I make maysef "soil bacteria" for fertilizing the soil. 500g of rice (cheap), cold water 1L. In the jar, I soak rice overnight in 1 L of water. Then I remove the rice and leave the rice water in a jar. Rice I can cook and eat, or leave in compost bins. I cover the jar with the rice water with a cloth tied with an elastic band or string. Leave in a dark but warm place for 7 days. After 7 days, I pour 1 L of milk (cheap) into the rice water and again leave it for 7 days. In a dark, warm place (not at home because the milk ferments and stinks) after 7 days, I pour 500g of brown cane sugar or 500 ml of molasses. Don't worry that milk will have mold; it's all good. Leave it again for 7 days. In a big water barrel, better with a tap, after 7 days, pour rice water with milk and sugar or molasses into the barrel 220l (Mold with fermented milk "skin" you can throw on compost.) Add tap water to the brim, cover with the cap, and leave it again for 7 days. After that time, your soil bacteria are ready. You can water all kinds of plants, from trees to veggies, fruits. It doesn't matter whether annuals or perennials like acidic soil or not. I use that soil bacteria once a year. May to November. If you still have a lot in November, use it to speed up composting. It really, really helps with earthworms.
In nature, waste from the season including dead leaves, plants, fruit, veg, etc would have all become a natural compost on the forest floor at the end of the season. It would provide warmth to the soil and breakdown over the months before spring, when the nutrients would be available for new growth. So this seems like the logical thing to do, we are just speeding up the process by keeping a compost pile separately when you think about it…
My uncle brought me more than a dozen bags of yard leaves from his last trip into town! I used a few to cover beds and a few to mix with chicken bedding to make compost.
I threw it together with a bunch of water, checked it the next day (40°C) and then went on holiday for more than a week. I'm excited to go turn it in the morning and see what the thermometer says!
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If I can, I use leaf mould in winter compost in spring
Cover crops. Chop and drop. Cover with compost. Replant.
If it's all you have …..
There are more earth worms under the wood chip paths versus the established no dig beds.
The worms go where the best food is, so if you've got compost on your beds and woodchips on your paths maybe they just prefer the woodchips.
OK, so now I am confused…when and how are you going to be using your compost now? Mixing into the soil in your beds rather than mulching with it?
I make maysef "soil bacteria" for fertilizing the soil. 500g of rice (cheap), cold water 1L. In the jar, I soak rice overnight in 1 L of water. Then I remove the rice and leave the rice water in a jar. Rice I can cook and eat, or leave in compost bins. I cover the jar with the rice water with a cloth tied with an elastic band or string. Leave in a dark but warm place for 7 days. After 7 days, I pour 1 L of milk (cheap) into the rice water and again leave it for 7 days. In a dark, warm place (not at home because the milk ferments and stinks) after 7 days, I pour 500g of brown cane sugar or 500 ml of molasses. Don't worry that milk will have mold; it's all good. Leave it again for 7 days. In a big water barrel, better with a tap, after 7 days, pour rice water with milk and sugar or molasses into the barrel 220l (Mold with fermented milk "skin" you can throw on compost.) Add tap water to the brim, cover with the cap, and leave it again for 7 days. After that time, your soil bacteria are ready. You can water all kinds of plants, from trees to veggies, fruits. It doesn't matter whether annuals or perennials like acidic soil or not. I use that soil bacteria once a year. May to November. If you still have a lot in November, use it to speed up composting. It really, really helps with earthworms.
In nature, waste from the season including dead leaves, plants, fruit, veg, etc would have all become a natural compost on the forest floor at the end of the season. It would provide warmth to the soil and breakdown over the months before spring, when the nutrients would be available for new growth. So this seems like the logical thing to do, we are just speeding up the process by keeping a compost pile separately when you think about it…
My uncle brought me more than a dozen bags of yard leaves from his last trip into town! I used a few to cover beds and a few to mix with chicken bedding to make compost.
I threw it together with a bunch of water, checked it the next day (40°C) and then went on holiday for more than a week. I'm excited to go turn it in the morning and see what the thermometer says!