Leaves from the street

[living_creature]

I went for a walk with my sister and her baby and my sister suggested I scrape up the leaves from the street to put in my compost. So I did just that! I got the wheelbarrow and walked up and down the street collecting half composted leaves that had piled up against people's fences. I got a lot of leaves!

My sister also told me to put a cup of my pee in the compost to give it a kick start.... will do.

And, a third seedling has emerged, also in the mixed salad tray.

[living_creature]

Well, I'm not really anal ;) so I don't mind. Besides, plastic is recyclable and the buckets could be used for other garden jobs if they were no longer needed for composting toilets. It's still a lot more environmentally friendly than the water based sewage system we currently use.

[Sonya]

Hmmm interesting way to reuse your waste, although if you're going to be really anal (hah) about it, you're using plastic buckets, so that's another form of waste that's being created when they're no longer usable, the resources used to create them, etc...

[living_creature]

oo, and they added saw dust each time they pooed or peed.

[living_creature]

At this stage it doesn't smell any different. I don't think a bit of urine would make it smell. If I peed on it every day it might.

Did you see that video I linked to a few posts back about composting toilets? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBZwOqLJvBA

I was so inspired because it was so easy and straightforward. These people were using a system like this....
# they had lots of buckets.
# Each bucket had holes drilled in the bottom of it.
# In the bottom of the bucket they had a handful of worms in some pre composted poo.
# Then they just poo and pee on top until the bucket is full.
# A tray sits underneath for the wee to drain out.
# When the bucket is full they put the lid on and leave it to sit for one to two years. The worms and other micro organisms break down the stuff and then they put it on their fruit trees.

I really want to start one but I think my parents might freak out and I'm living at their place at the moment.

There are heaps of youtube vids about this kind of thing. I love watching them, so inspiring. This one is really interesting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L17tMpqBg64

[Sonya]

Huh that's really interesting. I guess reusing our waste can't be a bad thing! Does it make the compost smell?

[living_creature]

I added my pee about half an hour ago! :) I read up about it last night. Apparently there's a lot of nitrogen in pee and it's one of the things that a compost needs.

I learned about these pee buckets when I did my permaculture course.... fill a bucket with sawdust and then pee in it until the pee reaches the same level as the saw dust. From memory it works because the carbon in the sawdust and the nitrogen in the pee mix together to form the right balance for a fertiliser for the garden. I've done this in the past so pouring a cup of pee in the compost didn't phase me :)

[Sonya]

Oh my, I've read about the pee thing but I don't think I'm quite game enough to try that yet! Good idea about the leaves - I'll keep that in mind come Autumn.