xmlns:fb='http://ogp.me/ns/fb#' Karen Wagner garden & design: big red ....composter

Saturday 10 September 2011

big red ....composter

If you enjoy gardening, then that usually means you like to get your fingers a little dirty,  feel really good about recycling and especially about creating compost.  Particularly when you get to use it yourself all around your vegie garden or on the newly planted seedlings. 

There is something very satisfying about creating compost :- turning smelly peelings and fruit bits into thick black unctuous soil like compound - and then actually using it.....its a little like the magic of alchemy.  It's also deceptively easy to do.
But like a lot of gardening things it can take up a bit too much space in the essential part of the garden and really composters can be an eyesore.  So a creative solution is often needed...

Well I have a solution....   I saw these wonderful composters that are reminisant of bee hives and work just as cleverly when I was in the UK a number of years ago.  Now we are having them made right here by a lovely local firm in Tasmania.  And we have a lovely red one that looks great in the garden. (We do have some plain ones too or you can paint it any colour you like really).    They come apart bit by bit at each level when all is ready, so you can easily access and remove your compost onto the garden and then start the process  all over again in exactly the same spot if you need to.

Perfect for large or small gardens or just for gardens that don't have space for having things hidden away.



Our big red composter in store......looks great in the garden



This is a very practical application with the small vegetable and herb garden, the pizza oven and the composters all up one end of the garden away from what could be at the other end.......the next picture shows what could be up the other end.....


 
Or put this great looking composter in amongst the flowers and grow whatever you like in your compost.  It could be good for for an enormous pumpkin plant this summer.

A few tips to make composting easy.....  add all your veg and fruit and organic kitchen scraps.  Go lightly on things like oranges, lemons and other citrus,egg shells and particularly meat scraps.  You can include tea leaves and coffee grounds.  Every now and again add some mown grass or pea straw or similiar to the compost bin especially if your compost tends to be a bit too wet.  You don't want it too wet or too dry.  Natural decomposition needs a little moisture to operate effectively. 
The best way to compost is in a pile in a container that creates the right conditions for breakdown....don't be tempted to throw your vege scraps straight onto your garden beds...its not effective and just attracts rats and mice really.

Have some fun....

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