I’m always on the lookout for new ways of getting Bokashi to work in the garden. Surprisingly, this turned out to be one of the better!
I’ve had a couple of cane baskets kicking around for a while, rather bottomless and sad. So a couple of months ago I plonked them straight down between a couple of rhododendrons in a bed that could need some tender loving care. Tipped in a bucket of Bokashi and left the worms and microbes to it.
Well, they did a great job. The handy thing about the basket being bottomless is that I could just pick it up and move it to a new spot a bit further along. A lovely heap of healthy soil came tumbling out the bottom when I lifted the basket and it was just to spread it out into the strategic spots under the neighbouring plants.
Does it get any easier than this?
A couple of things I did this time round:
– lined the basket with newspaper to help it get started. Second time round I’m doing it without, I suspect it won’t make a huge difference either way.
– put a couple of papers on top for the same reason, topped with a squash purely for decoration. This time round I just topped it with a heap of old leaves which I’m sure will work fine.
– I could have mixed the Bokashi with leaves (in the wheelbarrow for example) before tipping it in. That would have probably speeded up the process. But to be honest I wasn’t in any hurry for the process to run its course. And if there’s an easy way and a hard way of doing things why take the hard way…?
So how long did it take? I have to admit I just left it for a couple of months without checking so I don’t know. The end result was fine. But like all Bokashi how long it takes in your garden will depend on where you live and what weather you have. All I can say is that we’re on the slow end of the scale here in Sweden when it comes to everything temperature-related. And I was more than happy with the outcome.
So keep your eyes out for junk baskets!!! And let us know how you get on!
Bokashiworld 
I’m not jealous, taken all in all (cold weather is NOT my preference), but my lazy gardener’s heart yearns for that simplicity.
Are you prepping for winter yet? And do you have a compost thermometer? I have an experiment you might want to replicate…
Keep up the good gardening–and posting!
DSF
Hi there! Thanks for the encouragement!!
Love to hear about your experiment — I really enjoy reading about all your wierd and wonderful tests. And I envy your climate (I’ve been Austin years ago) but definitely not your lack of space, it’s just heavenly to be able to spread projects out all over the place. But now we’re into our first frosts and beautiful as it is with all the autumn leaves it’s a bit hard to face up to winter reality…
Say hi to the worms! /Jenny
Thought I’d just add a follow-up to this post. The basket works brilliantly! But one thing to watch out for is flies, you need to make sure they can’t get at your Bokashi and lay their icky-sticky maggot eggs. The trick is to “embed” the Bokashi properly, line the basket with newspapers, pack in a lot of old leaves or something along those lines.
Or probably the best idea, put a paper grocery sack in the basket, empty your cured bucket into it and scrunch up the top to close it. Then tip in your leaves or whatever.
The bag will slow down the process a bit but it will keep the flies off until the process is so well underway it’s not a problem any more.
Hope this helps!
/Jenny