House-made Compost

At Blueboots Farm, we make the habit of giving compost to the soil after every season of planting to restore the lost nutrients taken by the previous plants. Compost provides nutrients to  future plants and also improves soil structure.

Making compost is really easy! We called the process of making compost as ‘compost lasagna’ due to its layering process.

4 Basic Materials:

• Branches and sticks
• Manures (cow, chicken, lamb etc.)
• Green Materials (fresh leaves, water plants, weeds etc.)
• Brown Materials (Dry leaves, coffee, rice husks etc.)

Gather as much of the above materials as possible. We will create a compost heap at least 1 meter long, 1 meter wide and 1 meter high. The ratio of Manures:Green Materials:Brown Materials will be 1:1:1.

Instructions:

• Place about 10cm layer of branches and sticks to the bottom of the layer. This is will ensure enough aeration for microorganisms to break down the materials.
• Then add about 10cm layer of manures.
• Then add about 10cm layer of brown materials.
• Then add about 10cm layer of green materials.
• Continue with adding another round of 10 cm manure and then, 10 cm of brown materials and then 10 cm of green materials.
• Stack repeating manures/brown materials/green materials layers until about 1-1.5 meter high.
• Add small amount of good soil and ash throughout the compost.
• Add 2- 3 buckets of water half-way through the compost heap.
• Add another 2- 3 buckets of water when finish. The compost should be moist but not wet.
• Cover the compost to keep from rain and direct sunlight.
• If all the steps are followed, the compost will become hot due to bacteria activity. It will cool down after 2- 3 weeks.
• Now the compost need to be turned inside out to cook the outer area that did not get got and composted properly.
• Once turned, add more buckets of water to moist the compost heap. Cover again and let it cook for another 2 weeks.
• This will result to black, cool, and soft soil that is ready to be applied to garden/farm.