Under the Choko Tree By Nevin Sweeney

The Compost Report - March 2024

20240317 125218

Things are moving on, there is now compostable material in all three bays of the composting system, but not exactly in the order that I envisaged!

The first (lefthand) bay is now mostly full of a mixture of chopped banana leaves and stems, food waste, grass clippings, tree trimmings, excess choko vines (chopped) and miscellaneous weedy materials. It is working itself into a frenzy of microbial decomposition (hopefully) and will soon be mixed, aerated and turned into the second (middle) bay, once that bay becomes empty.

20240317 125240

Mmmm! Yummy Compost!

The second (middle) bay heated up to 60°C for a couple of weeks then slowly cooled to 50°C and sat there for a few weeks, thence it dropped slowly over about a month back to around 30°C to 35°C, where it currently sits at the moment. But! Most of the pile is now a wonderful fragrant dark and very fertile compost material. I am adding it to the veggie beds as they become ready for replanting. Once the chooks have done their thing, I add a layer of this compost, followed by a layer of straw that has been worked over by the chooks in the retirement village as mulch. I then plant through the mulch into the compost/soil and away we go!

20240313 185921

Compost applied and mulching in process

The third (Righthand) bay was scheduled to have the material from the centre bay turned into it, but this does not seem to need it, being pretty much broken down already. I have begun decommissioning the Aerobins, starting with the second one, which I was given a long time ago and it was very second hand then. After all the years in the western Sydney sun it was in poor condition with lots of bits missing and has been removed for disposal. The material it contained was in variable condition but a fair amount was hardly broken down at all so it has been transferred to the third bay, thoroughly rehydrated and then covered with two hessian sacks (also removed from the composter).

20240315 120610

I am hoping that my original aerobin will be able to be emptied (with appropriate material being transferred to the third bay of the composter) and passed on to someone to use, who will hopefully have more luck (or perhaps skill) than I did. I use the term ‘appropriate’ because some years ago I transferred material from the aerobin to a veggie patch and it did not work very well. It seemed to have gone anaerobic, so I have been wary of material that could have anaerobic breakdown. Such material will be placed in our green bin for commercial composting.


The adventure continues!

Click Here to check out our YouTube Channel