The Compost Conversation

The ‘Compost Conversation’, is our weekly column in the Midland Express which allows us to reach an even wider audience with our composting advice and tips. Who would have thought we had so much to say about compost? We did!

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Mikaela Beckley Mikaela Beckley

Is that mulch or is it compost?

There is no agreed definition of what compost actually is or isn’t, and a huge array of commercial products sold as ‘compost’ look more like ‘mulch’ to me.

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Mikaela Beckley Mikaela Beckley

Seaweed in compost? Yes but...

The question of whether adding seaweed to our compost will enhance it is a simple yes. Seaweed is a rich source of nutrients like nitrogen, potassium, and phosphate, which are essential for plant growth

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Mikaela Beckley Mikaela Beckley

A very tiny, big issue

I was chatting to new YIMBY composter Laura Jade about things that make it through our compost piles virtually unscathed.

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Mikaela Beckley Mikaela Beckley

How to test for herbicide residues

Synthetic Auxins are coming into our food systems in commercial composts, garden soil blends and ingredients that might go into our home composts.


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Mikaela Beckley Mikaela Beckley

Invisible, persistent killer.

‘Synthetic auxins’ are a group of herbicides that have been quietly killing off backyard and market gardens in our region for some time now.

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Guest User Guest User

Drumming up interest

YIMBY Composters teamed up with Dig It MainFM program and Growing Abundance and took to the streets in the Castlemaine Show Parade this last week to make some noise!

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Guest User Guest User

There’s a fly in my compost

Occasionally we get a distressed call at YIMBY informing us someone has fruit fly in their compost…Common names can be a bit misleading, and it turns out quite a few flying insects get the name ‘fruit fly’.

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Guest User Guest User

Not foul manure, fowl manure

Gallus gallus’, the Red Junglefowl, once roamed wild in the forests of South Asia, but has, through long years of human breeding, become quite a different creature.

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Guest User Guest User

Horse manure, worming and compost

This week the Compost Conversation has enlisted the help of local vet and large animal specialist, Dr. Paul O’Connor, to better understand horse health and what that means for our compost. Paul grew up on a farm, has a long-term affinity with large farm animals and is a partner at Kangaroo Flat Vet Clinic.

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Guest User Guest User

Straight from the horse’s…

Although horses no longer perform the major traction and transport roles they once did in our society, our increased human population, growing affluence and our enduring affinity with our equine friends means there are more horses in Australia now than at the end of the 19th century. 

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