Africanaussie

Compost is something I do for my garden that I feel really really good about.  In the back of my mind I knew that somehow compost sequestered carbon, but the facts here on  Jerry Colby Williams blog  make me want to go out straight away and build another compost bin. My first compost bin was just that - a plastic bin, and it is still going strong - it is about 8 years old now.   and I worked the compost in that continuously, turning over the compost two or three times a week.  I dont have the room for hot composting, but my gosh I got my mixture humming along pretty nicely.  Some of my bins favourite food is Browns: mulched dried leaves from our lychee tree shredded cardboard and newspaper Greens: cut lemongrass leaves seaweed picked up from the beach beer waste from the bottom of the beer brewing barrel  Then I was gifted some gardening money and off I went to pick up a compost tumbler.....  I find this one actually takes a bit...

I have just discovered that this week is a very special week!  Compost awareness week!  How did I miss that?  How did I not anticipate its arrival - warn everyone, send out flyers, give all my friends little compost bins to perch on the side of their sinks......  http://www.compostweek.com.au/   I truly credit compost with  the turnaround in my garden soil.  I had never used  a bin before, and had heard that they were not so effective, and that the compost could get wet, or dry and difficult to manage etc. etc.  Looking back on past gardens, I have had more success with a bin than I ever did with an open compost heap. Some pointers that I think really help: 1. Leaves . you need leaves, and if you can shred them, so much the better.  2. Air.   I try to turn the compost at least once a week, and it doesn't matter if I don't get all the way down to the bottom, as that bottom layer can just ...