Page 80 - Daggabay Magazine Issue 2

Green Thumb
The ingredients that go into truly organic
compost should be free of pesticides,
herbicides, synthetic fertilizers and other
non-organic compounds. The only way to
know if your compost is organic is by
making your compost.
Composting your kitchen and garden waste
will give you an environmentally-friendly
source of organic matter – and it’s free! It
will take about 6 months to produce
compost that’s lovely and crumbly and
ready for planting your cannabis.
First, you'll need a big bucket or old rubbish
bin, then you make holes at the bottom so
that all the liquids can drain from your
bucket and it will need a cover to keep the
warmth in and the rain out.
Choose a sunny corner of your garden to put
your bucket, place your bucket in the soil, as
you want worms and other micro-organisms
to come up through the soil to help, and for Avoid any of these foods:
any liquid to drain away.
This is the most important part. You’ll need
to keep adding equal amounts of nitrogen-
rich green waste (kitchen waste, grass
clippings, green leaves, weeds) and carbon-
rich woody waste (prunings, wood
chippings, torn-up paper, cardboard, straw
or dead leaves). For every bucketful of cut
grass, you should mix in the same volume of
sawdust, shredded cardboard or other
woody waste. Avoid meat, fat and cooked
food otherwise, you’ll just attract unwanted
guests.
Any large pieces of paper or cardboard
should be cut into smaller pieces or even
shredded; the smaller the pieces, the
quicker they will rot down.
When the mixture is brown and crumbly
and smells a bit like damp wood, then you’re
ready to use in the garden.
Here is some food waste that is great
for compost:
● All vegetable and fruit waste, even
moldy pieces – cores, peels, pits, and
skins
● Coffee grounds and filters
● Loose-leaf tea and tea bags
● Corn husks
● Eggshells, rinsed and crushed
● Expired spices
● Flowers from bouquets
● Juicer pulp
● Shredded, ink-free paper and
cardboard
● dead leaves and leaves
● wood chippings
● grass clippings
● Dairy products including butter, cheese,
milk, sour cream, and yogurt
● Condiments, dressings, or sauces
● Cooked leftovers
● Fat, grease, or oils of any kind
● Grains of any kind, cooked or uncooked
● Large, protein-rich seeds like winter squash
● Meat or meat waste products, including fish
and poultry, bones, fat, gristle, or skin
● Processed foods such as bread, candy, chips,
crackers, or pasta
● Takeout and fast foods