Workshops: Organic Gardening - plus Compost Tea recipe

Last weekend saw unbelieveably warm weather, and we were able to hold our Organic Gardening workshop outdoors on the garden patio.  Much more inspiring than discussing this topic indoors.  The aim of this workshop was to familiarize beginning gardeners with basic organic principles and techniques - including building and maintaining soil health, compost, tilling vs no-till approach, brief overview of permaculture approaches, as well as companion planting, bio-intensive gardening in small spaces, and organic pest controls.  This was a lot to cover in two hours, given that we also wanted to have enough time to answer the many questions of the participants.  Really, this organic gardening basics could be a whole series in itself - something to consider for next season.

The most important point to bring across was how vital soil health is to a successful garden - getting to know your garden's soil qualities (sandy, clay, poor drainage, too dry, acidic, alkaline, etc) and creating a healthy balance with maximum beneficial microorganisms by using: compost and, better yet, compost tea, as well as aged manures, worm castings (from vermicomposting bins), mulches (straw, shredded newspaper, woodchips), and other simple additions like fish emulsions, eggshells (calcium) and so on. 

Compost Tea Recipe
The best way to quickly improve your soil health is to apply compost tea on a regular basis.  Using a fish aquarium bubbler helps to create a compost tea filled with oxygen (aerobic), as the beneficial microorganisms need oxygen to survive.

What you will need:
5 gallon plastic pail
1 shovelful aged compost (about 3 large handfuls)
Small fish aquarium bubbler

1. Fill pail with water and let this sit for 24 hours to evaporate chlorine (from city water).
2. Add compost into a mesh bag and tie bag loosely closed.  The mesh bag should be fine enough to hold the compost inside, while still letting water flow through.  Put bag in the pail of water and let steep like a "tea" for 12-24 hours, while running the aquarium bubbler.
3. Strain compost tea into a watering can and use on garden immediately  This tea does not keep for more than a few days as microorganisms die and you are left with anerobic water.  A similarily beneficial "tea" can be made using worm castings from a vermicomposting bin.

Making compost tea - and rain water harvesting

This has been a summer of plentiful rain but few hot sunny days, and the garden produce has been slow to ripen. This week we finally tasted the first fresh tomatoes (subartic cherry and yellow plum were the first), and the long-standing flowers of the eggplant and hot pepper plants have nowbegun to shape into fruits. This abundant rain has meant that our new rainwater harvesting tank has been full continuously - in fact, on the heavy rains two days ago it filled up and over-flowed three times in one downpour! That means 3 x 1150 litres (or 3450 litres) of water collected in that one storm off our new very large steel roof on the straw bale addition plus the house roof.

To give an idea of how much water that is, consider these stats from earthcarecanada.com's water conservation website:

How many litres of water does a garden hose use per hour? 1100 litres per hour

How much water is used in a shower?
A typical shower will use 160 litres. (8-10 minute)

How much water is used in a regular toilet per flush?
16 to 23 litres per flush

How much water would be lost by a leaking faucet or toilet?
A leaking toilet would lose 400 litres per day ($200 per year) and a faucet would lose 5000 litres per year.

However, all our other rain barrels and pond were also full from the storm, so we actually (disappointingly) didn't have a place to store the overflow and after that big storm the garden certainly didn't need more watering for at least another day or two! Maybe we've rigged up too many good eaves troughs, more than we actually need? The rain tank comes with a 3/4 horsepower pump which is used to pump the water through a hose into other parts of the yard (which saves us carrying it by watering can or bucket). We will have to set up further rainbarrels into which we can pump the overflow on storms like this.

During an earlier rain storm we also collected water for compost tea. We had filled a wheel barrow with compost mix from our composting bins, and when the water filled the wheel barrow we just let it sit for a week or so to steep. Voila! Compost tea! This tea we've now been pouring onto the garden beds and tomato containers for an extra nutrient boost. Comfrey or nettle leaves are also often added to the compost tea because they are rich in nutrients and make and excellent organic liquid fertilizer. So simple, yet so effective.