Following some very useful advice yesterday from Al and Karen I decided to go ahead and dig in the Bokashi compost. I'm reasonably confident it was fermenting as it had an almost alcoholic/bready smell to it plus some of the bits of fruit etc had begun to take on a brownish colour. Digging it into my narrow border was somewhat fiddly due to the confined space and the pesky bamboo runners sneaking in from next door under the fence, it's like trying to cut through thick, nylon rope laced through the soil. Still, chopping the blighters off and digging them up may help retard their progress.
Next problem is the roving mob of neighbourhood cats who gleefully embrace my freshly dug borders as a deluxe latrine. I've gathered up every bucket/garden chair/toy lawnmower/football I could lay my hands on and piled them over the soil to try and put the cats off.
As I was finishing up, a large crow perched on a neighbour's ariel, cast a weather eye over my efforts and, just as a dark cloud blotted out the sun and a cold wind gusted around my ears, he bellowed a grating caw. That's not a portent is it? Not by anyone's definition. No I thought not. Couldn't be. No. (shiver)
I think the crow was just congratulating you on a job well done!! I have never heard of this composting method before and would love to know a little more about this bran stuff you sprinkle in...does this mean it becomes compost quicker?? Is it only suitable for kitchen scraps??
ReplyDeleteIf you Google there's a ton of stuff about it, Al who commented on the last post has a whole blog dedicated to the stuff!
ReplyDeleteBasically you have this bran which has a culture of bacteria in it which effectively 'pickled' the organic matter.(people also feed it to chickens to stop their poo being smelly) it's a bit more flexible than normal composting as you can put more things in there, like citrus fruit, cooked food, small bones etc
Once it's fermented it rots down really quickly, you can put it directly into the soil like I did or add it to normal compost. You also get liquid coming off it which can be used as plant food or drain cleaner! I've been using it to clean the patio after the chickens have pooed on it.
It's handy for me as I have limited space and can't accommodate an ongoing compost heap. My plan is to do the bokashi thing around Christmas time each year which means I can dig it in early spring while my borders are bare and re-juvenate the soil in time for the growing season.
Dig for Victory (or Bokashi compost)
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