13. Indoor soil factory

A ”soil factory” is something we came up with years ago to describe a place where you make soil using bokashi. It can be a bucket, a tub, a bag, a planting box, a barrel, whatever you have on hand basically. The thing is that it’s used ONLY for making soil, not for growing thingsContinue reading “13. Indoor soil factory”

14. Biochar is great with bokashi

It’s really good to have some form of absorbent material in the bottom of your soil factory. The absolute best is charcoal, or biochar as it is often known. You can use the same charcoal you’d use on the barbecue as long as there is absolutely no chemical additives in it, and that is madeContinue reading “14. Biochar is great with bokashi”

15. Soil factory tips

About the soil. Use whatever you have on hand. And a 50:50 mix is often best, although you can do this however you want. The smaller pieces you have in your bokashi bucket the faster they will transform to soil, as the microbes have more surface area to work with. By the same logic, it’sContinue reading “15. Soil factory tips”

Quick and easy “soil factory”

There’s been a lot of interest in Vin’s in-ground composting experiment (look for the blog post just before this). This is my quick and dirty version of the same idea. Simple. Cheap. Quick. What more could you want? The rather shabby looking barrel above has done service as a water barrel in my greenhouse forContinue reading “Quick and easy “soil factory””

How to make a soil factory!

Just had a query from someone in our facebook group looking for a blog I did ages ago about our “soil factory”. I couldn’t find it either (how do you just lose a blog entry??!!) so I posted up a few pictures in the facebook group with a quick description. For the sake of posterityContinue reading “How to make a soil factory!”

Outdoor planters — rain and Bokashi do wonders!

Remember the tests we were starting up a few weeks back with bricklayers buckets? Sturdy black plastic tubs — seemed like they’d be perfect for container gardening. Well — they are just brilliant! Under all the flowers above is a 65 liter tub, filled with a good strong bokashi mix. I planted some rather half-heartedContinue reading “Outdoor planters — rain and Bokashi do wonders!”

Bokashi composting when its minus 24. Celsius.

I have to admit it resists a bit. It doesn’t come naturally to be running round in the garden with compost buckets when it’s -24 out. Tomorrow is another day. Maybe it’ll be warmer then? Or maybe not. So I thought I’d write a bit about how we fix it here in the getting-more-arctic-by-the-minute backwoodsContinue reading “Bokashi composting when its minus 24. Celsius.”

Snow Bokashi?

See that black bag there between the doors? That’s my latest Bokashi experiment. Snow Bokashi… Yep, you can see I’m getting desperate. Not just me but quite a lot of us up here in the frozen north, we have to find ways of making soil even in mid-winter. At the moment I can’t even findContinue reading “Snow Bokashi?”

Yet another snowstorm… spring seems far off

Low level activity here on this blog. Which is not to say I haven’t been thinking about bokashi, about compost, about soil, seeds, plants and… SPRING! Not many minutes pass in a straight line without green-coloured thoughts passing through my mind. We’ve seen nothing but white now since early December. It’s like a Christmas cardContinue reading “Yet another snowstorm… spring seems far off”

Where has all the food waste gone?

I was thinking about this song the other day, you know the one: Where have all the flowers gone, Long time passing. Shows my age? No, honest, I think it was before my time. Thinking how our concerns have changed focus but are infinitely more serious in a way. It feels like you couldn’t even tryContinue reading “Where has all the food waste gone?”