Veggie scraps

There are a few different things you can do with your veggie scraps which I have written in this post. In fact I often find myself wishing I had more. Using a kitchen caddy makes moving scraps easier and means you don’t have to rush into the garden every time you chop something up.

One thing you can do with those food scraps is start a compost bin. There are so many varieties from standing plastic, rotating barrels and wooden framed.  Composting is when organic matter brakes down with the help of bacteria that rely on oxygen, do not get it mixed up with rotting which is organic matter being broken down by bacteria that live in an environment with little or no oxygen which leaves a bad small of methane.  

In order to prevent rotting and encourage composting your organic matter will need turning with a garden fork or some other method like using a turning barrel to get oxygen to its centre. I have a barrel composter for some of my veggie scrapes and it works a treat and most garden shops or hardware’s should sell these or be able to get one in for you.

Barrel Compost Bin

A newer method I have been hearing about is a method of breaking down organic matter other then rotting or composting and that is fermenting. Bokashi uses yeast to ferment the scraps until it is what you might say is pickled. There is light smell of yeast (beer), it doesn’t attract vermin and is said to only take two weeks. You can buy the kits which normally contain a kitchen caddy to place scrapes into and satchels of yeast to start the fermentation process.

Bokashi Kit

Worms love most scraps so it’s perfect to get a worm farm and use those scraps to feed them. Most worm farms go on about pH levels and all sorts to get them going but I just used cheap potting mix and a Styrofoam box and they seem to love it. When the worm population builds up I often take a handful out and place them in some of my larger pot then from time to time I place some scraps directly into the pot for them to feed on. If you do get a worm farm it does make it easier to gather worm castings (poo) and urine for your plants to feed on.

Worm Farm

Our landlord has planted one lemon tree a long time ago which was doing very poorly when we moved in. Since then I have been using a post hole digger to make a hole close to the tree in which I simply throw the scraps down, as it fills I use a cultivator to turn it and push it back down. When it cannot take anymore I dig another hole and use the new soil to cover it over, with the last few days of rain it has really started to grow back. 

My Tree Composting Method

Those are just some ways of using scraps, others are keeping bones with meat still on to make stock for soup and feeding them to pets (like our rabbits who make good manure).

Like always leave comments, your ideas and subscribe

NATURAL HARVEST
Garden tools, Organic Seeds, Fruit Trees & Seedlings

Address: (Inside) 49 Henley Beach Road,

   Henley Beach South, 5022, SA

Phone/Fax: 08 8356 2316
Email: naturalharvest@live.com.au
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Natural.Harvest.Seeds