'Green' ideas for gardens.

Byline: Elizabeth Shaheen

This is a good time to replenish your garden soil by adding your homemade compost and/or manure to your garden beds and borders.

For your grass, I should suggest chicken manure, as it is high in nitrogen but is too hot for your beds and border plants.

The Garden Nursery in Barbar sells very well-made, wooden compost boxes. If you haven't been making compost, then perhaps I can encourage you today to be mindful of recycling kitchen and garden waste to the benefit of your garden plantings.

The decay of organic matter takes place incessantly in the garden, in the way of donations from animals and birds, leaves, roots, flowers, feathers and fallen old nests.

This may in itself pose the question, why make compost? The simple purpose being that by heaping the organic material into an appropriate container speeds up decomposition and then you can add it to your garden pockets, or spread it over the border if you have made enough.

What happens is that a microbial action converts a mass of organic matter into the most essential and valuable soil improvement substance you can find.

Compost is the humus-rich, sweet-smelling produce of the decomposition of organic matter. It is of the utmost importance that you add to your garden organic matter and a good mulching generally. This is good garden practice, no matter what you are growing.

Mulch preserves moisture, assists in forming humus and enhances the soil's structure. In addition, it lends a hand in stabilising the soil's temperature.

In hot climates, such as our summers, mulch absorbs the sun's heat and thus accordingly generates a cooler soil which will be more to your plants' liking. Conversely, in the winter, mulch protects the plants' roots from the cold.

Mulch consists of well-rotted organic matter. It can be made up of 'uncooked' kitchen waste, for instance: peelings, tea bags, eggshells, raw shrimp peelings and raw fish waste (cover fish and shrimp waste with a sprinkling of sand to counteract the smell it will surely give off) and leafy waste - for example, the outer leaves of lettuce, cabbage and cauliflower.

Also, garden waste in the way of grass clippings, shredded prunings, leaves and manure, in fact, anything of organic origin. Yes - even old wool, silk or shredded cotton clothing.

Not one orange pip or fruit seed is allowed to escape from being placed in the kitchen-waste-bag that I keep by the sink. You may be surprised by the amount you can collect in a day.

Even the Gulf Daily News ends up on the compost-heap, excluding the glossy pages, for these will be detrimental to the quality of your compost.

Horse, pony, cow, goat and sheep manure all provide excellent sources of organic matter.

If you collect from your local stables, then use manure only from stables that use straw or sand as bedding, as wood shavings may be a source of plant disease.

Only well-decomposed wood shavings should be used on the garden but again, is thought to cause disease and fungus.

Eliminate poisonous leaves such as the Oleander and grass clippings that have been treated with insecticides, also weeds that have gone to seed and diseased garden matter, such as branches and twigs.

Fresh manure should not be put directly around plants, as it can cause scorching; in any event, much of the nutrient value will be lost.

If you are able only to obtain small quantities of well-rotted manure, then it is best to add it to the compost heap and the high nitrogen content will escalate the decomposition.

We maintain in our palm grove around 25 compost boxes that are on the go throughout the year.

In an ideal world, each garden should have at least three containers on the go. The first with the raw material, the second contains partially decomposed matter and the third contains the finished product.

Due to our high temperatures in Bahrain, during the sultry months the finished product should be ready in two to three months. Decomposition slows down in winter.

If you haven't the space for three containers use two and if you are lacking space to accommodate two use one, which is at least an improvement on having none.

I employ slatted containers, one-cubic-yard in size of waste-wood, thus an additional method of recycling. Build the container leaving half-inch-spacing between each slat of wood, to provide good air circulation.

The first layer should be a six-inch mixture of coarse material. For example, horse manure together with straw and heavy weeds, thereby allowing a free flow of air at the bottom.

Then add a six-inch-layer of assorted material of both garden and kitchen waste.

Sprinkle-over some compost activator for instance, dried seaweed or dried blood, or a layer of well-rotted manure. Combine another six-inch-layer of mixed waste, then sprinkle over some lime.

Continue in this manner until the container is abundant and fit to burst; then apply a final dusting of lime. Evenly water your heap but do not saturate it and cover with plastic sheeting or an old piece of carpet.

When you are at the greengrocers, ask if they would like you to lighten their load of waste. Even the fishmonger is more-than-willing to allow you to cart away his fish-waste.

Be careful here, for you could end-up with smelly-fish-water all over your car. So, if you aim to do this, it is a good idea to take a plastic container along with you.

This I learnt - like we do most good things in life - the hard way...

A comprehensive chapter on Compost Making features can be found in my book Tropical Trees and Shrubs of Bahrain.

Copyright 2009 Gulf Daily News

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