Removing debris from our seed starting mix
I’ve never been one to run my compost through a seive. I know some people like to remove all the little sticks and clumps. But I never saw the need. Everything in my compost pile (well, almost) is organic. So I figure it will break down in the garden eventually. Why bother to pretty it up?
But today I suddenly found myself in need of some seed starting mix and had no interest in traveling to the garden center to pay an arm and a leg for something made with peat moss imported from Canada. As I was poking around on the back patio deck, I noticed someone had been sweeping up out there. Understand, we’ve been over our heads this summer in renovations, so the usual spring cleaning never entered the picture. This paved deck just happens to be a great trap for fallen leaves. So piles of them have been collecting and sitting there since last fall.
The pile I found didn’t look anything like leaves any more. It looked just like compost, but mixed with all sorts of other debris and trash blown in over the fence. Necessity being the mother of invention, I fetched one of my favorite kitchen tools–a Chinese “spider” that we normally use for fishing vegetables out of boiling water or hot oil–and commissioned it as our new compost sifter.
In quick order, I had a seed tray full of beautiful, fine leaf mold. Stir in a few handfuls of perlite (I just happen to have a bucket of it in the garage) and what you have is one of the finest seed starting mixes you’ve ever seen.
In this I planted several varieties of lettuce for harvesting in the fall.
I’m not sure this is going to convince me to start sifting all of my compost. But I do love it when we can make do with what we have on hand and save a trip to the store.
Note: I would not use compost from my usual pile because of the likelihood of introducing weed seeds into the seed starting medium. Perlite, if you’re not familiar, is a volcanic mineral that expands into light-weight, white little pebbles when heated. It is commonly used in potting mixes to prevent compaction.
We are engaging the concerns of a hungry planet--slowly--right here in our kitchen garden in the District of Columbia, about a mile from the White House.
Sure, Ed, I sift my compost. And I iron our sheets and towels too. Hwah!
If I need the fine stuff, I just go further down the pile, or scrape up some stuff in the adjacent areas to the pile. I don’t worry about weeds too much: if I know where I plant the seeds, the weeds should be everything else.
Have you considered a worm bin? Their castings are great to add to the seed-starting medium (though not too much because it’s really rich).
El, in fact I do have a worm bin but I had never thought of using the castings for a seed starting mix. Great idea. Maybe I’ll give our traditional compost a try as well. I wonder if ground leaves could substitute for the peat….