"The process
of photosynthesis is like a fine, critical thread that invisibly suspends
all our food and the dining experience before us". Lloyd Godman
2005
"Lloyd
Godman's twin careers of serious and successful organic gardener and
practicing artist of great creative energy converge in new and constantly
surprising ways to make art about the ecological concerns that underly
his gardening. Over almost three decades his art has widened out from
relatively traditional landscape photography to include elements of
performance, audience participation art and multimedia installation
to explore the tensions between electronic consumer society and the
ecosystem."
Artlink magazine - Ecology: Everyone's Business - Vol 25 no 4 - Dec - Jan 2006
This reseource documents his experience with the Organic Light Garden
Making Compost
My basic system is to have 6 large bins in a row - each bin is about 1m high x 1m x 1.5 - I get one bin going - pump the grey water from the house out to the bin - as we are vegetarians it is loaded with microbes but no harmful pathogens one get with meat products - The basic thing is to try to get the carbon nitrogen ratio right - easiest way to understand this is 40% brown material 60% green - horse or cow have lots of nitrogen so they fit into the green bit - then the heap needs about 45 - 55% moisture - that's where the grey water comes in. To this heap I add the kitchen scraps - also rich in nitrogen - this brings in the works - a good compost heap can have more variety of micro organisms as there are people on the planet - I help get things going by putting leaves and sticks through the mulcher - the finer the pieces the quicker they rot.
The row of compost bins I stated on the right and worked to the left - the mulcher is in the shed
As the first bin is breaking down I get the others filled - then by the time I get to the last bin the first one is ready to empty - so I can begin again moving sequentially through the six bins - so in 6 months I have go great compost ready to move - then I get one bin a month from then on - so from the 6 bins I get 2 rotations every year or about 12 cubic meters of compost a year - When I dig out the compost I put it through a rotatory tumbler or sieve to sort it
The fine stuff falls through into a wheel barrow and goes to the garden - the sticks and stones go out the end - the sticks go back into the mulcher in what I term as a double boiler system - these are loaded with microbes so when they get into a new heap it begins to rot quickly - This really kick starts the process next time round
