Soil: If You Build It, You Can Grow and The Solution to the Mystery of What's Buried in my Plot

Soil.  It is the most important thing in growing a productive garden whether you are growing ornamentals or edibles.  Gardeners everywhere talk about it.  Businesses are built around it.  Entire books are dedicated to it.  But, how do you get it?

As with all things, ask 20 gardeners this question and you will get 20 different answers.  In my opinion, the truth is that there are many roads that you can take to lead you to the same destination.  But, the one thing these many roads have in common is good compost.  You have to keep enriching your soil with good quality organic material that will feed your dirt and the life within it.  John Jeavons, the master of biointensive planting, who has been teaching people how to make any land productive since 1972 and whose methodologies have been implemented in 141 countries to grow food for the hungry, says, "Develop soil structure so the plants will have a 'living sponge cake' in which to thrive."

Okay.  Got it.  Sponge cake.  And, then I got to asking myself how I could make my own sponge cake large enough to fill an empty raised bed which will require roughly 27 cubic feet or 1 cubic yard without compost and without spending a fortune?  And, have it be productive in the short term future?  The research began and The Lab, my plot at the Dunwoody Community Garden, was born.  I went to the bank and withdrew $130 of my fun  money that I earn from doing market research surveys or save from birthdays to accomplish this with.  Cash in hand, I was off looking for the road to soil traveled by those on a shoestring budget! 

In my research, I did not find one single recipe that I could use to make my own living sponge cake that would fill an empty raised bed.  There are many.  But, I did read about many methodologies used all over the world and many of them relied heavily on one very inexpensive ingredient - bales of straw.  At $4.50 a bale and with only three required, it's easy to see why this quickly became my plan.  But, I wanted this to be productive quickly and so I decided to follow the very basic and easy lasagna gardening method.  The idea behind lasagna gardening is that it is a no-dig, no-till, compost-in-place method where everything breaks down together over time and creates a very rich soil that will help your plants thrive.  The solution to my lack of compost that sounds a lot like a living sponge cake to me!  (You can read about it here and here and here.)  In short, it is the following:

• brown material
• fertilizer - equal parts bone meal and blood meal
• green material
• fertilizer - equal parts bone meal and blood meal
• brown material
• fertilizer - equal parts bone meal and blood meal
• compost or soil dug in to the middle
• plant

In my case, I chose to use the following because the materials where relatively inexpensive and available and because this was a combination I had read about that seemed to work.  To give you an idea, all of these materials together cost me about $100.

• 4" shredded newspaper, no glossy paper
• 4" alfalfa hay which equates to 2 bales purchased from my local, livestock feed store
• 3 wheat straw bales broken up and spread across the bed
• 2 bricks of coir which is not in the actual recipe but I decided to add it to help the bed retain moisture in the unbelievable southern summer heat.
• 6 bags of pre-made soil spread across the top to actually grow in in lieu of compost because I didn't have any
• 1 bag of bone meal
• 1 bag of blood meal

So, I layered all of this in my bed and the truth is that it was waaaaay too much for that 10" high raised bed.  But, I knew it would break down and settle over time, so I stuck with it. At the time though, I had this large mound held together with burlap and twist ties.  I watered it well, tossed in some buckwheat cover crop seeds and the fun officially began! 

A photo of the bed upon completion, 6/15/2011

And, it has been fun.  All sorts of people have asked me what I've got going on in there, my overflowing, hugely mounded, raised bed.  One friend and fellow gardener, Farmer Bob, went so far as to ask me if I had my husband buried in there because he hadn't seen him in a while.  Rest assured, he's alive and well.

The buckwheat cover crop grew well and then I tossed in some cowpeas with the idea being that I could harvest them when they are ready and they will fix nitrogen in the soil for the next crop.  Here's a recent photo of how things are progressing:

No loss of productive time even though the soil is in progress.
Photo taken 8/252011

It's a little hard to tell, but you can see the outline of the big mound of soil ingredients in there.  I have not added anything else except water to this bed since I built it.  I pull back a corner every once in a while to see how things are looking.  So far, I have learned quite a bit by trying this method.

1. There is an even thriftier way to do this.  Skip the alfalfa hay.  I am not convinced you need it and it was the most expensive ingredient of the bunch.  
2. I still think you need newspaper if you plan to grow on top of anything that is already growing.  In my case, my plot had grass growing.  The newspaper is sufficient to suppress its growth so it doesn't come through.  
3. I am not sure that you need the pre-made soil.  If you don't have compost, skip the soil and stick with the coir.  The coir is a perfectly suitable growing medium with the added benefit of retaining moisture.  The straw drains freely, so the coir helps balance that.  Or, if you have homemade compost available, by all means use that.

And, the experiment continues...

Bokashi, Oh my Gosh!

Fermentation is all the rage.  I am hearing fellow gardeners and foodies discussing lacto-fermented salsa, sauerkraut, pickles, yogurt, kefir, les herbes salees...  The list goes on.  And, there are some serious health benefits with this method of preserving.  The claims range from reducing cholesterol to improving immune function and even fighting cancer.  A quick Google search on lacto-fermented foods will give you enough articles to keep you busy for a few days.  All good stuff.

I have decided to broaden our fermenting scope around here beyond my usual homemade yogurt.  But, I am not using it for preservation.  I am using it for decomposition.  See, I am still searching for that perfect composting system.  Bins are great.  Worms are great.  Piles are great.  But, I still have three big issues:

1. Small hive beetle populations are known to be larger in bee yards that are in close proximity to compost.  I was warned about this over and over again by very experienced beekeepers.  And, I was encouraged to give up composting.  This I will not do.
2. I am lazy about kitchen scraps.  I fully admit it.  I have a bin in my kitchen and the scraps end up sitting in there for days before I haul them out to the composter.  By the time I get around to it, it's a rubber glove event.  Frankly, it can be foul.  This becomes an even bigger issue in the winter due to the shorter days and cooler temps.  This means I have to trek out to the compost pile in the dark and in the cold.  Not likely.
3. I have too many food scraps for the worms to get through.

The solution is simple, easy and oh so wonderful:  Bokashi

According to bokashicomposting.com:

"Bokashi means fermented organic matter in Japanese. Bokashi composting uses a selected group of microorganisms to anaerobically ferment organic waste. The microorganisms are applied using a impregnation carrier such as wheat bran. The fermentation process breaks the organic matter down in a process that is odor free. The process is very fast and usually takes less than two weeks. Once the fermentation has completed you can add the scraps to a worm bin or bury them directly in the soil. Since the process is done in a closed system you don't have to worry about insects and smells making it ideal for urban or business settings. Unlike more conventional composting systems bokashi systems can break down heavier items like meat, fish and cheese."

I have been using this system now for several weeks and I am happy to report that I am hooked.  I had my doubts about some of the claims, namely the claim that it would be odor-free.  (Especially once you smell the inoculant.  One whiff of that and you'll have your doubts, too.)  But, it's true.  In fact, my Mom was just here for a visit and she thought I had fashioned the buckets together to create a little sitting stool for myself in my kitchen.  She had no idea there's a week's worth of food scraps in those buckets.  Odor.  Free.

There are commercially made bins available for purchase to use in this system, but that's not really my style.  Why spend $50 when you can spend $10?  I set myself up with a bin for next to nothing and here's how you can do it, too:

These are the materials you will need:  two 5 gallon buckets and one lid.  Here, you see three 5 gallon buckets because I wanted to have an extra bucket on hand to start using when the first bucket became full.  I bought the buckets at Home Depot for under $3.  The lid was $1 or so.  If you don't care what color your buckets are or if you have a red kitchen, then you can buy recycled pickle buckets from Firehouse Subs for only $2 and the money goes to a good cause.  I care.  This thing is going to sit in my kitchen decomposing food scraps.  Call me petty, but I want it to at least blend. 

Turn one bucket over and and drill holes in the bottom of it.  I used a 1/8 inch drill bit and aimed for around 30 holes in an evenly spaced pattern.  I started in the center and worked my way out.  It took maybe 2 minutes.  This does not need to be precise for the system to work.  It can be completely random.  It really doesn't matter.  The evenly-spaced-pattern thing is just one of my hang-ups.  You don't have to make it one of yours.  At this point, you should have one 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled into it and one 5 gallon bucket with a solid bottom.

Now that you have drilled your holes, you are ready to use your bokashi composting system. First, you want to set the bucket with the holes in the bottom into the bucket with the solid bottom.  The goal is to create a reservoir to collect any liquids that leach from the decomposition process.  This liquid is good for a variety of uses including clearing and deodorizing clogged drains, feeding houseplants and activating regular compost among other things.  Now, based on some advice I read on the internet, I placed two coffee filters in the bottom of the inner bin to prevent food particles from falling into the drain holes and clogging them.  I am not 100% sure this is necessary, but it seemed like a good idea with sound reasoning and so I went with it. 

I then added a layer of shredded newspaper.  The idea here is to add an absorbent layer.  I forgot to do this the second time I started a bucket and have noticed no difference in either smell or amount of liquid leachate.  So, I would call this step optional.

Now, this is the step where this system goes from being an indoor waste bucket to a bokashi system.  The inoculant comes into play.  This is what makes bokashi bokashi.  This inoculant is made with bacteria, molasses and wheat bran.  If you perform a Google search for homemade bokashi recipes, you will get pages of hits.  Some recipes use shredded newspaper, some use wheat bran and others still use rice hulls.  I wanted to do this right the first time, so I bought this bokashi wheat bran made by Pro-kashi at Farmer D's for $14.00.  Going forward, I will make my own or buy directly from Pro-kashi for only $9.00.  Anyway, back to the directions.  You want to add a few tablespoons of bokashi inoculant on top of the shredded newspaper.

Now, add some food scraps and sprinkle more bokashi mix on top. Here's the great thing about bokashi- NOTHING is off limits.  Dairy?  It's fine.  Meat and bones?  Okay, too.  Oils and fats?  Toss 'em in.  We literally clear our dinner plates into the bin and call it a day.  A bokashi system reduces your household food wastes to zero. 

Put the tight fitting lid on your bucket and your system is complete and working.  At this point, you keep adding food scraps as you need to.  When you have a solid layer, you toss in a few more tablespoons of the bokashi inoculant.  When the bucket is full, you set it somewhere to let it decompose for 2 to 4 weeks.  Then, you can add it to a worm bin, bury it in the garden somewhere or add it to an existing compost pile where it will continue to break down even more.  Here's a great pictorial of the process -->click me!<--

As I mentioned earlier, I have been using this bokashi system for several weeks now and I don't think I will be stopping anytime soon.  It's so simple and convenient.  No more runs to the compost bin.  No more bins of rotting food scraps sitting on the kitchen counter stinking up the joint.  And, as an added benefit, I can take the buckets with me to the community garden where I have a plot and add my bokashi straight into my raised bed if I have an open space or am in between seasons.  It's portable like that.  Oh my gosh!  What else can I say?