This bottle right here is full of one of the most valuable compost ingredients that everybody has access to. And in fact, everybody flushes it down the toilet. And I'm going to go over three more valuable compost ingredients that most people just kind of overlook or waste.
If you want to find out what's in this bottle and why it's blue, then stick around to the end of the video. I'm going to go over the other three ingredients before this one. My name is William.
I am the permaculture consultant. And if you want a soil biology test done, the whole reason we make compost is for the biology. If you want one of those done, hit up the email down below.
And if you want an on-site consultation where I come out to your property and I give you a game plan, then hit up the email down below as well. Let's get started with the video. So, the first ingredient and maybe the most obvious ingredient is everything you see behind me.
This is grass. This is weeds. This is green vegetation, but more specifically the grass.
The grass is probably one of the most overlooked and easily um available to most areas unless you're in a desert. Easily available compost inputs. This stuff will heat up compost fast.
It's the perfect ratio of about 35 to 25 to1 ratio on the carbon to nitrogen ratio. It is a fantastic input for your compost. And if you mow your grass, it's just as simple as putting a bagger on your mower or even just raking it up after you're done mowing and then you have a ton lit almost quite literally depending on how big your yard is, a ton of perfect ratio compost ingredient.
All you have to do is add a little bit more other ingredients, a couple other ingredients, and then you will have perfect compost every single time. So, here's a little pro tip on your grass. If you want to increase the diversity of the microorganisms in your soil or in your compost and then in your soil, then mow from various parts.
Get other people's grass inputs as well. Like a lot of people bag their grass like literally put it in paper bags and put it out on the um like on out on the curb. My dad me and my dad have plenty of times have gone through driven through driven through town and picked up other people's bagged, you know, grass over on the curb.
Um, now the little little warning when it comes to picking up other people's bag grass is that some people put those Kyber Bosch nitrogenbased fertilizers on their grass. Uh, some people put like broadleaf killer on their grass and stuff like that. So, be cautious and maybe ask the people if they use any of those things before you put them in your compost cuz a lot of those herbicides or pesticides especially or even fungicides, some people put fungicides on their guards, on their grass.
Um, a lot of those can slow down or inhibit your microorganisms in your compost. What's cool about microorganisms is that a lot of them can handle those toxins in smaller doses. They'll take those toxins and they'll lock them up in long and mediumchain carbonic acids.
So the toxins are there and then also some microorganisms can completely dismantle the toxins uh like the ark bacteria and stuff like that they can completely dismantle and destroy those toxins. Um even like PFAs and like for forever chemicals and stuff like that. It's off topic but it's really really cool.
But um your compost is able to handle small amounts of toxins. So if you get some of that or if you get some of the grays on or there's a bunny. You see that bunny?
H. He just popped out and he's just chilling. Look at him.
Cool little bunny. But anyway, me and my bunny friend are here to tell you that grass is an outstanding input for your compost. On to the next input.
Now, the next overlooked input is actually what you see on these trees over here. And these are the leaves. Now, this is my one of my peach trees right here.
And it's got some pretty nice peaches on it right now, if I do say so myself. Actually, it's got a ton of peaches on it. Wow, that's pretty cool.
But leaves are another overlooked valuable, super valuable uh compost ingredient. And the cool thing about leaves is that it's a super clean uh carbon source. You know how I was telling you earlier about the gray on and how it could be, you know, potentially detrimental to your compost or slow things down in large quantities.
You don't really have to worry about that with leaves because if you look at this trunk right here, if you can see that trunk, that acts as a very long straw and a very long filter before that actually hits the surface of the leaves. Now, we just had a rain event. That's why it's so dog on dark around here.
We just had a rain event, so every time it rains, it actually cleans off the surface of the leaves, minus what they're spraying in the skies. Obviously, that's falling down on them. But as far as like your your roadside crews, whenever they come through and spray that stuff, some of it will, you know, pick up on your leaves and everything, but every time it rains, it actually washes off.
And it's a super super clean carbon source. Um, remember, you can come up with a million reasons why not to do something, but flip the script and try to come up with a million reasons why you should do something. Now, cool thing about permaculture and the randomness pattern is that this is an act of randomness right here.
this pile of leaves in this culvert ditch. I can use I can come over where they naturally collect, scoop these guys up, and then I can use them in my compost. Now, cool thing about a lot of these leaves is they've been sitting here for a couple of years.
So, there's nice leaf mold in it as you can see there. There's even a little earthworm right here. Oo, he's a lively one.
Dang, he disappeared quick. But these are going to provide awesome awesome fungi for your compost because they've been sitting here for a long time. perfect environment for fungi to grow, obviously, minus this, the fact that they're on the side of the road.
Um, but it's an awesome way to add diversity to your compost. And remember, we want as diverse microbes as possible in our compost. Now, some people are going to be worried about the runoff from the pavement over here, which is barely paved.
Um, but some people are going to be worried about the runoff coming from the pavement. Don't worry about that at all because like we previously mentioned, compost can handle small amounts of toxins and honestly anymore you're not going to find perfectly clean sources of anything anymore. I mean, you can find like microlastics in the middle of nowhere within the actual fruit of the of the trees out there.
Like microplastics are everywhere. It's basically a it's basically a natural resource at this point. So, you might as well accept it and use as clean as possible.
Um, but don't let it stop you from making compost, I should say. Now, another natural collection point, which is another pattern of randomness in permaculture, is along your fence lines right here. Now, we have a bunch of oaks right here.
Um, and yeah, these are mostly oaks. There's also this cedar right here, but there's a ton of oaks right here. They all drop their leaves and as the wind blows, they get caught up on this fence, which is a pattern of randomness.
Now, this is a perfect, wonderful location to pick up leaves. Now, be careful in these leaves, too, cuz we also got some rattlesnakes up here in Texas, and they ain't no fun. But also another wonderful compost additive after you kill the rattlesnake.
Two warnings when it comes to leaves. They compost way better if you can run them over with your mower first, shred them up, and then make them quite a bit smaller in size. Like, it'll help them break down.
They'll create less of a matte layer within your compost cage. And also the second warning is that some leaves can take a little bit longer to decompose. So if I were to use leaves that just freshly fell off the oak, like it's brand new fall, they just freshly fell off the oak, they're probably going to they have a lot of tannins in them that the like microbes and everything.
It's going to slow everything down a little bit, but and oak is just an example of it. Um, but if you let them age a little bit, let them get rid of some of those tannins like these guys over here. they've been sitting here for a couple of years.
These would be absolutely perfect. But again, don't let that stop you from making compost. If this is your like if you're using brand new leaves that just fell off the tree, use them.
Still make compost. It's just going to take you a little bit longer. So, on to ingredient number three.
Do you have a fire pit? Do you have a fireplace? Do you have a wood burning stove?
Anything like that? Well, another awesome additive is actually the charcoal. Now, I was in a bucket full of water um because it just recently rained and I had it in a bucket with no holes in it.
But charcoal is a great additive uh for your compost. And in fact, after your compost is made, this will have inoculated and turned into biochar. The difference between charcoal and biochar is that uh biochar is basically inoculated compost or inoculated charcoal.
Um but that is a fantastic ingredient to add to your compost. Now, most people and as far as like charcoal goes, you're not going to add too much. You can add too much uh like pot ash and stuff like that, but you're not going to add too much charcoal or what will become biochar to your compost ingredients.
But what that does, especially if you live in sandy soils, what that does is provide a home for your microbes to live uh as they glue themselves to your bigger sand particles and start proving uh crumb structure and stuff. Because the issue with these sandy soils and stuff, and this is a good additive even if you're in clay or silt soils as well. But the downside of sandy soils is that the water flows through the soil too quickly.
It doesn't give, you know, how clay pulls water and it stands there forever. Sand does the opposite. It lets it soak through too quickly and it doesn't allow the microbes enough time to actually glue themselves to these sand particles and start building actual soil.
But biochar is fantastic for your soils. It provides a home for your microbes to live and get established. And then think of it as like a little microorganism apartment, but a massive apartment complex.
If you look at it underneath the mic microscope, there's a bunch of tiny little holes within the charcoal that allow the microbes to get in there, make a home, and then they can start branching out and stuff like that. they can start reproducing, create a little micro family, and then the micro family moves out of the house, and then they start gluing themselves to the sands, the silts, and the clays. But almost, it's almost necessary for sandy soils.
So, if you're in the tropics, subtropics, absolutely use biochar or charcoal that'll turn into biochar. Now, some people I've noticed use charcoal or biochar uh directly on the My bad, I misspoke. Some people that I've noticed use charcoal directly on their soils without inoculating the biochar first or inoculating the charcoal, turning it into biochar first.
If you don't inoculate it, then it's actually going to rob nutrients from your soil or not nutrients but microorganisms from your soil for a period of time before it actually acts as a benefit. So, some people complain about biochar saying, "Hey, like I had worse uh effects on my property after adding the charcoal to my property. " It's because you didn't inoculate it first.
You have to inoculate it properly. And the two best ways I know of inoculating charcoal and turning it into biochar is by feeding it to your animals. After it comes out the other end, it's inoculated and they get like a lot of minerals and nutrients from the charcoal.
Think of like how many nutrients the tree has accumulated through its life. and then you burned it, you concentrated it, and then you fed it to your animals. And then the second best way is to actually just add it to your compost.
It's a wonderful additive. But go through your fireplaces, your burn pits, your as long as you're not burning trash, um places where you burn wood, grab that charcoal, crush it up as fine as you can, and then add it to your compost. It doesn't have to be like a powder or anything, but just try to increase the surface area on it as much as possible so that way you're getting the best bang for your buck for your charcoal.
On to ingredient number four. And that mysterious blue bottle. Y'all, I've been waiting a minute to make this video, but this blue mysterious bottle is a fantastic uh compost additive.
And in fact, it'll hit heat your compost up like crazy. So, if you've noticed you made your compost pile and it's just staying cold, it's not really heating up enough and it's not getting to about 130° to start killing the pathogens and the uh the anorobic microbes, then add a magical bottle of uh blue stuff. Some people it's yellow, some people it's white.
It all kind of depends. But this is a bottle of pee. I pee in a bottle.
I don't pee down the toilet because it's a waste of nutrients. I don't take any medication, so I'm not scared to do it or anything like that. I'm not worried about doing it.
Not necessarily scared. But if I were on like um like pharmaceuticals and stuff, then I would error against doing this depending on what the pharmaceutical is. But I'm not on any of that stuff.
So, I have no problem with peeing in a bottle and applying it directly to your compost. We talked about carbon to nitrogen ratios earlier when we were talking about the grass, right? This is a carbon to nitrogen ratio of 1 one.
So, it's super high in nitrogen and it'll heat that stuff up like crazy. You can also dilute it as you're rehydrating some of your compost materials and just add it to some of your carbon materials that you're rehydrating and that'll be like a greater dispersion of the high nitrogen source if you wanted to. That's an option.
Or you can assemble your pile and then directly pour it down the center of your pile. Now, this is a bottle of pee. It's exactly what it is.
Now, why is it blue? It's Why am I peeing like a smurf? It's because I take the supplement called methylene blue.
Um, it's a fantastic sub supplement. It works wonders on like uh memory um neurological things. If you want more information about it, because I'm just a dumb farmer.
If you want more information about it, look up Dr Jack Cruz with a K. K R U S E. He talks a lot about uh free ways to basically make yourself bulletproof.
Uh and Methylene Blue is not one of the free ways, but it's one of the supplements he recommends doing. A lot of the other things he recommends doing is just getting enough sunlight. This is a bottle of pee.
This will heat your compost up like crazy. Definitely start peeing in a bottle if you're not on pharmaceuticals. And if you're a woman, maybe get a funnel or something like that.
I don't know. There's a bunch of different options, but that's what I do. And that's what I add to my compost to get it cooking.
And that's exactly what it'll do. What it will do. Sorry y'all.
It's been a long day. Can't really talk. Getting a little tired.
But, uh, hopefully this video was informative to you guys. Hopefully, it was a little, you know, entertaining to you guys and everything. Um, but yeah, those four ingredients, grass clippings, leaves, charcoal, which will turn into biochar, and pee, those are the four ingredients that most people overlook when they're trying to make a compost cage or a compost pile.
And those are four ingredients that'll give you some fantastic compost. And really, those are maybe like you could get away. I've done videos on just using two of those ingredients before, the grass clippings and the uh leaves.
Perfectly fine. That works just fantastically. Now, you can heat it up if you don't have have access to manure.
You can heat it up with a bottle of pee and call it good. But, uh, yeah, thank you guys so much for watching. Remember, if you want your soil tested, hit up the email down below.
And if you want a consultation, hit up the email down below. Thank you so much for watching. We'll see you next time.
