A Pile of Gold

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Posted on October 20, 2021

Well, it is not strictly gold but we had this pile of compost delivered today. This rich, organic material is like gold for our vegetable garden beds.

GMan and I moved it all to the various garden beds this afternoon. We also pulled up plenty of weeds which are thriving with the recent rain. At least the ground is soft which makes them easier to pull out.

Most of my posts, like this one, are about things that happen here that are a little bit out of the ordinary. However, tomorrow I am going talk about some of the everyday jobs. The ones we do day in and day out. They get very little recognition but they definitely need to be done.

Taking Responsibility

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Posted on January 13, 2021

We have 3 different types of rubbish collection available to us.

Regular rubbish which is collected weekly goes directly to landfill. We have a small (120 litre) bin for this service and try to minimise the amount we put in it. Sometimes we only take it to the kerbside for collection once a month or less often.

The yellow-lidded 240 litre bin is for mixed recyclables which are sorted at the waste collection facility. Glass, steel, paper, cardboard, aluminium and some plastics are accepted. Collection is fortnightly. Once again, this bin is not usually put out for every collection as we try to limit the amount of packaging which we bring into our home.

Finally, we choose to have the optional ‘green waste’ bin which is suitable for garden prunings, leaves and grass clippings. We are fortunate to have plenty of space for compost heaps but some garden waste is really not suitable for the compost, such as some branches and weeds so these go in the bin.

It is over 12 months since I decided that we could stop putting any paper or cardboard in the recycle bin and that we should take responsibility for this ourselves. I know that this option is not available to or feasible for everyone but this is what we do.

I have a small, previously unused cupboard in the study desk where I keep the shredder and any paper or lightweight cardboard goes in there. About every 3 months I clear it out, sort and shred the paper and cardboard.

The white office quality paper makes excellent material for the nesting boxes for the chickens.

The remainder is shredded and added to the compost. Shredding it means that it will break down faster. The compost is eventually added to the garden and we have dealt with any paper and cardboard completely onsite without the need for energy-intensive recycling processes.

Ready for the compost.

The only paper or cardboard that does not get shredded is large or heavy packaging and the occasional local newspaper. These are stored downstairs until required and used for weed control layers under mulch in the garden.

Compost Bays – Completed

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Posted on April 23, 2020

We now have 4 new functioning compost bays, and as promised, here are some views of the finished product.

Because of the slope, the ground needed to be levelled once all of the structure was in place.

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Close-up of some of the details.

We wired the mesh panels to the star pickets.

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Geotextile stapled to the inside of the timber lattice.

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The 5 metres of geotextile and 1 star picket were the only new purchases we made for this project. Everything else was already here and most of it had been salvaged or recycled.

One of the most important considerations when planning this project was the street view. The back of the bays are parallel to and only 1 metre inside our boundary fence which faces the road.

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I am very pleased with the result, and if anything, it has actually enhanced the view from the street.

A Weekend in the Garden

I Bought a Bucket

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Posted on February 4, 2017

This may seem like mindless consumption as I did already have a bucket to collect the kitchen scraps for the compost but I recently bought a new compost bucket.

I first considered buying this over 12 months ago when I saw the one my daughter had at her place. The thing that appealed to me about it was the drop-in lid with a silicone seal. The following photo shows the lid and also the bucket insert. It is also rather more stylish when sitting on the kitchen bench and has the added bonus of being labelled which is a help to guests who are unfamiliar with our kitchen.

These are the 2 buckets I have used previously. Each one is a bit larger than the new one so I will definitely need to empty it each day but that is not a great imposition. The lid is the main problem as it takes 2 hands to seal it tightly as opposed to the drop-in lid on the new one.

I ordered the bucket online and it arrived packaged in a cardboard box. This had clearly been re-used which is pleasing but the downside was that it had 2 layers of plastic tape. I managed to remove all of the tape so that I can use the cardboard as weed mat in the garden. There was quite a pile of tape.

In fact, the tape contributed quite a significant portion of our waste for the week. You can see it all here.

The rubbish for this week weighed in at 264g which is considerably more than the previous couple of weeks. This is due in to the plastic sticky tape from the cardboard box. There is also a selection of items, including, plastic bags from rice paper wrappers, tortillas, cheese and carrots, an expired credit card, foil packet from medications, festival wristband, bottle tops, screen cleaning cloth and plastic packaging from a computer program.

A Working Weekend

The Great Garlic Massacre & Other Dirty Tales

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Posted on June 16, 2013

We have finally had some of the glorious winter weather for which south-east Queensland is renowned – clear, sunny days and crisp, cool nights.

The majority of yesterday and today has been spent in the garden. I have previously shown you the 3 raised vegetable garden beds. One was planted out with seeds a couple of weeks ago. I planted 2 bean seeds together in each hole and they all germinated so I transplanted the extras. I am not sure whether they will survive the process but it never hurts to try.

We moved some lemon tree prunings which had been in this tank and filled it with soil from one of the old garden beds which is now redundant. The soil is fabulous and it would be a shame to waste it. We mixed it with some mulch (from the poinciana stump which we had ground last year) and also some mushroom compost. In the centre you can also see some bok choy seedlings. The bok choy seeds came up so thickly that I have thinned heaps of them and will thin them out again as they get a bit bigger. I could not bear to just throw the thinnings away so they were all transplanted. Some went into this old esky filled with soil and mulch.

I put some others in between the potato plants in the other raised bed. The bok choy will be well and truly finished before the potatoes take over.

The carrots, onions and beetroot have also germinated and are growing but are probably too small to identify in this photo. You can, however, see the beans and bok choy.

A few weeks ago I bought some organic garlic ready to sprout and plant. It has been languishing in a bag on the floor of the pantry but today was the day to plant it out. Firstly, we had to finish preparing the third raised bed. It was about 1/3 full of leaf litter, mushroom compost and shredded arrowroot leaves. Today we added some grass clippings after The Duke had mowed the lawn area area the vegie patch, more mushroom compost, lots of mulch and soil as previously described. Then it was time to plant the garlic. We peeled off the papery outer layer, separated the cloves and planted them in rows with the sprouting tip pointing upwards. You can see all of the shredded outer layers on the ground beside the bed. It really did look like something had been massacred. The bed is 2.4m x 1.2m and it is entirely planted with rows of garlic. If this is even moderately successful I should never have to buy garlic again!

I cleared some old cherry tomato plants out of another round tank, topped up the soil and mulch and planted these golden sweet potato plants that had been in a pot for ages since my brother-in-law gave them to us.

This is the old garden bed where we have been digging up the soil to re-use. There is still plenty left.

The pile of mulch which resulted from the grinding of the tree stump last year has been put to good use in the garden beds. We still have more that we can take from here to build up the next round of garden beds.

It is gratifying to be able to use and reuse everything from our own property in the gardens. Leaf litter, compost, mulch, soil and grass clippings all go into creating the next lot of vegetables for us to eat. Chickens, chickens manure and eggs are also part of the cycle. Trees provide fallen timber for firewood which in turn leaves ash that we put back into the compost heap or garden bed. Permaculture in action really is the circle of life.

The Kitchen Bin

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Posted on August 1, 2012

Tonight’s post is in response to a question posed by Jean in the comments of my post a couple of days ago about Zero Waste. She asked about alternatives to using plastic to line a kitchen bin.

I have read about using newspaper to make an origami-style bin liner and one day I might do that. In the meantime, I find that despite my best efforts, I always seem to have plenty of plastic bags for the purpose.

I line my small kitchen bin with whatever plastic bag comes to hand. I do not knowingly bring any extra plastic bags into the house but some is simply unavoidable at this stage. Any bag that looks as though it would be useful for this purpose is saved. I keep them in a ziplock bag in the laundry cupboard.

For example, I buy frozen peas so I carefully slit the top of the bag and then use that in the bin. Often, it does not tuck neatly over the edge but I am prepared to accept that. I use a rubber band to tie it off before throwing in the bin. If I get any plastic bags in packaging of items such as small appliances these are kept for the bin as well. They usually have a few air holes to avoid accidental suffocation but that is not a problem as my waste is usually just confined a small number of non-recyclable items which need to be contained rather than necessarily sealed in plastic.

I do not put any meat scraps in my kitchen bin. I generally buy meat that has no waste eg: skinless, boneless chicken breast fillets, premium mince etc. The exception is bacon as I trim the fat off it. I put the meat scraps in a bag in the freezer and occasionally add them to a kitchen rubbish bag immediately prior to putting the garbage out for collection.

Anything which can be composted is collected in the compost bucket – this includes all fruit and vegetable scraps as well as eggshells and butter wrappers.

Finally, here are the bins in a pull-out drawer in my kitchen. Each bucket lifts out for easy disposal and cleaning. On the left is the small one I line with my rubbish bag and on the right is the recycling.

I will do another post soon and examine exactly what rubbish we have for a week.

Let me know how you manage your various waste streams. Have you made a conscious effort to reduce the amount of rubbish you send to landfill?

End of Life

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Posted on May 24, 2012

Despite all the mending and repairs, there comes a time when things reach the end of their life. This pair of The Duke’s trousers is a perfect example.

I have previously posted about patching them and while the patches have survived there is yet another worn patch lower down the leg. These are not accidental rips – the fabric is simply wearing out and they are getting quite thin in numerous places. Therefore, it has ceased to be worthwhile mending them any longer.

My initial thought was to throw them in the bin but then I realised that as well as being mindful when we are purchasing items we should also be responsible for them at the end of their useful life. Many garments are cut up for rags or tying up plants in the garden but these are suitable for neither.

I decided to remove the zip and button for possible future re-use and decided that since these trousers are cotton they could go in the compost.

So that the fabric would mix with the rest of the compost I cut the trousers into strips and here it is ready to become part of the garden.

This is my seam ripper which is identical to the one that I broke while removing the zip from the trousers. I am not sure why I had two of these but now there is only one. The broken one went in the rubbish bin.