BC Living
Recipe: B.C. Beef and Potatoes
You’ve Gotta Try This in February 2025
Recipe: How to Make Pie Crust from Scratch
Attention, Runners: Here are 19 Road Races Happening in B.C. in Spring 2025
Nature’s Pharmacy: 8 Herbal Boutiques in BC
How Barre Enhances Your Flexibility
Inviting the Steller’s Jay to Your Garden
6 Budget-friendly Holiday Decor Pieces
Dream Home: $8 Million for a Modern Surprise
Local Getaway: Hideaway at a Mystical Earth House in Kootenay
9 BC Wellness Hotels to Relax and Recharge in This Year
Local Getaway: Enjoy Waterfront Views at a Ucluelet Beach House
B.C. Adventures: Things to Do in February
5 Beautiful and Educational Nature and Wildlife Tours in BC
7 Beauty and Wellness Influencers to Follow in BC
11 Gifts for Galentine’s Day from B.C. Companies
14 Cute Valentine’s Day Gifts to Give in 2025
8 Gifts to Give for Lunar New Year 2025
Tip: Use sieved for topdressing planters and seed starting mix. Each bin makes 1 cubic yard of black gold.
Ingredients: 10 recycled wooden palettes, (available at most lumberyards for free). Choose those approximately the same size, with no missing or broken rungs. Bag of 2in. and 3in. galvanized nails. 8 – 2 in. x 4in. recycled wooden stakes 18” long, with pointy ends cut. (Can also use 18 in. lengths of 3/4 in. rebar). Thick jute twine, or thin wire, for tying on front palettes.
Method: Nail 2 side palettes to a back palette, and repeat this twice to make 3 connected bins (see main photo).
Sledge hammer 2 wedges into the ground at the front of the palettes, and nail them to the palettes to keep them upright and straight. Tie on front palettes, using twine or wire, to contain the layers as needed.
Filling the bins: Build a lasagna of 6” layers.
I choose ingredients from wheelbarrows full of: spoiled hay, fresh or aged manure (llama, sheep, horse, or chicken), weeds (no seeds), grass clippings, herbaceous prunings, leaves, twiggy prunings (cut small), okara (tofu by-product), sawdust, seaweed (after a good winter storm), comfrey, nettles, empty flower pots
Optional: Kitchen scraps.
When kitchen scraps go into compost it attracts rodents. You can line a compost bin with rat proof wire, but a rat proof lid is also required. We put kitchen waste in a recycled plastic composter, which is rat proof. When it’s full we bury the contents into an 18”- deep trench in the vegetable garden, covering it with 9”of topsoil. Microbes break food down fast when buried in soil.
When the bin fills up, turn it into an empty bin. This aerates the pile. If ingredients are dry run a hose as you turn the pile. Moisture is needed to activate thermophilic bacteria for decomposition. This creates heat, which you can feel when you put your hand on the pile a week after it is turned.
Good Reference: ‘Let It Rot! – The Gardener’s Guide to Composting’ by Stu Campbell
Click here to return to the Victory Garden Program.
Use the comment form below to leave Carolyn your feedback!