Home Made Super Soil

 

Home Made Compost is possible in crowded, urban tropical cities like Singapore.

This process of recycling kitchen green waste into compost for gardening is good for plants, ourselves, and the environment.

Look at how my edibles garden turned out with this “homemade” super soil for yourself!

 

From THIS –

An abandoned dying citrus plant.

 

 

Its soil was so hard that we could not bury our green waste (pomelo peels).

 

 

TO THIS –

This plant was fully recovered in 9 months and fruiting.

 

 

 

It continued to thrive.

This was our update on July 17, 2016 (16 months of composting in this pot).

 

 

Every six months, we still used this pot as an open composting bin.

It was amazing to see for ourselves how recycled raw greens for compost is good for gardens.

 

 

 

We are happy to see this little tree continue to grow and thrive –

 

 

No other fertilizer was added in this pot, beside composting of peels and adding earthworms from the garden.

Imagined this – whatever nutrients that this plant gained from the compost, allowed it to rejuvenate its drive to recover from a dying state.

Then I often wondered what we will gain when we consumed edibles grown in this kind of natural compost?

 

Will we be able to rejuvenate ourselves as well?

 

Meyer Lemons –

 

 

Sweet Basil 

 

 

Grown outdoor in natural compost, these plants are bigger than those grown indoors.

 

 

 

Rosemary and Curly leaf Parsley

 

 

 

Our MINT was grown without pesticide and in our own compost from recycling kitchen greens waste –

 

 

Ginger 

 

 

We readied the compost first before planting ginger.

A ready compost is dark in color and the raw waste is completely broken down.

They become part of the soil.

 

 

Bell Peppers or Capsicums – 

 

 

 

ANY Vegetables will taste great in natural compost!

 

 

Even strawberries! 🙂

 

 

Two varieties of strawberry plants were weeded here from October 2015, to see how they fared in our special acidic compost in normal SG temperature.

So far, sick plants have recovered in them and survived our terrible haze and thunderstorms, to flower and bore fruits by December 2015.

 

 

Why not wolfberries too?

 

 

HUCKLEBERRIES

 

 

 

In our household, recycling raw greens for compost bins is second nature!

 

 

NOTES & OBSERVATIONS

WHAT GOES INTO COMPOST BINS

Fruit Peels (banana, watermelon, etc)

Fruit or Vegetable Pulp (from a juicer, raw)

Soya bean pulp (Okara, 豆渣 / 豆腐渣)

Used tea leaves or coffee grinds

 

MYTH ABOUT SNAILS AND EGGSHELLS

Eggshells – membrane inside eggshells can attract snails.

Contrary to beliefs, snails love to eat eggshells.

Having them on surface soil will attract snails to the plants and will not deter them from feasting.

This needs to be buried deep in outdoor gardens.

 

THE DON’T 

Spoiling raw vegetables or fruits – remove seeds if possible as they may germinate in the compost bin

No fish, meat or bloody innards as the scent of rot is foul and likely attract rodents

 

 

 

5 Easy Steps to prepare organic compost OUTDOORS –

 

Cover the holes with a net or any material (pebbles, sand) that allow the liquid to drain while stopping soil/compost erosion

Dried leaves or any organic dried matter from the garden

Any soil – new, used, spent

Add kitchen green waste

Cover with soil and dried leaves, raise the compost container for aeration is a good idea.

 

 

Dried leaves, grass, used pets’ bedding (such as straw, hay), tree barks, shredded paper, cardboard can be used as brown for layering in compost bins.

 

 

Any soil (old, new, spent) can be used in the compost bin except soil that had been infected by pests such as roots mealy.

We don’t re-use such soil because there may have been unhatched eggs in them.

 

 

 

 

What to do when it rained, and the compost become wet?

After a heavy rain, its good to “turn/stir” the pile and add dry soil.

I usually top off with dried leaves to ward off fruit flies.

The soil smells like orange, nothing foul.

In our tropical heat when there is a dry spell, our compost would be ready in 2 – 4 weeks.

 

 

 

A “ready” state is when the green waste is indistinguishable from each other.

 

 

 

 

When the compost is ready, the color of the compost is very dark and none of the peels and kitchen raw greens are distinguishable.

This is my super soil which I used as topsoil in my pots.

2) For apartments’ corridors composting,  please follow this group’s “Composting in Singapore” instructions.

There is no smell and not much presence of pests, it is neighbors’ friendly but takes longer to breakdown.

 

Compost bins suitable for apartment’s corridors

 

 

 

 

 

 

For an easy nonfussy indoor method, Lim San had uploaded a new video in February 2017 –

 

 

 

Just for knowledge, the following video showed what happened in my compost bin when too many raw greens are added over brown ratio.

Thus do keep Lim San‘s advice in mind (Brown : Green , 30:1 ratio) when starting a new compost bin!

 

 

 

 

SUN or BAKED YOUR Green WASTE for indoor gardens

During the COVID-19 stay-home period from April 4 to May 4, 2020, we continue to turn kitchen waste to plant foods by drying green waste in the oven.

At 150 to 170 Degree celsius for 30 minutes, most of our coffee grinds, peels and etc were dry and ready for the gardens.

 

 

We love to cook with edibles from our organic garden!

It is possible to grow edibles without using commercial fertilizers.

 

 

These children (Summer, Shona, and Kosuke) helped to grow food to share with our neighbors in 2015.

 

 

A beautiful edibles garden to share from re-using throw-away trash and recycling food waste for fertilizers.

 

 

The soil quality in this garden improved the longer we use our own compost.

Not only do the plants in our pots grew well, but the whole garden also enjoyed better yield over the years.

 

 

 

 

A small pleasurable plot of edibles, grown in nutrients dense compost by recycling waste and shared freely with neighbors now.

It was an empty corner where people abandoned plants and discarded pots, changed for the better.

Gardening has become my voice for sharing ideas to promote recycling in our communities and how every household can play a part to protect our environment.

This is also a good way to teach the younger generation how to grow food from “own-made” supercharged soil!

 

 

 

In addition, we took science out of the textbooks and learned how to protect our environment while growing delicious food.