Sakabatou

Since I cleaned up my house I'm now starting to think about my garden again. And despite having a compost heap, I'm getting more and more interested in no (or very little) input gardening. This is a bit different than organic gardening. In organic gardening you put no (?) manufactured products on your garden. I put the question mark there because there is a question in my own mind about whether or not its really true.

You see, organic gardens have inputs. You do add fertilizer. And you might even add insecticides (naturally occurring of course). But the idea is to keep things "natural". I think this is a reasonable way to go, but its a bit ingenuous. Most people think of "organic" as being pure and natural. This is not necessarily true. An organic garden can be just as intensive as a non-organic one. You just find your inputs from different sources.

I'm interested in low input gardening. That is, using as little fertilizer, external mulch, insecticide, herbicide, as I can. I don't have the links handy (will add them later), but there are at least a few commercial scale farms that do this kind of work. I want to let nature do the work for me as much as possible.

You see, whether organic or not, an input is an input. Plants need nutrients. They can get nitrogen and carbon from the air, and energy from the sun. But other things come from either the water or the soil. A plant doesn't know or care where the nutrient comes from. It could be manufactured in a factory, it could already be in the soil, or it could be from the decomposing carcass of a fish. It doesn't matter to the plant.

We have a limited amount of minerals on the planet. These were all initially created during super novae of stars. We can't make more. For instance, all the calcium that will ever likely be on this planet (within reason) is already here. But there is waaay more than we will ever need, so we don't have to worry about using it up.

From the plant's perspective, its merely a matter of moving the nutrients to the plant and making it available in a form that the plant can use. One easy way to do this is by making synthetic fertilizer (synthetic in the sense that we actively transform the nutrients into a form usuable by the plants). This is "normal" intensive farming. Another way to do this is by moving nutrients that are already in a partially acceptable form near to the plant and letting nature convert it the rest of the way. For instance, we might take manure and let it rot and leach into the soil. This is the "organic" approach.

But who says the soil need nutrients added to it? For instance, according to the Encyclopedia of Soil Science soil generally has a phosphorous level of 300-3000 kg per hectare (not sure of the depth...). This works out to about 3-30 grams per square meter. Chinese cabbage, for instance contains about 37 milligrams of phosphorous per 100 grams. So at commercial yields there's 1000 - 10,000 times more phosphorous than is needed. But it's not in a form that the plant can use, so even at these levels you might get a phosphorus deficiency. I'm just using phosphorus as an example. Other nutrients are similar (or even more abundant).

The idea behind no input gardening is to try to use natural processes in the soil to make the nutrients you need available. Of course, every couple thousand years you'll have to worry about replacing the nutrients lost ;-). The real question is whether it's possible. At least some people seem to think so (and have working commercial farms to back up their claims). I'd like to try doing it in containers which presents an even bigger challenge. But I think it might be possible, in the same way that reef fish tanks can make a reasonable approximation of a real reef.

Over the next while I will try to document some of my ideas and approaches. If you are wondering why I would want to do this, I'll try to explain that as well. But for now it's like a mountain to me. I want to climb it simply because it is there. Wish me luck!

Wow. I haven't blogged in ages! But finally I got motivated to put something up.

I'm on vacation -- well, sort of. I initially planned to go back to Canada around this time for a few weeks. But unfortunately I still haven't gotten my new passport, so I'm stuck in Japan. But it's not all bad. I've decided to spend my time getting my life in order - cleaning the house, getting my garden ready for the growing season and getting myself in physical shape. So far I'm on day number 3 of 10 days. I have to spread them out a bit over the month because there are some important things to do at work this time of year. But it's nice to be able to get caught up on things.

Because I hate cleaning the house, I've been spending my time in the garden . Actually, I have done *some* work in the house, but with the nice weather and a lot of planting to do it's hard not to be tempted out doors. This morning I decided to tackle my compost heap.

You may remember my entry on making a simple composter. So far, mine is working pretty well, although it's been *very* slow over the winter. Also, there isn't quite enough drainage in the pot. A few months ago a typhoon rolled in and soaked my composter. It hasn't really dried out since. Also, it has been difficult to turn because it's almost full (ouch! -- 60 liters of garbage!)

Anyway, in the end I bought another container. I plan to transfer the compost from bin to bin every couple of days. This should help get it moving faster, and also dry it out some. Also, it's much easier to transfer the contents of the bin to another bin, than to try to turn it over inside the same bin.

Today as I was transferring my compost I was *very* surprised to see earthworms in the compost! Now earthworms are a good sign of a healthy compost, so I must be doing something right. However, I can't quite figure out how they got in there. The bin is sitting on concrete in the middle of my patio. I can't imagine that worms crawled all that way on the off chance that they might find a compost bin. The best I can come up with is that the organic soil I use must have earthworm eggs in it. But even that seems strange because it's very clean soil with *no* weed seeds in it. So I imagine it must be sterilized.

However they got there, it's fun to see them. I wonder if they will survive the warmer weather, though. As the bin starts activating, the temperature can get very hot (70-80 degrees C), and I don't have any place for them to hide. I guess we'll see what happens.

Well, I finally got off my butt and decided to write a little bit. I've got a lot of pictures that I took a while ago and I figured that I should write something. Today I'm going to show how to make a very simple composter. The parts are very cheap and easy to acquire.

I think it cost me around 1500 yen in total. Maybe a bit less. The bin is a plastic bucket for planting a tree in. Being black it captures heat nicely. Make sure the bin has drainage holes in the bottom. Otherwise the compost can get water logged. The spade looked like a good idea, but actually it's a bit hard to dig with. Probably a small fork would work better.

Anyway, the next thing you need is some kitchen waste.

As you can see, I actually have a lot of paper in there. Don't worry, it will break down eventually. You always need to balance nitrogen and carbon in your composter. Green plants and food waste make up the nitrogen. Paper and brown leaves make up the carbon. You want about equal quantities of both. But don't worry about it too much.

One very important point, though, is don't put animal products in your compost (meat or dairy products). It will bring rats and it won't break down properly. Being a vegetarian, I don't worry about those things. First, rip up some of the paper/cardboard.

Then put a thin layer of soil over the top.

Now some green things and/or food waste. The yellow stuff here are mikan (mandarin orange) peels. If you keep a constant supply of these in the compost, it certainly smells nice when you turn it.

Finally top with soil and water.

I actually made another layer, but I won't bore you with more pictures (especially since it includes some rotting stuff that was in my fridge.

There are two finally things you must do. First you should probably cover the pile with something. This will keep your neighbours from complaining that you are storing your garbage in your back yard.
I simply put the plastic bags from 2 sacks of soil on the top.

Also, place the bin in a sunny location where it isn't going to get much rain. I have it right outside the back door. This makes it very handy for kitchen waste (I don't have to do anything other than open the back door). Don't worry about smell. If you do it right there will be no smell.

Everything up to this point is quite easy. You can simply put your waste in the bin, trying to make sure to have a 50/50 mix of kitchen waste to paper. But again don't worry about it too much. You should also make sure the compost doesn't dry out. Water it if it seems like it is too dry.

However, the hard part is turning the compost. In such a small pile, it's not much of a chore. I turn mine every time I add something. In the summer, the waste composts down in a couple of days. In the winter it seems to take a few weeks (meaning that I always have recognizable waste). The turning is hard work, but it only takes 2 minutes or so. Just tell yourself that it's exercise.

When the bin fills up, start another one. If you keep turning the first one, it will eventually become finished compost and you can use it in your gardening. I don't generate a lot of waste, so my one bin is still much less than half full (it's been 2 and a half months). However, I'll probably get a second bin in the summer so I can finish this one up and use it.