One of our obsessions is to never throw anything away that can be composted. This stems from the fact that our gardens are small and as a consequence don’t produce enough waste to make all of the compost we need. We therefore take every opportunity to collect leaves, or even seaweed – as well as make sure that all of our kitchen peelings end up on the compost pile.
This obsession has led to a number of surprises. In the first instance we discovered that potatoes can grow from partially composted potato peelings, and as a result we ended up with various “surprises” around the garden. In recent years, we’ve discovered what we call “guerilla” tomatoes – which we assume resulted from seeds in the compost. This provided dozens of sturdy self-seeded plants that kept us nicely stocked over the summer and early autumn. All for free. We just simply never throw anything anyway that may indirectly produce something edible in the garden.
Compost purists amongst you will no doubt say that our composting bin is obviously inefficient if our potato peelings and tomato seeds are not being sufficiently broken down. However, we generally don’t mind this since it’s good to let Nature take its course rather than try to control and neatly cultivate every square inch of space. As with everything in our garden, we don’t have enough space (or material) to produce a compost pile large enough to generate heat. Our small pile produces something more akin to the decomposing waste in our bean trench. But regardless of this the fertility of the garden and structure of the soil has improved from when we first began.
Our current surprise is what we call “magic” mushrooms. Not the magic variety that some people obsess about. Our mushrooms are magic simply because they were provided for free from – you’ve guessed it – the mushroom scraps and peelings from our kitchen. These have been thrown on the compost pile for several years and the recent spell of damp autumnal weather has led to a healthy colony right outside our kitchen window.
We were cautious about eating these at first. After all, there are many scare stories about the ill effects of wild mushroom picking. But after careful consideration we concluded that they most likely originated from our compost and must therefore be edible. A quick test in an omlette proved successful, so last night they made it to the family dinner table. All for free. All because we never throw anything away that might give something back. This is what we like about gardening. It provides opportunities to re-use and recycle and helps to to play a small part in treading a little lighter upon this planet. (David)
