The five key areas of improvement.

• Improved access to the composting systems
• Improve existing composting methods
• Improved use of the compost
• Additional ways to improve soil fertility
• Improved planting methods

As part of a major redesign of the kitchen garden, the location of each of the composting systems was taken into consideration, here is an excellent example of how different permaculture designs interact together. By focusing on and creating additional designs for certain elements that are part of a larger design, more time and thought can be given to these, helping to keep the focus on the main design.

The above graphic shows where the different composting systems are located. The locations were taken into consideration in the kitchen garden reloaded design. For this design, the focus will be given to how these locations offer the best usage of space and access.

The wormery

In a small garden, the placement of the wormery close to the house is not as significant as it would be if you are designing for a large property that could inhibit daily access if the wormery was a long walk away. For this design having the wormery against the house offered the best location for a variety of reasons.

Locating the wormery against the fence in the corner up against the house the wormery is mostly out of sight. The fence also gives the wormery protection from the sun helping to keep the worms from getting too hot. As the sun moves across the sky, this is also the first part of the garden to go into shade, again helping to keep the midday heat of the sun off the wormery. The wormery will be sat on a gravelled area allowing excellent access when adding food for the worms. Having space in front of the wormery will be very useful to work when lifting off the trays to remove the composted material.

The leaf-mould cage

The bulky size of the leaf-mould cage looks quite dominant in a small garden, finding a location for the cage that is hidden away is required. The selected location for the cage has been chosen for the following reason.

The top corner of the garden for the past few years has been an area that has not been used, I have had a path by the side of the bed but due to the wildness of the perennial kale growing over the path leaving it inaccessible. By making the cage into a longer thinner rectangle shape I can still get the same quantity of leaves into it as to when it was of a more rounded shape. Using this shape, I can fit the cage into the location without having to take away space from the bed. I can now use the side of the cage to help support the perennial kale.

The kale growing against the cage will also help to hide it from view, the other side is hidden by the beech hedge with only minimal visibility when looking directly at the cage from the path leading to it.

Access would be needed both when filling the cage and turning the leaves, this will be from the path directly in front of the cage, enabling just enough space work.

Compost heaps

With the help of improved composting methods, I will be focusing on using the plastic compost bin and the pallet sides compost heap removing the need for the third heap, this was the free-standing heap covered with a tarp.

The location of both systems will be next to each other against the beech hedge on the far righthand side of the garden. Having these two together is a requirement due to both forming parts of one system.

The plastic bin will be in the corner next to the beech hedge and the fence, where it will have the most shelter from the direct heat of the sun. There is just enough space to fit the pallet sides heap between the plastic bin and the garden path. I will add a paving slab pathway in the front of these to allow excellent access from the front. This path will also act as an area to store materials waiting to be composted along with any bags of compost waiting to be used.  

Both the garden path and the path in front of the heaps will also become the work area when building and turning the heaps. The use of a large tarp over the path will enable the area to be easily cleaned up after working with the heaps. When working with the heaps I will have enough space to comfortably work.  

There should be no smells coming off the compost heaps but having them in the outermost location away from the houses should help remove any complaints from the neighbours if this did happen.

From an aesthetic perspective, this location will be favourable both for myself and my neighbour who doesn’t like to see things from her house that are in my garden. For myself, it’s an ideal location due to it being in a corner and can be kept tidy.

This area can also be used as a work area for potting and sowing seeds.

The wormery

I’m using a wormery that is made in England from recycled plastic from England. I have been using this wormery for over ten years and overall, it’s worked very well. The only modifications I’ve made is a tarp over it to keep the rain out and in winter I wrap it in bubble wrap to help insulate it.

The wormery works on a four-tray system, the bottom of each tray is full of small holes allowing the worms to move freely between trays. At the start, you only use one tray where bedding and food are added, once this tray gets full an additional tray is added using the same method. With only feeding the top tray the worms move up the stack once there is no longer food left in the bottoms trays to find more food. This then allows the bottom tray to be removed from the system and the now composted material inside the tray is mostly free of worms and can be emptied and used as required. This empty tray is now ready to go on the top to keep the process moving.

Extra Trays

What I would like to try is adding two extra trays to the system. Through observation, the top tray often can get quite full waiting for the worms to move up out of the bottom tray. The extra trays should also allow improved living conditions for the worms giving them more time to move up the system on their own.

Improvements to feed

I’m selective to what goes into the wormery to feed the worms, coffee grounds, and kitchen waste mainly. I want to get more creative by adding more varieties of food into the system.

Foods to try

Comfrey – roughly chopped to add a natural source of potash.

Nettles – worms like nettles and nettles are full of valuable nutrients.

Compost – fresh compost is rich in organic matter and microbes, and worms love it.

Eggshells – this is something I used to add but have got out of the habit. Oven-dry the eggshells then grind them down. Worms use the small fragments to help grind food down in their gizzards. They may also add small amounts of calcium to the worms keeping them in good health.

Old clothes – worms will work their way through natural fibres, I’ll add an old shirt into the first tray leaving it on top of the bedding. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

Manure – As a special treat, the magic ingredient to be used in wormeries is manure, if it is not too fresh. This is something I’ve never thought of adding but makes so much sense.

Paper – this will help to balance out the nitrogen from all the food waste with carbon from the paper.

Cardboard – I’ve always used cardboard in the wormery, but it will be interesting to have a tray with a much higher amount of cardboard to food waste to see how the worms enjoy it.

Soil – to introduce beneficial microbes.

Leaf-mould composting

I’ve been composting the autumn leaves in the cage for a couple of years now. The first year I climbed into the cage each time I filled it to allow more leaves in. I got a lot of leaves into the cage doing this. The first year I also couldn’t find any information as to whether I should turn the leaves, I chose not to. A year later when I emptied the leaves from the cage into bags, I found I had preserved the leaves quite well, I was picking up large bricks of none composted leaves. From this, I learned not to jump on the leaves when filling the cage and to turn the leaves throughout the year.   

In the second year, the leaves composted much better without being packed down and turned a few times.

This year I will fill the cage, leave it over the winter so as not to let any heat out of the heap. When the weather warms up in spring, I will then regularly turn the heap adding water to keep the leaves moist. I will also pour the leachate from the bottom of the wormery onto the leaves to help with the composting process. Leachate is the liquid that drains from a wormery, it’s full of microbial activity and plant nutrients.  

Compost heaps

I can make two compost heaps over a year, the first is put together in June the latter in November. Each heap contains different materials that are available at the time of year they are built. They will both be built inside the pallet sides, allowing 5 months before the June heap is ready to be used or bagged up. The November heap will have until May when I’ll use it as a mulch on the garden.

June – for this heap I will look to add a wider variety of materials into the heap than I have been using in the past. Comfrey from the back garden will be added along with a cutback of other plants that are growing out of control at this time of year. The back garden also grows a lot of wild yarrow and dandelions (not the flowers) which will be added. Comfrey and yarrow are compost activators and will help the composting process.

This heap will be turned every couple of weeks and water will be added if the heap is getting too dry. The idea is to keep this heap hot for quicker compositing. Due to the limited space and not being about to build a large heap will also use a tarp to help keep the heat in the heap.

As with both heaps, I will layer in the contents of the plastic bin, this will be partially composted material that will help activate the whole heap.

November – this heap will be made with any materials that I have laying around needing to be composted. As a trail this next time I will bulk the heap out with leaves collected from around the outside of the garden. Once built I will not turn the heap until the days warm up in spring, keeping any heat inside the heap over the winter.

To give the heaps a bit of a boost I’ll also keep adding some fresh urine, this will also give the neighbour something to watch….   

This is something I’ve not given too much thought to in the past, I’ve just used the compost as a mulch on the beds and around the fruit bushes. This I will still do with some of the compost.

Raised beds

I will be adding additional raised beds into the kitchen garden this year. For these, I will add a bottom layer of sticks, I currently have several bags of sticks that I had collected and stored from when I removed the original shrubs out of the back garden. On top of the sticks, I will use a mix of leaf-mould and compost along with some biochar that I made with some of the sticks from the shrubs from the back garden. I will also have some old compost that will be removed from the existing raised bed when it gets pulled out. Also mixed into these beds will go the vermicompost (compost from the wormery).

The intention will be to add a mix of leaf-mould, compost, and vermicompost to the beds each year.   

Selective use

I want to keep a few bags of compost to use throughout the growing season to help improve any plants that seem to be struggling, I'll also mix in some vermicompost to this compost. 

I will keep on using the chop and drop mulching method along with the mulching of the back garden with leaves in autumn. These seem to work okay but I can also try a few tweaks to add improvements.

I’ll also experiment with different activated aerated compost tea throughout the year, I already own the equipment needed to make these teas so I might as well put it to use again.

Chop and drop mulching

Comfrey – from the back garden I get three main cuts from the comfrey, each time I get a fair amount of material from each cut. Having a plan for each of these cuts will be helpful.

First Cut

This will be used to go around the fruit trees in the back garden and goji bushes in the front garden.

Second cut

This is the largest cutback of the year which also coincides with the hedge cut. The comfrey from this cut will be used as part of a large compost heap.

Third Cut

This can also be a large cut in late summer, the cut material will be used to go around the fruit bushes and the fruit trees in the back garden.

Extra cuts

I’m often having to cut smaller areas of the comfrey back when it starts to overshadow different plants, the cut comfrey from these can be used as a mulch on the beds in the front garden.

Autumn garden leaf mulching

In previous years I’ve mulched the whole of the back garden with leaves, this autumn I want to add a lot more leaves creating a much deeper mulch. From observations, come summer the leaves have mostly composted so adding a deeper mulch will last longer protecting and feeding the soil for longer.

I will also mulch the raised beds in the front garden with leaves that will only be growing annuals. Once the beds are mulched, I’ll cover the beds with old compost bags held down by heavy objects to prevent the leaves from blowing away. This mulch will help to feed the soil microbes over the winter providing more fertile soil in spring.    

Compost teas

There are a few different methods of making compost tea, I’ll focus on the none or less smelly methods. I upset the neighbours enough without adding smells into the mix. As a side note, I got a good smell of the raw liquid used to make nettle tea at Wilf Richards Permaculture property Abundant Earth a couple of years ago and I can still taste the smell that comes from the liquid. Wilf might like to wear it as an aphrodisiac when he is with his plants to stimulate their senses, but it’s not the smell that’s going to get you many friends.

Activated aerated compost tea

This is the technique I will focus on where the aim is making a brew that increases the healthy aerobic microorganisms already present in quality compost by providing them with the correct food and environment to dramatically multiply their population.

Equipment

• 5 Gallen bucket
• Aquarium air pump  
• Aquarium airline tubing
• Aquarium bubbler air stones
• Stockings
• Strings
• Stone

Method

Add 4 gallons of rainwater to the bucket, add the air stones to the water making sure they stay and the bottom, best to use a stone to weigh them down. Fill the leg of a stocking with about four cups of compost, knot the end of the stocking with a slip knot (you will want to use the stocking again) tie the string around the top of the compost full stocking, add some organic molasses (unsulphured) to the water, add the stocking to the water and leave for 48 hours with the bubbler running.

There are lots of different thoughts around this method some not using molasses, others adding oats, but the basics are the same.

I would like to try out using different types of composts to see what might work better.

I’m not going to focus to much on this here because this could be a whole design on its own and something I will do later, but it’s worth adding in as a place holder to keep thinking out of the box and not just focus on adding composts to the soils to improve fertility.

Companion planting

The basic idea behind companion planting is by growing in close proximity, certain plants bring benefits to others, resulting in increased yields and vigour. On the reverse side are just as many bad companions as good ones, some plants do not get on at all – perhaps they give off a certain chemical which disagrees with their neighbour, or simply grow too tall or too vigorously, taking moisture or nutrients and leaving very little for the plant next door.

With this in mind, what may look to be a poor soil issue could just be down to the adjacent plant growing in the wrong place causing a crop to fail.  

The below chart shows which plants enjoy each other and which do not.  

I will make sure that before planting this next season I will check to make sure I’m planting compatible plants next to each other whilst at the same time avoiding causing unnecessary plant health issues by planting incompatible plants next to each other.