Gardening with Bek - Composting

Composting

We have all heard the term and heard how good it is for our gardens. There are pre-made varieties available too that are fantastic and you will need these if you have lots of gardens but the satisfaction of composting our kitchen scraps into garden gold is too wonderful to be missed! Plus you know you are doing something really pro-active to help the environment too.

Composting is easily done in a heap in the back yard, a bottomless bin straight on the garden or in one of the huge variety of tumblers and compost bins designed to make the whole process easier, lighter work and space savvy.

WHY compost?

      Compost is a naturally occurring process in a healthy garden habitat.

      Compost encourages earthworms, good bacteria and micro-organisms that are all important to a healthy garden. They help aerate the soil resulting in stronger root growth.

      Compost has nutritional value and good compost when generously used, enables plants to obtain vital foods for healthy growth, which helps them be more resilient to pests and diseases.

      Compost improves the soils ability to hold moisture.

      Compost improves all soil types from sandy to clay and everything in between.

      Compost is an effective way to reduce household waste.

Compost in the soil helps to grow strong, healthy, pest resistant plants

Composting Tips
There are several techniques when it comes to composting and many ways to great compost but some of the key principles are:

      Composting works on temperature. It can get above 60`c in the centre of compost; these high temperatures will kill most weed seeds (note: not all weeds should be composted), insect larvae and nematodes, while creating a fast working, controlled process of decomposition.

      Aeration is a very important aspect of effective composting, a compost heap should be turned with a fork to allow air in, and a tumbler turned.

      For faster compost, pieces should be as small as possible.

      Do not use as a dump.

      Compost should be kept moist but not soaked.

      Too wet compost will give off a foul odour. A heap can be covered with a tarp during times of heavy rainfall.

      Compost is too dry if you cannot squeeze a little moisture out of a handful.

      Moisten compost with liquid fertiliser like watered down Seasol, fish emulsion or water.

      You must balance kitchen scraps with lots of carbonaceous material (grass clippings, hay, leaves, cardboard, newspaper, sugar cane, saw dust, legumes etc) at a rate of at least 10 dry matter to 1 scraps.

      Accelerators can be added, there are commercial ones available and you can also use things like watered down molasses.

Your soil will benefit greatly from compost and be richer, hold moisture better and look beautiful

Compost do’s and don’ts

Do add:

      Leaves, grass clippings.

      Pruning’s – try and chop up small or will be very slow to decompose.

      Spent vegetable plants likes tomatoes and bolted lettuce.

      Egg shells.

      Fruit and vegetables scraps.

      Pine needles in small quantities.

      Cardboard, paper and shredded newspaper (avoid glossy printed material).

      Rinsed seaweed.

      Tea bag contents and coffee grounds.

      Juicer leftover contents.

      Chicken manure.

      Old potting mix.

      Wood ash in small amounts.

Don’t Add:

      Pet manure, pig manure, human waste

      Cat litter

      Plastics

      Metal

      Meats, dairy products and fats – this can attract unwanted rodents and harmful bacteria.

      Weeds gone to seed.

      Treated wood.

      Magazines.

      Diseased plants.

Growing vegetables at home is one of the most exciting elements you can bring into a child's life

      "As a passionate horticulturalist if there was just one thing I could pass on to people with gardening, it would be to love and nurture your soil."

    It is a vital part of a healthy, strong garden and time spent on this will save you so much time, effort and even disappointment in the long run.

Want more of my edible gardening tips?Why not subscribe to the blog at the top right hand side and check out my book The Pram Diet where I talk a lot about growing organic edible at home, even in pots!

     (c)RebeccaMugridge2013 No part of this may be copied, quoted or reproduced without Rebecca's written permission

Living and loving a little ECO

When I was a teenager I was full of such passion and I was sure I was going to be an environmentalist out there changing the world, saving the world.

The older I became the more I despaired at the state of our planet and felt it was all too big a problem.
The forests disappearing at lightening speeds, whole species disappearing off the planet forever, children starving, people living in terror, rubbish islands in the ocean, polluted rivers, climate change, wild, majestic animals being treated like they were worthless, rubbish tips growing beyond imagination.
You can feel so helpless when you look at all that has, and is going wrong, you can feel overwhelmed with sadness and that the problems are just too big...
OR
You can decided that you as one person do matter.
That you can do things in your everyday life that make a difference.
That even a small difference is a positive step.
That even the most budget conscious homes can help the planet.
That there is always hope and the more of us who do care the more we can all do together.

I chose to vote with my $ as much as I can, when I can, for a better future for all.
This is why I am so passionate about shopping local, buying local and supporting your local businesses.
And why I chose to make at least some of my purchases and the gifts I give each year ethical ones.
Your not only helping the planet you are supporting businesses doing the right thing as well.
These are some of my current favourite Eco buys

 My absolute favourite chopping board
Fab Slabs Chopping Boards
These beautiful boards are natural and ethical. They are made from the camphor laurel tree which while beautiful is a pest species here in Qld that does some real damage.
These boards are fantastic, they don't blunt your knives, they don't stain, they are naturally anti bacterial and they are wood. Beautiful, natural material.
I just cannot bare the thought of plastic chopping boards myself, I always picture tiny particles of plastic ending up in all your food - all those grooves from all the chopping! 

Fab Slabs

Re-usable food covers

Now how clever is this Sunshine Coast business too,  4MyEarth

They also come in different sizes and patterns.
They are ECO, washable and re-usable so after your initial outlay they will save you so much money!

4MyEarth ECO sandwich wrappers
These are perfect for the real push for kids to have clean, rubbish-free lunchboxes at school now.
They are easy to use, easy to wash, best of all easy for the kids to open and use and nice and safe.
I have bought a few eco lunch alternatives and would have to say these have impressed me the most.
There is also little bags of various sizes and they have a waterproof smooth inner coating.

 I was so excited to come across the If You Care range.
From gorgeous recycled aluminium foil to FSC certified unbleached greaseproof paper.
Did you know that most baking paper is coated with something called Quilon which contains heavy metals? And they use chlorine in production which often ends up dumped in streams and lakes.

I have baked with this baking paper many times now and just love it.
I even love the earthy look of it. It really makes those healthy baked goodies look so much more at home as they cook compared to the unatural looking bright white!
You can get it and all the If You Care range from Organics on a Budget

 How cool is this notepad!
After filling my last booklet for my newsletters from all the Edible Sunshine Coast events, festivals and shows I have been doing I found this one and fell in love with it right away!
It is by Collected & Co

My absolute favourite gift idea for kids at the moment are these sensational Planet ECO gardening kits for kids! There is vege and flower and they are just so super cute and a really exciting way to get kids into the wonderful world of organic gardening!

 My mum loves a clean house. She always has. I do not have a single childhood memory of even once the house being 'out of sorts'' not even one! Along with a passion for cooking, food and interior design she has always had a passion for being house proud and making her home feel like a magazine, spotlessly clean and yet homely all at the same time - usually with baking smells!
She only recently tried Enjo and fell in love with it, and all inspired, bought my a kitchen set as a gift!
I have to say I had it for a whole week before I even tried it! Yes, yes, I love a beautiful clean, styled house but I do not share her energy levels there! I try. So I carried on with my usual things before getting around to trying it. I loved that it means you use no chemicals at all - not even natural cleaners so no buying products - just water and it is actually cleaner then all the commercial cleaners, so yes, it now has pride of place in my kitchen ( but oh, if only it was in blue and white - sigh- hehe) (the green alas does not go with my kitchen! But it works so awesomely I will make an exception!) You can find out more about Enjo products and how they work and the whole range HERE

And finally I have to say one of the easiest and most practical things we can ALL do is remember those green bags!! Yes, I have been guilty on more than one occasion of forgetting them myself so how thrilled was I to get this free magnet by the very clever IGA supermarket from inside the Real Food Festival show bag!

Are you in love with a living a little eco too? Or want to find some inspiring ideas?
Check out Natural New Age Mum - NZ EcoChick - Healthy Interiors

These are just some of the fantastic products and ideas I have come across, I am always looking for more ways and great products to live a little bit more eco and I always will.

I bring my two girls up with a wonder for the natural world and I take them every weekend into forests, to

waterfalls, the ocean, lakes, rivers, up mountains so they can truly fall in love with the beautiful natural world around them.

As the great legend Steve Irwin said, "If they love it they will want to save it." Such a powerful and positive message.

We grow food together and have organic gardens, compost, we look for organic foods, ethical foods and local foods as much as our budget will allow and we do interesting things together like take a trip occasionally to a recycling plant and even a rubbish tip to remind ourselves that everything that goes into those handy bins we wheel out each fortnight doesn't just magically disappear.

We have visited many times local town water supply lakes and dams to make it more real and also seen the devastation of dry creek beds and parched farmland, to understand more how important and fragile it all can really be...

I love that I have had the opportunity in my life to teach composting and edible gardening workshops, to do eat local inspire taste testing events and when I ran a large Bunnings nursery I ran it organically with no chemical use at all very successfully and encourage the thousands of customers to do the same.
The 300 newsletters I wrote each month for the garden club were packed full of organic gardening inspiration.
I think we often don't realise how much difference we can all make, in our own ways, wherever we live and the chain reactions what we do can have.

We are not perfect in the eco stakes but we are conscious of trying to live more eco as a family, conscious of the environment and always striving to live more eco and I think that is a powerful thing.

Bek XX