St Lucia Community Garden

Good stuff . . .

This is the new St Lucia Community Garden Compost Hub already in action and holding about 150 kgs of compost makings so far: 

• light, dry brown material (mostly fallen leaves), 
• our particularly rich and regular supply of fresh green vegetable and fruit trimmings saved for us daily from the 100 Acre Bar and Hillstone kitchens, 
• a load of local “starter" compost full of the essential insects and microbes, 
• about 20 kgs of fresh coffee grounds to add texture and stabilize the PH as the compost works. 

These three Hub containers' lids are locked and they are reserved for the CG’s Compost gurus to work with. 

 

That way we can make sure no inappropriate material (plastic and so on) contaminates the already working batches, or attracts pests like snakes or rats. It also means we can optimise the compost mix for what the garden needs, bulk and texture to begin with, better nutrition or PH balancing as the Garden grows and changes . . .

Being constructed next door this week are two extra large open bays made from deconstructed shipping pallets. 

 

One is to hold easily accessible fresh green material like hedge clippings and herbicide-free grass clippings. The other is for brown carbon-rich fallen leaves, twigs, bark and so on. 

The structure for the bulk green and brown material bays began going in on Thursday, thanks to Rusty, and the pallet  walls will be completed next week. 

 

We plan to have simple swing doors on the front face to allow for easier access . . .

 

The coffee grounds collection system is in place (and almost too successful already) and the bulk kitchen waste supplies are coming along nicely. 

 

This first heap is around a metre deep already after just three weeks. Definitely not "ready" yet, but currently smells a bit like an odd Tia Maria. . . 

  

BCC will soon be supplying us with the key public-facing plastic bins to help all our locals recycle their suitable (please!) materials as well. We'll make some kind of splash once the whole system is up and "cooking"!

 

Here’s a fully finished Community Compost Hub BCC prepared last month for the new Taringa (Perrin Park) Community Garden. 

 

The idea is you turn up with your container of suitable kitchen scraps, find the bin lid that says "Feed Me" on it and do just that.