Fun with compost.

“Composting”and “fun” don’t seem to be related. However, at Mirum Creek making compost is always exciting and so easy that it is a fun time. It is also exciting when you get it right. The smell a couple of weeks after it’s put together lets you know (no poo or rotten egg smell). It’s the transformation process that gets me every time, turning waste into something special. My wife’s view is a bit different, for her it’s fun because she gets to drive the tractor.

Compost making at Mirum Creek is treated like any other crop, putting together the materials and conditions and then letting nature take its course. The current recipe is 50% hardwood fines, 35% fresh green from the creek paddock and 15% non-carnivore animal poo.  Also, we add in pre-composted farm waste (50% waste and 50% hardwood fines), cardboard boxes, a bit of clay, weeds, some of the previous compost and kitchen scraps. Turning every 4 to 7 days initially, then tapering the turning using temperature as a guide. Once the pile quietens down we also add seaweed, some minerals, basalt dust and biodynamic preps. In the last phase we inoculate with some of our leaf and wood compost which is made a different way, then let the whole pile rest. Compost started in winter or summer is put out when planting the following autum or spring.

I really like Tim Marshall’s book on composting with lots of ideas and different recipes. I encourage you to experiment.