Browsing Tag

compost


Lifestyle

Of Twigs & Branches

I’ve been composting twigs and branches ever since I stepped into the composting world. I got to know about hΓΌgelkultur (go find out what it is as I won’t explain it here) recently and while I’m not able to utilize this technique in my garden due to space issues, it somehow sorta encouraged me. It encourages me to encourage you to compost twigs and branches as I think they are rather underutilized in the gardening-composting world.

You might think that branches take a very long time to compost. That is only half true. If you cut ’em up, then surprisingly not. While I don’t have the exact timeline, I can tell you they do compost quite fast, say as fast as 3 weeks (size dependent). The key point is to cut them into smaller sizes to speed up the composting.

Compost Twigs & Branches
Of twigs and branches. No, don’t discard them in the bin. Compost them!

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Lifestyle

How To Save White Radish Seeds

I was never a fan of white radish or radish as a whole. I started growing white radish because I thought it would be wonderful to use something that I grow for making kimchi. Although white radish (slim & long), also called daikon radish isn’t the exact radish that the Koreans use to make kimchi, hey anything’s better than none. Korean radish (무 mu) is rounder and shorter.

So, late last year, I bought a packet of white radish seeds at a hardware shop. I read that they grow easily and fast. True enough, they were really easy to grow and in 2Β½ months, I’d harvested thrice. See here, here and here.

Circa early March this year, I missed my harvest timing for two of the white radishes. So, I let them bolt, that is allow them to go into flower production which then produces seeds. This is achieved by letting the white radish plant grow until it reaches maturity and into old age. When the plants go into seed production, they won’t produce vegs/fruits and flowers anymore. Tip: To prevent bolting, just pinch off the flowers at their first sign. This is my experience in a hot and humid country.

Here are some of the photos that I took of the white radish plants during bolting (flower forming to seed production) and their end of life.

White Radish Plants Bolting - Flowers Are Blooming
7th May 2023: This is about ~2 to 2Β½ months since both white radish plants start bolting. It was a long wait but the flower buds are finally ready to bloom.

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Lifestyle

Banana Peel Water Fertilizer

The next time you eat bananas 🍌🍌🍌, KEEP the peels and stems for they can be turned into fertilizer and benefit your plants and soils. Let me share with you how to make banana peel water fertilizer. It’s very easy & no frill.

Finished Banana Peel Water Fertilizer
Finished banana peel water fertilizer. 🍌❀️🍌

I discovered this banana peel water fertilizer by chance (forgotten where) and have been using it since then. Before learning this method, I have been using the 3 compost systems to compost banana peels and stems. You can read about the 3 easy compost systems here. Now, I get to make fertilizer out of the peels and stems first before composting them. Double joy! πŸ’ž

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Lifestyle

Easy DIY Eco-Enzyme At Home

What is eco-enzyme? Eco-enzyme is a multipurpose fermented solution by fermenting kitchen scraps with brown sugar and water. Eco-enzyme is also known as garbage enzyme and cleaning enzyme. It has many applications such as multi-purpose household cleaner (from cleaning your clothes to the toilet bowl!), plant fertilizer, pond purifier and many more. With the idea of turning kitchen scraps into useful eco-enzyme and saving money at the same time, I was sold!

After procrastinating for a long time, I finally started the project in 2019 but failed very early on. The Mandarin orange peels that I was collecting during Chinese New Year (CNY) became moldy in room temperature after a few weeks. The right way is to freeze the peels until you’re ready to start the fermenting.

DIY Eco-Enzyme No. 1 Day 108
DIY eco-enzyme day 108.

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Lifestyle

DIY Bone, Prawn & Fish Meal Blend Fertilizer

In December last year, I experimented with making homemade bone meal fertilizer. Today, I’m going to share with you the methods to make bone, prawn (shrimp) and fish meal blend fertilizer. If you have several types of bones and shells, you can make them together and form a blend like what I did. Of course, you can also make them individually. The methods are the same.

DIY Bone, Prawn & Fish Meal Blend Fertilizer
DIY homemade bone, prawn (shrimp) and fish meal blend fertilizer. πŸ¦΄πŸ–πŸ—πŸŒΏπŸŒ³πŸŒΊπŸŒΉ

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