I like to think there's no real "waste" in my job. I make sure I build things fairly effeciently with the materials I have.
I end up with offcuts, but these are perfect for staring the fire. Some weeks I can produce two or three bins full of offcuts like this, I collect them through the year and we use them all through the colder months.
Metal, from screws, mesh and other bits, I collect up and it gets taken to the scrap man for recycling.
A few weeks back I got a book that was near 50 years old. It's called fertility gardening and it talks about ways to improve your garden. In it the book has lots of different materials you can get to help your garden.
It talks of sawdust from a woodworking shop, one just like mine, and says that fresh it has a ratio of 1:500 nitrogen to carbon, so not much good. Leave it a year, let it go black and it'll be about 1:200, still not ideal. But let the chickens live on top of it for a year, well then you've got a great soil improver.
I dug one pen out this weekend, rebedded them down with fresh shavings, ready for lockdown or "flockdown" as we call it. This starts the process again, producing some good compost for the garden and taking care of a product many see as waste. And I got four huge wheelbarrows full of near black gold.
Do you have a "waste" product that is really useful? Any other uses for sawdust?
A few years ago, I tried an experiment and used the contents of the chamber pot on top of a pile of sawdust, and kept adding sawdust and the urine. The following year, the husband tackled it with the shovel and it was loaded with healthy earthworms. He might have put some rabbit manure there too, I can't remember, but definitely there was no kitchen waste, because I have another place to dump that. We were pleasantly surprised.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great way to break it down. I use some of this for our composting toilet, although I've been made to promise not to use the "humanure" on the veg garden - so just fruit trees and bushes. A friend thinks I should start a big wormery and I'm inclinde to agree.
DeleteI've been composting for a couple of years, and last year I got a black plastic dustbin, and put shredded leaves in it, made beautiful leaf mulch, so this year I have got a second bin to double my quantity. Hubby puts holes around the side at the bottom, and I have a mesh in the bottom. My garden is tiny and the bins look tidy, our aim is to use all our house and garden waste, and at the moment we are reaching this target.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great way to do it! I keep saying I'm going to get the children to collect leaves to make leaf mulch but we never quite get round to it. Maybe this year! Sounds like you have yours well managed!
DeleteI use sawdust for bedding for the hens and ducks and you can use composted sandwich for a mulch in the garden.
ReplyDeleteYeah it makes great beding, I put it in quite thick as I have a lot of it at times. I also plan to get a big bale of straw for them in the next few weeks. That makes a good mat and stops the rest of the bedding sinking in.
DeleteComposted sandwich? That should be composted sawdust. Sorry!
ReplyDeletecompost sandwich works on some levels! When I have a good pile going in the summer I often add thin layers of sawdust in there, With plenty of comfrey it breaks down quickly.
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