Food for thought

Was chatting with mum and a few friends over tea last night and somehow, the topic shifted to gardening. Since I know nothing about it and have no interest whatsoever, I just sat and listened.  Mum started to say that most of the seeds that she planted in our backyard refused to blossom and she suspects that it's because our soil isn't fertile.  However, considering the fact that the soil is black, it should have been fertile by right. That led to one of our friends asking if mum made sure that the seeds were well and truly buried in the soil and not just scattered on the surface.  It appears that he once saw ants carrying away the seeds that he had scattered.  He even showed us how it’s carried away i.e. both hands over one shoulder hefting an imaginary item.  Lol.  Food for thought.

There are other trivia from the conversation that I thought I’d share since they are soOo cool.  Did you know that all food discards/leftovers can be turned into compost?  I mean, I KNOW what compost is but have never really thought of how it’s made.  I guess I’ve always thought that it’s made out of manure.  That’s how little thought I’ve ever spared on that topic.  It’s interesting to know that some people don’t throw wastes away.  They bury all leftovers (fruit and vegetable peels, leftover foods, etc) in the soil and in a few weeks time, everything turns black and walla..you have your home made compost.  HEY! A thought suddenly occurred while I am writing.  Since our friends are vegetarian, all their food wastes must be vegetables.  What about non-vegetarians?  Can we turn meat into compost as well?  Would that make the vegetable that we plant inorganic???

Apparently, there is a type of storage bin on the market just for this purpose.  You chuck all your food waste into the sealed container and it’ll help ferment the waste into one gooey mass.  To use the compost as a fertilizer, simply turn on the tap located at the lower end of the container and I imagine you’ll see all those black mass flowing out.  Truly gross.  But earth saving.

Another trivia is soaking all citrus peels in a tub of vinegar for a few weeks and recycling them to be used as detergents.  Ingenious!!  

p/s:  This weekend will be spent playing in the garden and throwing out seeds on the soil to test my friend’s theory of stealing ants.  Xd