Compost Bin Mk III
Written by: adekun on 7 August, 2009 9:45 am - Filed under: blog, garden — 2 Comments »
Compost Bin Mk III
Two years have passed since the last incarnation of the compost bin. As expected the sides did not hold up. However, the latest rebuild was due to a forced relocation. Held back by the sodden mass, the posts put up a bit too much protest as they were yanked free. Despite the humidity, it was the time to use some of the rescued scrap wood. Continue reading
Potting mix #1
Written by: adekun on 15 April, 2009 7:27 pm - Filed under: garden — 2 Comments »
It’s probably too late to being messing around with seed trays. Anyhow, there are plenty of seeds to play with. So far I used old potting mix, recovered from old pots. It’s all gone. A small bag costs close to ￥1000. Instead, a more economical bag of vermiculite got muddled up in some free dirt. Continue reading
Organic vegetable growing manifesto 2009
Written by: adekun on 31 December, 2008 4:25 pm - Filed under: garden — 7 Comments »
To the left, three clover patches, each planted two weeks apart.
For the greater part of this year, the garden undertakings could be viewed as being half-arsed. By the same token, there was a great deal of eagerness in getting things in the ground. This zeal or impatience has proved to be to the detriment, rather than leading to bigger and better things. Good examples are the garlic and more so the onions. The latter appear thin and lank at a time when they should be standing to attention going into the new year. Unlike current economy policy, there shall be no retreat from the Laissez-faire approach. Apart from bug-poo, there have been no complaints from the kitchen. Continue reading
Soy bean ruin
Written by: adekun on 5 October, 2008 10:02 pm - Filed under: blog — 2 Comments »
I’ve found a chore that far surpasses the tedium of weeding. For some time, is has been apparent that the soy beans were riddled with holes and unlikely to produce much of a crop. Instead of harvesting them early for edamame, I hoped to leave them and harvest daizu. Rather than wait and see, I decided to ‘cut’ my loses. Each pod seemed only to hold disappointment; a vivid green caterpillar or black purée. Continue reading
Relaying the path
Written by: adekun on 10 June, 2008 11:33 pm - Filed under: blog — No Comments »
It would be great to be self sufficient in compost. Keeping the supplements to a minimum as the plot expanded has been to the detrimental to the yield of some of the plants. Even so, an accumulation of bags has built up. The staples are composted gyufun (cow manure) and pelleted keifun (chicken manure). Powered egg shells for calcium.
Workmen used some of the rocks recovered from the garden to fill an old septic tank. They were around to dig up pipes and left a pile of surplus crushed limestone. It all seemed quite timely as the tile path became in more uneven as weeds pushed through the joints.
Despite plastic sheeting advocates in some permaculture circles, I’m not too keen on the idea, especially as the bags may degrade. On the other hand, it was good to reuse the bags, the only cost in relaying the path was the time.
The sweetest thing
Written by: adekun on 15 May, 2008 5:15 pm - Filed under: blog — 3 Comments »
With the warmer weather and turnings with the new fork, the compost’s stench of ammonia has given way to the scent of geranium. Quite a bit of the putrefying stuff got dug in prior to the potatoes, beans and peas. With the bulk of it gone, it was easier to arrange layers of green and brown. Perhaps more importantly, separate the slimy fibrous masses and get some air in. It’s cooler than it was a couple of weeks ago and there has been quite a bit of rain. On Tuesday there was a surprise thunderstorm bringing hyou (hail) as large as ice cubes. It really came down heavy and it’s looks like the summer veg has had too much water. I expect I’ll soon be moaning about the lack of it.
On the way back from our trip to Mitokusan Sanbutsuji we saw the rice paddies flooded up in the mountains. It started down here last week. The odd early bird farmer in-between spells planting out rice.
Composting compost bin
Written by: adekun on 1 August, 2007 9:45 pm - Filed under: garden — No Comments »
Last year I cobbled together a reasonable sized compost bin out of old wood. The sides were made from some reed blinds destined for the city incinerator. Sadly over the past year my toil has been turning into compost. With the help of a few unhandy spade jabs, probably a lot faster than the contents.
I always thought you can never have enough compost; fortunately my neighbour has and offered me some. It seemed like a good time to reuse and recycle – again.
There was some leftover wood from when the mother-in-law commissioned the sister-in-laws fiancé to replace the tatami floor with wood, whilst we were away. I rather very much liked it before. The scrap was soon to be collected for the dump.
A day was spent the previous week, savaging, sawing and hammering. Without any long nails, an hour was taken to straighten and sharpen some old rusty ones.
Compost Bin Mk II
The slide-up front panels are some old sliding cupboard doors, butchered to fit. As luck would have it there where five 40 litre bags of weeds, ready to go into the left bin. The compost I took went into the one on the right. No work of art, it didn’t cost anything and I’m very pleased with it.
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