The Utility Area

Now there is a post title to fill you with excitement! It may not be that amazing, but it is where I spend a lot of my time these days so on the blog it goes :)

Down next to the shed is where I do all my soil creating work, there is electricity and water from the shed and we have planted a row of hedge plants up the hill a little so it will all be hidden from the house soon enough. You might also call this the smelly zone, its where all the collected manure gets piled up along with any organic matter bound for the compost. its kind of like the kitchen of the garden.

I did start with composting a little further down the hill on the other side of the fence. But having to walk all the way around the gate and back every time I wanted a different tool or some water was a pain so now its all up in the house paddock. I was worried Molly might get into all the manure, but she seemed to learn pretty quick to leave it alone.

The down side to moving it is that the space is kind of long and narrow, not a huge problem really, except I just have to lay everything out in one row. So when I am making a new compost heap (something I try to do at least once a month) there is a lot of walking back and forth with the spade or rake. But a little exercise never hurts (much).

I've also set up my worm farm down here. It's made from our old fridge using a technique I saw on Gardening Australia (Link).

 All it needs now is some worms.

I've got a lot of planting planned for spring so I'm trying to get ahead with the compost at the moment. My latest pile is bigger and has more ingredients than any so far and I hope to start another one before this one is ready (in about 25 days) so I can build up a supply. I use a system for composting from the Soil DVD published by the Permaculture Institute and it hasn't let me down yet. Its not available free on line as far as I know, but THIS video from the Milkwood blog is a pretty close recreation.

Still to come in this area is a set up for making aerated compost tea, and who knows maybe even a composting toilet one day.

woof!