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55TH ANNUAL55TH ANNUALGLADIOLUS SHOWGLADIOLUS SHOW

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Friday, January 21, 2011 TARANAKI DAILY NEWS 11

GARDENING www.taranakidailynews.co.nz

Make your own compost: a step-by-step guide withAbbie and Mark Jury.

Photos: ABBIE JURY

1Trenching is a traditional method espoused lately by Lynda Hallinan in the NewZealand Gardener. This involves digging a trench down a row of the vegetablegarden and burying kitchen scraps and green waste, covering them immediately

with soil. It is easy and tidy and the worms and microbes will break the waste downquickly but it only fertilises a small area at a time. There is no heat generated soweeds and diseased foliage should never be included. Neighbourhood dogs canlearn about digging for victory and may excavate your trench if you add desirablefood waste.

2The black bin. We have one inthe veg garden for kitchenscraps because our compost

heaps are some distance away. It istidy. The contents rot down and aresomething of a sludgy mess thoughthis is fine to spread on thesurrounding garden. The egg shells,however, remain whole and there canbe a problem with spreading diseasethrough potato peelings andbrassicas with club root. It keepsdogs and cats out of the scraps but isnot rodent proof. Because there is noheat generated, it will not destroyweed seeds or diseases (pathogens).The bin has no base to it which makesit easy to lift and move around. It actsmore as a worm farm withoutprovision to gather the worm tea. Ourbin is full of tiger worms.

3If you have manydeciduous plantsand a build up of

too much leaf litter,raking it to a discreetarea of the garden inheaps and leaving itfor several monthscan be an easysolution. It needsplenty of rain tobreak down andthe resultinghumus will notbe as nutritiousas compost butit is clean tohandle, addstexture to thesoil and makesattractive mulch.The leaves piledto the right in thephoto are about30cm higher thanthe path on the leftat this stage butstill look tidy.

4For small town gardens where tidiness is highly prized, the rolling compostdrum may be an excellent option. It is not cheap to buy, expect to pay around$220 upwards, but it is very easy to use and as long as you rotate the drum

often, it will make good compost faster than any other method we know. If you getyour ingredients in the right proportions (more on this next time) and have sufficientmoisture and oxygen, the contents should heat up to kill pathogens and seeds andwill break down quickly, giving you small quantities of good quality compost inreturn for minimal effort. Home handypeople can possibly improvise a cheaperalternative.

5Good compost does not smell, is generally dry and light textured and will leaveyou with clean hands so it is easy to handle. Sludgy muck, as in Step 2, isrotting organic matter where the breakdown is aided by worms and bacteria in

a process which does not generate heat. It still has value but is nowhere near aspleasant to use. Well managed compost can generate enough heat in the processto kill seeds and unwanted fungi and diseases. We will look further at our tried andtrue techniques of how to generate clean compost in the next Outdoor Classroom.

Auratum liliesI don’t cut flowers to bringindoors very often. When everywindow of the house looks out toa garden, it doesn’t seemnecessary. But as soon as theauratum lilies start to open, Ireach for the kitchen scissorsand head out. They are just theperfect cut flower – one stem canhave up to 10 flowers, sometimeseven more, and put in a tall,slender vase they not only looksuperb, they can spread theirdelicious scent through an entireroom.

Auratums are known as thegolden-rayed lily of Japan – howlovely does that sound? Theflowers are the largest of the lilyfamily, often more than 20cmacross, and they are a mainstayof our January garden. FelixJury adored them (probably forall the same reasons that we do)and dabbled with breeding them,

naming several selections. Thisone is the very large floweredFlossie. The upshot is that wehave a lot of auratums in thegarden and generally they arequite happy with benign neglect,growing in both full sun and semishade. They prefer soils withgood drainage and plenty ofhumus but not too rich. Thebulbs are large – fist-sized even –and we tried to get around all theplants last winter to dig anddivide them. They haven’t hadany attention for many, manyyears but when the clumps gettoo congested, the tops tend tofall over if they are not staked.The freshly divided patches aremostly standing up like littlesoldiers without any assistance.Some of the taller ones can getover 2m high and they need somesupport though often I willintertwine them throughneighbouring plants.

You can sometimes find lilybulbs for sale in garden centresin winter. Make sure you avoidany dry, shrivelled specimens –they do not like to be dried outcompletely even when dormant.You may be lucky and find someauratums but they are not widelyoffered on the New Zealandmarket despite their spectacularsummer display.

Abbie Jury

Morris Arboretum,United StatesOriginally called Compton andbegun by siblings John andLydia Morris, this Philadelphiaestate was their summer home.The Quakers, heirs to the I.P.

Morris & Company Iron Works,devoted much of their fortune todeveloping the grounds. Theycorresponded with the leadinghorticulturists of the day, whosupplied them with more than3500 woody plant specimens. Thearboretum now belongs to theUniversity of Pennsylvania.

www.taranakidailynews.co.nz