SFG in Amsterdam Nieuw West

Hi there! Glad you popped in here to give us an update. How is the garden doing?

Princezoe, nice to see you again and to know you are still  busy.

The garden is still big, but i only have 2 boxes right now unfortunately. Made a 3rd one and going to put seeds in it
Lacking compost unfortunately so i am making a new pile now

This is a pic of Compost pile nr 2 i started 2 days ago and is quite warm, planning to turn it each 3 days
Sanderson, can you turn the pic please

Richard, I don't know how to turn a posted photo. Boffer? Class time?

Ok, i did not manage to do it either unfortunately

Another question, i still want to make an italian SFG site with wordpress, but i am lacking knowledge in making a site
Does the SFG organization have a template which i can use to make a site in italian with pics and a blog ?

princezoe wrote:The garden is still big, but i only have 2 boxes right now unfortunately. Made a 3rd one and going to put seeds in it
Lacking compost unfortunately so i am making a new pile now

This is a pic of Compost pile nr 2 i started 2 days ago and is quite warm, planning to turn it each 3 days
Sanderson, can you turn the pic please

When you turn it 90 degrees take another picture and see if it prints properly.

princezoe wrote:...Does the SFG organization have a template which i can use to make a site in italian with pics and a blog ?

Not that I'm aware of, but it might be best to ask them directly.

http://squarefootgardening.org/contact

I am now making my 4th compost pile.
The first two were with horse manure, grass, branches, leaves, coffee and that went really well
This one is only made of some coffee, veggies, but mostly leaves and grass clippings.
It is taking some more time and the pile is half as big as it should be but i must say today it was quite hot and i saw some composting process going on

The SFG method worked outstanding this year and i am planning to make some more boxes
I also got some window frames but still looking for affordable vermiculite.
The peat moss and compost(ofcourse home-made) are no problem

Hi, princezoe! Your composting looks great! Wish my piles were that big, gonna work on that.

 Hi there.  Good to hear from you again.  Wonderful testament to square foot gardening.  Can you find perlite easier? How is the public garden doing back in the Netherlands?

Princezoe!  Good to see you!

Glad things are going so well...  Can't wait to see more pictures...

Making a compost pile durng the winter season really is a patient job...  i made my current compost pile in november and it is still not perfect
I think the reason is that i used too much leaves, branches and paper and few grass clippings
Could not get animal manure unfortunately
I think that animal manure is the key factor in making a compost pile fast
I hope i can finish the current compost pile in 3 weeks to i have time to make a new compost pile that is ready the end of april

In the meantime, besides my paid job of course, i made a website in italian about SFG which will be ready in march
Quite hard to make an italian website, as italian is not my mother language
I think i have a nice website name and also after mailing with sfg4ukim i can use a SFG name for italy
The next 3 weeks i will be spending a lot of time in making the site the way i want it, so you will hear from me soon

So goooood to hear from you. Your website sounds exciting so you will have to share the link with us, even if most of us can't speak Italian. Manure is a good ingredient for compost piles. Can you get hold of some now? Layer it with the existing material? Branches (wood) takes a long time to break down and ties up much of the nitrogen until it is finished. If you make another fall compost pile, can you get hold of some almost rotten veggies from farmer fields? Please post photos of what you have been able to do in your new country.

PZ, human urine ( pee ) diluted 1 litre to 20 of water is an old stand by  for helping to kickstart the compost heap as it has a fair bit of  of nitrogen in it

 Where you are in Italy can you get hold of fresh fish scraps , shell fish such as prawn or shrimp shell ,sea weed or restaurant uncooked veg waste . all these will help in a compost pile .

 If you buy eggs  from a  small time  grower see if you can get hold of a couple of 15 kg poly propylene sacks of chicken muck with or without feathers or straw. .
Hang the sacks in a barrel of water and agitatethe water every  day after five days add 5 kg of sugar as a  1 kg to 1 litre of boiling water hot water syrup . Mix it in the " soup " well , stirring it  every day for another six days , this will feed the yeasts & bacteria in the manure and start decomposing the chicken muck to turn it into a very high quality liquid manure .

 This liquid manure can be  sprinkled  over each layer of new material added to the compost heap ..it is well & truly  bacterially alive and will help the piles decomposition .

 You can also dilute it  as per the urine idea  and put it round the plants as a liquid feed . 
Don't ever put it on the greenery of salads or fruits  that you want to eat uncooked as the live bacteria will cause you to have a severe dose of the  Errrrrrrm..  " Tummy problems " or an eColi infection  etc etc.

Thanks for your ideas and you mentioned the pee idea before hehe
The reason i donot have manure is not that there are no maneges, farmers etc in this region
The thing is i donot want manure in bags in my car and i donot have a trailer or something else to transport it
And i donot need much manure right now to have it transported to me
Still thinking about a solution

You also need to MAKE SURE that your urine person isn't on ANY medications.

thanks marie

Another thing: you are warning me for too much brown material, but here is a link to a man who says you can only use leaves to compost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9OhxKlrWwc

Good video. I can't wait until I have more time to reply.

princezoe wrote:thanks marie

Another thing: you are warning me for too much brown material, but here is a link to a man who says you can only use leaves to compost

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9OhxKlrWwc

 If that were the case  why do you think all of us here on WSF have learnt that you need a balance of differing materials to make a good compost .?

 The term " Compost " is a single word that can cover many many different end products and just as many different way of making that product .

Many un-informed folk often refer to horse muck straight out the stable  as "  compost " even when it's neat SH *T  

Forget the You Tube hero .. have a look at " The Berkley 18 day hot composting method "  site instead , it's part of the Cornell university USA ..they are world renowned for agricultural development .

In the site they talk a lot about not using a large proportion of any single material. You will be amazed at the different things that can be used to make a quality compost.

Wheat straw is an excellent brown for composting. So is well dried lawn cuttings . It is all to do with getting as many different nutrients & trace elements from material that will decay into you compost heap for this in turn will end up as a balanced compost ..too much of one item  or type will usually upset th balance and over time it will definitely start to show .

 Do you have a copy of Mel's book with you  ( details shown in my strap lines ) ?
 In it he gives a good way of making your home made compost .

thanks Plantoid, i have the book and as you know i made some compostbins with various ingredients (also manure)
Your reply made it clearer for me to get some manure fast

Do check out the Berkley site   you can make a quality compost out all manner of things .


 That guy in the video  clip is most likely being paid by a radio station  so having a comic make a sensational claim would get a following of the uninformed quite quickly .

 I felt that his progression of scientific reasoning was not very sound ,  wood land even with a lot of leaf mould does not grow much, even if the timber has been felled & remove & new plants have taken over from the trees .
 


It also seems he didn't know why the French use the leaves swept up from the town & city streets . It is part of the Eu's Green  drive to recycle 80 % plus of all waste instead of putting it in land fill or burning them . All the EU members have to meet set targets for recycling or their governments get fined heavily by the EU in Brussels . .

Other reasons  the French use the leaves ..they are cheap ..most likely free & and need very little work to make it a low grade ,very cheap product that is only needed for a few weeks at the best till the plants are sold.

French veg farmers & Pottagers use copious amounts of well composted old animal manures & the beddings thereof .

 I also strongly suspect that the French leaf mould product the plant growers are using is enhanced with factory made chemicals so that is can be guaranteed to meet the requirement of the plant growers  as nearly all EU products have to meet stringent EU standards & be fully traceable from start to finish .  
Along with the fact that most species of crop needs differing specific formulae  for optimum growth . .

We didn't end up leaving this evening so I have time to reply.  Plantoid, I'm glad you were able to post.

This is just my take on leaves in compost.  They are invaluable.  I'm the crazy neighbor lady that rakes the neighbors' leaves in the fall to make compost.  Shredded with a mower they make up the Carbon/Brown backbone bulk of my composts.  But just like making beef stew, leaves are just the beef with water.  I add manure (horse) as the Nitrogen/Green, like adding veggies to the stew.  Then I add anything else I can get hold of, coffee grounds, veggies, lawn mowings, seaweed, shredded alfalfa hay. Think of these as the trace spices of the beef stew/compost. The more variety of ingredients, the more chance of getting macro and micro nutrients in the compost. I also clean out the refrigerator, freezer and cupboards. Milk, nuts, plain cereals, pasta, yogurt, beer, wine, etc. And, a little blood meal, always.

Sanderson, I join you in being a crazy lady.  Since I had my birch trees felled two winters ago I now have five neighbours that I collect leaves without having to ask them. One has oak, another birch and the third one maple. The other two are a mixture of ornamentals.

For the greens I have grass clippings from two of them who do not put any stuff on their grass. That way my own lawn clippings stay where they fall so that I have the greenest grass in the summer with no watering required.

That's a good way to describe it, Sanderson...

I'm becoming the crazy leaf lady, lol!