Apr 03 2012
Make Your Own Fertilizer
I took an active interest in composting during my many visits to Perth.
My sister and her family migrated to Australia over 10 years ago and my wife Stephanie also lived in Perth for five years or so. I admire the Aussies for their recycling culture and love for the environment. Once, when I was disposing something into the dustbin, my sister Pamela told me not to, but to put it in another bucket where it would go into the compost in their garden. Hence began my journey into the world of composting.
About three years ago, when I visited my wife Stephanie at her rented home, I told her I would start a compost for her in the backyard. It was my first attempt at composting from scratch. I think it did fairly okay but then Stephanie had to return to Singapore less than a year later.
Back in Singapore, we live in an apartment. Composting is much easier if you have a garden but we were determined to have a compost bin so that we can recycle waste and turn it into something useful—fertilizer.
To begin composting, you need a bin. We got a plastic bin with a lid from a neighbourhood store that sells pails and brooms. You need to drill a few holes into the bin on all sides and at the bottom for air circulation. Once that’s done, you’re ready to start your compost.
The ingredients to a compost are essentially made up of “greens” and “browns.” Greens are nitrogen-rich ingredients like raw vegetables, fruits, grass cuttings, and tea leaves. Browns are carbon-rich ingredients that are slow to rot such as dried leaves, dead plants, sawdust, shredded cardboard, and paper. As a general rule, the compost ratio should be 1 part greens to 2 part browns. (I usually wing it.)
I had some soil left over so I poured that into the bin first and then some dried leaves. You don’t have to start with soil, but I did that because I didn’t want to start with the greens; I was afraid it might leak from the bottom. Browns are dry you see.
I then started to put in vegetable and fruit scraps. Browns should go on top of that, and so on. You don’t need to “layer” the brown and greens, but I usually cover my greens with a layer of browns to prevent flies.
After a few months, the contents will decompose and you will get organic fertilizer, which is very good for plants.
Things that should not go into the compost are animal products like meat and fish, cooked food, dog faeces, and cat litter. (Yup no cooked food! Those will go rancid.) Egg shells are okay but wash the insides first.
The compost bin will attract flies. So a lid is important. Also, if there are a lot of flies, it could be that there are not enough browns. You can keep the bin in a shaded area or under the sun. The compost should not be wet but just a bit moist. Stirring the bin once in awhile will help the composting process. Have fun composting!
Very informative stuff! I’m reading ‘At Home’ by Bill Bryson, and here’s some trivia on fertilizer from the ‘Garden’ chapter… For centuries, people have been mad for just about anything that would make good fertilizer and help their crops — but they didn’t know what to put in it! So Pat could’ve been very rich if he’d marketed and sold his compost then!
“A survey of farmers in the 1830s showed that the fertilizers in use at that time included sawdust, feathers, sea sand, hay, dead fish, oyster shells, woollen rags, ashes, horn shavings, coal tar, chalk, gypsum and cotton seeds, among other products.”
Guano — essentially, the droppings of seabirds — was also in such great demand that it fetched $80 a ton in the 1840s!
“For thirty years Peru earned practically all its foreign exchange from bagging up and selling bird droppings to a grateful world. Chile and Bolivia even went to war over guano claims.
“The inevitable problem with guano was that it had taken centuries to accumulate, but no time at all to be used up. One island off the coast of Africa containing an estimated 200,000 tonnes of guano was scraped bare in just over a year.
“By 1850, the average farmer had the dispiriting choice of spending roughly half his income on guano or watching his yields wither.”
Pat is right… nitrogen is one of the elements that make a good fertilizer. So too, is phosphorus and potassium nitrate, which, as the book also says, “were also vital ingredients in gunpowder.”
LOL! You read Bill Bryson!? I tried to read his Short History Of Nearly Everything, then I spotted a typo in the periodic table and I didn’t trust it anymore. :P Is “At Home” also a history book? And… couldn’t other droppings be effective fertilizers too?
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We do the same at home, Evelyn! My husband is very into this, and I keep my veg peelings for him all the time! Man, can really see the plants showing their appreciation when we give them the good stuff :)
Hehehe finally a happy plant story! It’s good to know that this really works! I’ve got the seeds and the pots. Maybe I’ll start on the compost soon; this will give me a few months to read up on plant care!
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Yeah! This is my first Bill Bryson and well, I’m digging him because he includes lots of fun history stuff! Yikes, don’t let a typo in the table put you off wholesale… I really want to lay my hands on that book next! Did you borrow it at the library? Btw, have u checked out his website with his hilarious ‘alter ego’, the Brill Bison? Corny right, that’s why I love it, haha!
Regarding the other droppings, I suppose they could be as effective, though he noted that guano effectively killed off the demand for night soil (ie. human faeces)… and I guess other droppings weren’t available in such copius amounts then, unlike guano! I think it’s something to do with the diet of the seabirds too, that makes its nutrients more potent.
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My “compost” is all garden stuff – and you’ve seen my garden… there are always things to put in! I don’t put food things cuz the silly dogs will find a way in them.
The bin i use isn’t even a bin. It’s a LARGE plastic flower pot. Layla and Baby Z could sit in it and still have room to boogie. And because it’s a plant pot – it naturally has drainage in the bottom. Then I start filling it up and i don’t put a lid on it. I sit another pot (same type) on top of it. There’s enough ventilation and this sits in the garden exposed to all the elements and garden bug friends. When the bottom pot gets about half full, we tip it out in the garden and it’s mostly decomposed :) Saves us alot of work to bag up all the garden clippings and dead stuff!
Good luck on your composting! Maybe you can try worms :)
Hey hey! I think I could use some gardening advice… from you! I’ll be mailing you real soon. :P But urmm… worms. I feel the same way about them as I do about ticks.
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