant using them.
More and more there are organic
alternatives available that are
much safer, just as effective and
don't mean hours of manually
pulling out weeds.
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Worksheet
Start looking at all the things around your home that could go into
your compost. Make a list below outlining what they are and how
much of it you produce each week. For example how much kitchen
scrapes, grass clippings or dried leaves do you collect each week or
month.
This will help you in the next module when it comes to deciding
what composting system is best for you.
Organic matter____________________________________ Amount per week/month
Kitchen
scrapes
2 buckets per week
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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encouraging you to...
grow
some
damn
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food
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