TBK Tries -Composting in the Philippines

My wheelbarrow and compost bins in Bahrain

 

 

 

One of the questions I keep getting asked as I prepared for my move to the Philippines is “ What will you do when you finish work?

My front garden in Bahrain, created from a sand pit

 

One of my many hobbies since I was a kid was gardening. At my parents’ house in the UK we had a huge house and garden and I was given my own area to look after. I planted vegetables (which I sold to my dad’s patients) and I had a small pond with fish in. My dad had a compost and I learnt form him how to separate the twigs and wood from the leaves and grass and dead plants. In those days we burnt the former and composted the latter. In 2000 I worked for the Environmental giant, SITA, in the UK. I visited the commercial compost at Lount and met Dr. Compost, Stephen Wise. He taught me more about composting on a larger scale and advised me when I first moved to Bahrain how to set up a compost there!

Composting in Bahrain

 

In Bahrain I started my compost with one drum for food waste but by the time I left I had acquired 6 drums! Likewise I started with one small one pen for grass cuttings and garden waste and by the time I left we had eight pens running the length of the garden. Sadly when I left Corporate services removed them all!

In 10 years we composted over 2,000 bin bags of garden waste. It helps when you have a huge park producing hundreds of bags of high-quality grass cuttings a year! My thanks to Hani for supplying such wonderful composting material ( 60 bin bags of High Quality Princess Sabeeka park grass cuttings every week in the growing season!). I also had wonderful neighbors who daily delivered their kitchen waste. My former colleague John Jaworski deserves a special mention for delivering over 250 bags of grass and leaves over my time in Bahrain. 

The wooden compost pens lined one side of the garden in Bahrain

My delegates, and other colleagues, donated rotating composting drums (invented by a former colleague, Ebrahim Hammed) and mysteriously empty barrels and wood kept appearing in my garden as and when a compost extension was needed.

Everything in the Awali compost was recycled- bags, flip chart paper, boxes etc.

 

The compost my friends, gardeners, houseboys and I lovingly watered (with recycled brackish water) daily, and covered  it with unwanted cardboard and used flipchart paper from work. It all rotted down very fast in the heat of the Middle East. 

We then used the organic Awali compost to grow tomatoes, potatoes, cabbages, Papaya, mint, chives, lemongrass, Basil and other goodies for the kitchen. Every year my wonderful gardener, Shji, would grow bedding plants from seeds and plant them in the cooler months using the compost to ensure they grew well.

 

The centre piece of my Bahrain Garden

In 2019 we found a lot of old watering cans and buckets and had the tops cut off and then filled them with compost and plants. I also found a used cable drum and when I inquired if anyone needed it the drum mysteriously appeared in my garden! It made a very attractive centre piece and the birds loved drinking water from the bowls we placed on it and on an old tree trunk. Every Friday we placed 18 kg of Millet in a circle around the old cable drum and a large variety of birds would appear daily at sunrise and tweet cheerfully as they enjoyed their feast.

My compost was home to lots of wildlife

 

In the compost we had rats, mice, lizards, geckos, and huge worms, that all helped aerate and turn the grass cuttings and food waste into our high-quality organic compost. At one point it was home to 7 kittens and occasionally at night we were visited by stray dogs and the neighbor’s cats. The Doves from Princess Sabeeka park were also regular visitors on a Friday to eat my millet!

Once I asked Shji why there were so many living creatures in my garden and he replied

 “Because you are a good man, sir, you give them food and water and love”.

My compost bins for food waste, grass cuttings and shredded paper

 

All this was created from a sandpit that I inherited when I moved to Bahrain in 2010. So, I figure that if I can create compost and turn sand into a beautiful garden in Bahrain then I can do the same in the Philippines. I will of course keep you updated in future Blogs and Vlogs on The British Kabayan You tube channel. 

 

If you want to come and help once I get a house in the Philippines, or donate native Pinoy plants and vegetables for me to grow, or see how to set up a compost, just email me at: 

                         thebritishkabayan@gmail.com

 

Until then...Ingat Palagi, Mahal Kita, Kita kits.....