Bokashi Compost Bucket And Lean To Greenhouses

Vegetable growing seems to be increasing in popularity again. The programmes about it on TV have left their niche spots and spread to prime time. I say again because it was once an essential skill, needed to keep the household in food and every family had a patch of land. My father and mother grew up in rural Ireland and they depended on the food they could grow. My dad kept this going when he moved away and he never missed planting out the potatoes, onions and peas. I suppose that’s where I first learnt how to grow food.

Of course, I don’t grow vegetables to keep us from going hungry. If I did, we would be hungry, really hungry. I can get plenty of seeds to germinate but I don’t really have the space to bring them on or to maintain any sort of diversity. The best growing conditions in my little garden also coincide with the best growing conditions all round the country. I know this doesn’t sound like a big problem but it is. To do any work I need a certain level of praise, and this would be more readily given if my veg were not at their cheapest in the supermarket when I presented them to my family.

So I am working on a solution to this: smaller batches of different crops grown through an extended season- a greenhouse in other words. Mine will be based on the lean to greenhouses that used to be common place. Wood framed and built on an existing stand, it needs to be cheap. I may loose some of the praise I’m hoping for if it ends up costing us too much.

The greenhouse will use the produce of another venture, a bokashi compost bucket. These help compost waste food just like worms do, from our plates that is not suitable to go in a normal compost bucket or wormery. So meat and citrus, old cream and coffee grounds can all go in the bucket where they ferment with the help of a bought in bran. This is an ongoing cost but is used sparingly. After fermentation the contents are suitable to go into a normal compost bins. From here I get a beautiful rich growing medium for the future vegetables. Cheap and very praise worthy I hope.