All Blog Posts Tagged 'compost' (13)

We have been working hard to get our soils back in tip top shape and I thought i would share with you a  rather easy and cheap way of getting calcium into your soil.

Calcium is an important element in any soil food web and without it plants cannot function to the best of their abilities. Therefore it is crucial that we focus on getting our calcium levels up.

A process avaliable to most home gardeners is as follows....

We save up all our bones from soups, broths and so on…

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So many books and so many different ideas. I try to read the books for information that is sensible. I love organic books, permaculture books etc, but the truth is I haven't got the time or energy to worry about the cycles of the moon or burying things into the ground I just want to grow fruit and vegetables. Whether or not there is a scientific base to half of what I have read over the years I don't know... There is a vast array of ideas and concepts in books, some more scientific that…

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Hey Wellington, quit hibernating and let's get dirty! You will be well rewarded.



In August, we will be converting the garden at Booklovers B&B in Mt Victoria into a productive Dirt Doctor garden and you are invited to learn how our biointensive techniques in composting, weed management, and microbiology can turn your neglected back yard into a veritable garden of eatin'.



So come and join us. It'll warm you right up.…

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This weekend I participated in a wonderful Biodynamic workshop under the leadership of Peter Proctor and Rachel Pomeroy (in blue with cream beanie). We learned an incredible amount in a very short span of time. Here is a photo documentary of the steps we took to build this fabulous compost bed.…

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This is a great blog that Steve put me onto. Yesterday he built one in his backyard here on Waiheke which is giving him warm water only 24hrs later.

Source: Ecofilms.com.au…

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Work has finally started on our vege patch at Stanley Road.

We moved here over Easter weekend, then went to visit the folks in ChCh for a week, so up until now have not had the chance to do anything. There are still boxes in various corners of the house and garage that need to be…

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Hi there, I run a cafe in the city. For a couple of years now we have been seperating the rubbish and composting the bio degradables. I drop it off at Kelmana Gardens and the good folk there turn it into food again. Every now and then I drop a load at home to make a compost heap or to bury in a garden.



What I was hoping to do here was motivate someone into recycling their waste or someone else into asking there local cafe, restaurant, fruit shop... for their waste.



It… Continue

I've been learning how to make Bokashi compost.

I have had a compost bucket in the kitchen for as long as I can remember. One of the childhood jobs was to take the bucket down to the compost heap and empty it there.



Recently I attended a workshop and… Continue

http://www.financialpermaculture.com/Living_Mandala/Financial_Permaculture.html



Wikepedia on Permaculture

List of useful plants



Emilia Hazelip Videp to accompany the Synergistic Agriculture… Continue

The Four Principles Of Synergistic Agriculture



1. Keep the soil undisturbed and uncompacted.

2. Use the soil's self-fertility as fertilizer.

3. Integrate the litter zone with the agricultural soil profile.

4. Establish a partnership with beneficials to protect crops.



Raised beds are only needed where crops are harvested continually. For areas where produce is harvested once only, a good layer of mulch will he enough to protect the soil from… Continue

This is an incredible article and system developed by Emilia Hazelip. I will attempt to mimic this system and report back to you how it goes in my own garden.



I have chosen it because of the self sustainable nature of the system and the interesting adaptions on natural systems that require a minimal input (haha)...



This article has been reproduced from Prodder, translated from French by Linda Hull (Permaculture Magazine -… Continue

In about 90 minutes I have to get on a plane and fly to Auckland. Again. Already I am trepid; stricken by my irrational fear of flying.



I was fine with flying. Once.

Until the incident – a wind shear thing (people call them air pockets I think) back in ‘87. We’d just had the sharemarket crash, and this looked like it’d be the next big crash for the year. I was most definitely about to die. On descent into Christchurch from Brisbane in a Jumbo, we dropped straight out of the sky.… Continue

It has been a busy few weeks - the clocks have gone forward, the nights are getting longer and Spring is definitely here. Daffodials and blossom all over the place...

And the stuff that I am growing has been doing great - well apart from the mushrooms - and I have now built three raised beds - a total of 28 sq ft - not huge but certainly a start in a communal urban garden space.

I started with on a Saturday morning with this...…

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