Guest guest Posted November 27, 1999 Report Share Posted November 27, 1999 I have been searching the forest for compost materials, and came across some extensive bamboo groves, which are littered with dried and decaying bamboo leaves. This will solve the carbon part of my compost making, if such leaves are good. Does anyone know if bamboo leaves are good for compost? YS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 28, 1999 Report Share Posted November 28, 1999 "COM: Samba (das) SDG (Mauritius)" wrote: > [Text 2812147 from COM] > > I have been searching the forest for compost materials, and came across some > extensive bamboo groves, which are littered with dried and decaying bamboo > leaves. This will solve the carbon part of my compost making, if such leaves > are good. Does anyone know if bamboo leaves are good for compost? > > YS Personally, no. But I am curious - how far from a town are you? If organic farming is small or nonexistant hwere you are, then the best untapped sources of rganic material could be the urban areas. Of course I don't know the culture there nor do I know how you are situated by urban areas. Although I am spoiled by ready access to cow manure, I know one gardener who used to be here, everytime he went to town he stopped by the cemetary. Out in the back, all the leaves they had raked from the cemetary were dumped in piles, and he would go to the older ones and fill his truck with nice leaf mould. Whenever I am in town with my little truck, and see leaves in bags, I toss them in back and bring them home. Currently, I made an arrangement with a company that trims trees for the electric company. They chip up branches when they are clearing in a place when they can't just blow the mulch ove rthe hill, they blow it onto there truck. Whne it is full, they come dump it out by me. They filled the space I was able to allocte for them, and now are dumping on NV community property. I have a pile about 10 feet high by 50 feet long. Great for mulch around trees, and if I were to mix manure with it and have a little patience, would make some compost. One pile that the leaves had gone composted in it already, and that really dried out this past droughty summer, I have tarped and will use for heat thiis winter, mixing it in with the regular wood. If I lived closer to town, there are lots more things I could do. For instance, coffoe grounds are good fertilizer, and anyone living near a Starbucks or whatever, could ask them to save the grounds, if they were able to pick them up on a regulated basis. I guess in the US, it is just so wasteful, but you might have a similar opportunity there? Just curious. Hare Krsna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 28, 1999 Report Share Posted November 28, 1999 It is always good to simply have trees in your garden. Every fall they provide leaves you can just rake into your gardenbeds. In priciple anything organic can and will be composted. In our community the municipality collects peoples "gardengarbage" and piles it. After some time it is run through a grinder and a new pile is formed. After some time that pile is sifted and the composted soil is ready for sale. The piles ar very big due to being made with big machines and I tell you the heat inside is tremendous. If you put your arm in there you cannot tolerate the heat! If they weren´t so square they could extract a lot of energy from that. ys Trayimaya d. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 29, 1999 Report Share Posted November 29, 1999 > Personally, no. > > But I am curious - how far from a town are you? Quite close. > > If organic farming is small or nonexistant hwere you are, then the best > untapped sources of rganic material could be the urban areas. Of course > I don't know the culture there nor do I know how you are situated by urban > areas. Yes I have already thought of the potential in this area. My problem at the moment is: so much to do, and so little time! But it certainly makes sense to tap into the potential. My problem is also that I am new to this country and am still trying to figure out how it all works. It is unlike America, in that there is not so much entrepreneurial spirit in terms of alternatives, and also people are not so wasteful. Also there are cultural barriers, Hindu / Muslim / Christian / divides which are strong, as well as language barriers. What we are doing is so new, it is almost incomprehensible to many people here, and they dont really understand what you want. Fo instance right now I am searching for an old bus to take onto the land to live in, but many people just cannot accept that that is what I want to do, so they misunderstand me. I want an old bus because I just cannot expend the energy right now to build a cottage. We just started to make our raised beds, and every few shovels full of soil have to be seived to get the stones out. The good news is that there are plenty of stones to pave the perimeter path, but it is a lot of work, and so far there are only two of us at it. > If I lived closer to town, there are lots more things I could do. For > instance, coffoe grounds are good fertilizer, and anyone living near a > Starbucks or whatever, could ask them to save the grounds, if they were > able to pick them up on a regulated basis. There are no brand companys such as Starbucks here, it is a nation of Ma and Pa corner shops. Of course this has its charms, but unfortunately it means there arent so many freebees. You could probabaly live a decent life just from what you get in dumpsters in the US or skips in London (I have experience, I lived next to the famous Portobello Market in Londons West End for a while). > > I guess in the US, it is just so wasteful, but you might have a similar > opportunity there? Just curious. There may well be opportunities, and thanks for the tips, I will have to look harder. YS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 29, 1999 Report Share Posted November 29, 1999 > It is always good to simply have trees in your garden. Every fall they > provide leaves you can just rake into your gardenbeds. > In priciple anything organic can and will be composted. > > In our community the municipality collects peoples "gardengarbage" and > piles it. After some time it is run through a grinder and a new pile is > formed. After some time that pile is sifted and the composted soil is > ready for sale. The piles ar very big due to being made with big machines > and I tell you the heat inside is tremendous. If you put your arm in there > you cannot tolerate the heat! If they weren't so square they could extract > a lot of energy from that. I have seen people coiling flexible water pipe through such piles, you can get a lot of hot water! We are surrounded by forest trees, but the leaf mulch is pervaded with pine needles which are acidic, and our soil is supposed to be acidic too, so I am paranoid about using pine needles in compost (we are getting the soil test done next week hopefully.) I have heard in some places that once you compost pine needles they become neutral in the process, but I am not sure if this is the case. If I could get that confirmed we can get the carbon element for the compost easily, as we are surrounded by mixed pine eucalyptus and other leaf mulch. The Nitrogen element is coming from the abundant green grasses and reeds from the bog, which we wil mix with sugar cane tops (the leaves) and cow dung. YS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 29, 1999 Report Share Posted November 29, 1999 > > > > > I guess in the US, it is just so wasteful, but you might have a similar > > opportunity there? Just curious. > > There may well be opportunities, and thanks for the tips, I will have to > look harder. > YS Shoot for the rhino. Raking up forest litter will be very time consuming. Having something boxed up and ready to go could save time, better yet, something delivered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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