Old Man Winter: 2 | Compost Guy: 0
Well, it has been almost a month and a half since my last winter composting update, and I’m sure some of you must be wondering what on earth happened. Unfortunately this year’s extravaganza was once again derailed in February – although it certainly wasn’t as decisive a victory for Old Man Winter this year. The timing wasn’t great – I ended up getting really busy with other things, and then was away for two weeks. It’s hard to say for sure if I would have succeeded (temps were continuing to decrease the last time I checked), but I guess we’ll never know.
We had a serious blizzard (~ 40 cm of snow) a couple weeks ago and still have not had anything resembling real spring weather as of yet, although the sun is certainly a lot more powerful these days which helps. As you can see both of my outdoor composters are still deep in snow. Once the weather starts warming up some more I’ll likely dig out what’s left of the snow around the insulated bin and open it up for a look.
All in all, I’m pretty happy with the progress I have made and know for sure that next year will be the one!! haha 
Of course, I would have loved to have a fully active bin all year round, but hey I can’t complain – still being able to compost outside in early February is pretty cool!
That being said, I am DEFINITELY looking forward to getting back to some normal outdoor composting and of course gardening as well!
Once again, for a full run down of winter composting posts (this year and last year) and general information, be sure to check out my Winter Composting page.
Technorati Tags: composting, winter composting, vermicomposting, worm composting, worm bin, outdoor composting, backyard composter
Written by Compost Guy on March 27th, 2008 with 1 comment.
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Today I added some of my finished bokashi mix to my large indoor worm bin. What was interesting was that it was from the bucket that had the poorly fitting lid, and I must say the material didn’t smell nearly so pleasant as when I checked on it last week (after it had been brewing for several weeks). While it brewed I had the other full bucket (which does have a tightly fitting lid) sitting on top of it, helping to keep it sealed. Now that it’s been exposed to air it is starting to smell like a regular anaerobic mess of food waste!
Regardless, I know it will end up as a tasty buffet for my worms, although they may not be interested in moving into it right away – we shall see. I added a layer of shredded cardboard to the bin before adding the food waste to provide a bit of a buffer zone for the worms, in case they are not happy with the new material.
I opened up the other bokashi bucket for a whiff and it still smelled quite good, so I suspect the odours are in fact due to a changing of the ecosystem as a result of oxygen getting in.
Anyway, I’ll report back once I see what happens in the bin!
Technorati Tags: bokashi, worm composting, vermicomposting, worm bin, composting, effective microorganisms, em, friendly microorganisms
Written by Compost Guy on March 26th, 2008 with 4 comments.
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Hi Everyone! I am back from a extended (two and a half weeks) trip visiting with family, and am ready to kick things into over-drive here at Compost Guy!
There certainly isn’t a shortage of things to write about! I figured a long overdue ‘bokashi update’ might be as good a place to start as any. It has literally been a month since my last update and both my full buckets have now been sitting for at least 3 weeks (one of them for over a month).
I decided to open them up and have a look-see inside. I must admit to feeling a tad apprehensive – not quite sure what sort of anaerobic horror show I might find inside. As per usual however, I ended up pleasantly surprised. The material in both buckets still smells pleasant, although perhaps a little bit more ‘pickled’. I even dug down to the very bottom of one bucket, desperately trying to find at least something semi offensive – but alas, no luck there either! The odour from the bottom of the bin was certainly stronger, but nothing like some of the foul stenches I’ve produced by letting organic wastes go anaerobic (via improper aeration) in the past. One other thing that surprised me was the lack of liquid pooling in the bottom (may be more in the other bucket though). I think the false bottom I made with shredded cardboard must have helped to soak up excess moisture.
Of course, the real test will be when I actually empty out the contents of the buckets – something I’m hoping to do tomorrow!
As you can see in the photo above, there is also a decent amount of white fungal mycelium – something that seems to be ‘par for the course’, based on info I’ve been reading – including some comments here on the blog.
Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ll definitely post another update in the very near future!
Technorati Tags: bokashi, bokashi bucket, em, friendly microorganisms, effective microorganisms, compost, composting
Written by Compost Guy on March 20th, 2008 with 2 comments.
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