Let’s be frank (actually, Bu) proper right here. There’s in all probability not a cow that surfs in Malibu (a minimum of, none that I’ve ever seen after I’ve been paddling in the marketplace). Nonetheless there is a cow (make that many cows) that enjoys a contented existence on a Central California farm, grazing on non-genetically modified feed and pooping to its coronary coronary heart’s content material materials.
Cow poop is perhaps not one factor you consider so much, nonetheless picture this: That joyful cow sends its meals by a complicated digestive system that breaks all of it down proper right into a nutrient-rich mass. That mass turns into cow poop. That poop is amended with yarrow, chamomile, valerian, stinging nettle, dandelion, and oak bark pure preparations to help usher in helpful microbes. That in flip is composted with numerous love and gratitude on a biodynamic farm, beneath a cosmic cycle that follows the rhythms of nature and respects the life forces that preserve the earth — the forces you cannot see nonetheless can nonetheless actually really feel, that work meticulously to give you good soil and yard bounty.
This complete course of, my associates, is what makes Malibu Compost so explicit.
Though all of it could sound a bit New Agey for a lot of gardeners, biodynamic agriculture is nothing new. The principle was first launched in 1924 by an Austrian thinker, Rudolf Steiner, as a holistic system that emphasizes the interrelationships of the soil, crops, animals, and other people on a farm. It’s very like what pure gardeners are likely doing of their very personal properties — treating the soil as a residing organism, not merely a medium, and putting once more into the earth what they take out.
Malibu Compost works on a ten,000-acre licensed biodynamic farm, of which 1,000 acres are occupied by dairy cows and a small fraction of that utilized for composting. The company’s flagship product, Bu’s Combine Biodynamic Compost, is a couple of shit. Considerably. They often despatched me various baggage to try in my yard.
That’s what my raised mattress appeared like on the end of the season — dry, cracked, clumping clay that snapped two trowels in half after I attempted to dig up the ultimate of my crops.
I unfold various inches of Bu’s Combine on prime of my soil and watered it in. Waited various days for all these microorganisms to start out out working their magic, after which planted away. (These footage had been actually taken last 12 months after I first started using Bu’s Combine, and I can honestly say I’ve seen a distinctive distinction inside the top quality of that soil versus the soil in my completely different raised beds.)
When my crops grew various inches tall, I started feeding them with a lightweight spray of Bu’s Brew Biodynamic Compost Tea.
Compost tea is a liquid fertilizer that includes the entire microbial goodness of the compost it was created from. It’s a good way to get the entire nutritional vitamins into your soil and crops with out having to haul spherical baggage of compost. For that cause, Malibu Compost has packaged its compost into single-use “tea baggage” that you could be steep in water to make a foliar spray.
To prepare the compost tea, merely steep a Bu’s Brew tea bag in a 5-gallon bucket, crammed about three-quarters of one of the best ways with water. Let it sit in a single day until the water turns a deep brown.
Using a stake, stir the brew vigorously in a single path until it creates a vortex.
After a minute or so, reverse path and hearth up one different vortex. Protect doing this for about 10 minutes or until your arm falls off. The mounted movement of stirring, breaking the vortex, stirring as soon as extra, and breaking the vortex as soon as extra wakes up the entire microorganisms inside the brew so that you simply get all that good compost stuff taking place.
Fill a watering can or sprayer with the compost tea, and soak the leaves of your crops (don’t neglect the undersides!) whereas whispering sweet nothings to them. (On account of all of us converse to our gardens, correct?) You presumably may even use the compost tea as a soil drench — the similar method you’d use another liquid fertilizer.
Repeat this course of as quickly as a month, or everytime you take note, and watch your yard flourish beneath all that beautiful lovemaking. Crops love having compost tea rain down on them as a result of it promotes healthful progress and sickness resistance.
The used tea bag could possibly be tossed into your compost heap to decompose naturally, or it could be steeped as soon as extra to make a a lot much less concentrated brew for seedlings.
This 12 months, I’m very excited that Malibu Compost has come out with their new Bu’s Best Biodynamic Compost Tomato Tea — all the benefits of the distinctive Bu’s Brew, nonetheless particularly formulated for the heavy desires of tomato crops. They’ve moreover launched Bu’s Buds, a model new combine just for roses! The tomato tea offers kelp, worm castings, and horsetail in its biodynamic preparations, whereas the rose tea offers kelp, worm castings, and a greater proportion of stinging nettle.
Since we’re correctly into spring, I assumed this could possibly be the right time to crew up with Malibu Compost on this good giveaway!
One lucky winner will receive a three-pack of Bu’s Brew (containing 12 tea baggage in all), one sample of Bu’s Best, one sample of Bu’s Buds, and a Stella Natura 2013 Biodynamic Planting Calendar ($70 full price). (And in case you didn’t uncover Bu’s Best or Bu’s Buds on their web site, that’s because of every of these formulations are mannequin new, so the winner is perhaps one among many first to try them!)
enter: Depart a comment beneath telling me what you are rising, the place you intend to utilize the compost teas, and/or why you might have considered trying them… I’d like to take heed to the best way you’re gardening this season! To acquire an additional entry, observe @gardenbetty on Twitter, and go away a second comment beneath indicating your Twitter username. You should have two possibilities to win!
The giveaway will end at 11:59 PM Pacific Commonplace Time on Friday, May 3, 2013. Winner is perhaps drawn at random and launched the subsequent week. Good luck!
Giveaway Pointers
- Giveaway begins April 29, 2013 and ends May 3, 2013.
- No purchase is vital. To enter, go away a contact upon this weblog publish.
- Solely US residents ages 18 and older are eligible to enter.
- Two entries allowed per particular person.
- Odds of profitable are primarily based totally on number of entries obtained.
- Winner is perhaps drawn at random.
- If winner does not reply inside 48 hours after time of contact, that entry is perhaps forfeited and a model new winner is perhaps drawn.
This publish is delivered to you by Malibu Compost. Thanks for supporting the sponsors that assist Yard Betty.
Change: A large due to all people who entered!
This giveaway is now closed. The winner has been launched proper right here.