Kali De Keyser

I don't think it will be one a week's job to empty the compost bins but longer periods... but in ten years time when I'll be older it may be a good option ?
For the moment, I plan to grow mostly herbs and my favourite plants - flowers for their beauty ! and some berries - the vegetables will be at the farm...

I did not know the word "ramps" - so it is an Allium - Allium tricoccum - that's nice and it thus grows in forests in North America. Here in Northern Europe, we have another Allium which grows in deciduous forests : Allium ursinum, "ail des ours" or bear's garlic but we do not have many bears left... We often collect bear's garlic in the spring to make "pesto".

Hello M Ljin,
I meant too much urine to spread in the garden directly. But to mix with sawdust into the compost bins is fine.
I just wonder about the quantities/volume of humanure... I guess we'll just build the compost bins and see how it goes.

Hello R Scott,
Well I'd rather move compost from a bin than remove soil - it seems easier to me and surely less disturbing to soil and plant life... the garden is full of plants : melissa, rhubarb, raspberry, redcurrant, roses, ferns and as the season advances, I will surely discover new plants.
We also plan to dig into the garden to put a water tank but that is another project...

Hello Benjamin,
The soil in the garden is already quite rich and some plants prefer not too rich soils (vegetables like humus rich soil but not all plants do). From my experience soil builds up and the level of soil rises as time goes, if soil is not worked or tilled and if old leaves and plant residues from last season are used as mulch. I wonder actually if this is not the reason why the level of the garden is higher than the floor level of the house and also the level of the neighbour's courtyard ? As the house is old and so is the garden (it is a medieval village).  

But you're right having too much compost is rather a nice situation ! And the soil at the farm certainly needs some more organic matter.
That is what we thought of building - compost bins of 1 cubic meter.

Well surely a 50 square meter garden cannot receive all the urine of two persons. It would be much too much for the plants and soil.
As for the barrels big ones are too unpratical to carry - we are in our sixties and won't be getting younger
i'll try to find other ideas of volumes.

Thank you Burra for your suggestion. I think the barrel would be huge and not pretty in our bathroom ! We would need maybe a 30 l barrels to make it practical to get down the stairs and out of the house.  But maybe we could replace the flushtoilet by this willow feeder - because the toilet is on the groundfloor down the corridor in front of the entrance door. But what about the urine ? would it to be sent into the sewage system ? Still the information about the volume and time is interesting - if 5 people fill a 120l barrel in 3 months, then 2 persons would fill 120 l barrel in 71/2 months or 2 x 60 l barrels or 4 x 30 l barrels... But the volume are different with a compost toilet which does not separate the urine...

Hello everybody,

We just bought a village house with a small garden behind the house. There is no front garden as the house is in a very small street (ruelle) in the center of the village. The garden is 50 square meters and closed by stone walls. I always thought I would have a compost toilet in my next house but I wonder how we will manage ! There is a flush toilet on the groundfloor that we may keep for the visitors. We are to live there my companion and I. We have allready experienced compost toilet in various places. We thought a basic compost-toilet with a bucket and sawdust would be convenient in the bathroom (upstairs). We will make a compost bin in the garden for all organic waste.
But I wonder about the volume of waste. I guess we won't let it compost 2 years in the compost bin. As the garden is small, we will have to evacuate the compost (rather fresh than mature compost) out of the house and bring it to another garden to finish the process (probably in a farm where my companion works) - which means using the car... It won't be the most practical as when you have a big garden next to your house... Even with only the kitchen waste, we would have to evacuate the compost because it would be too much volume to put in the garden. The groundfloor level is 50cm below the garden level so we surely won't make raised beds as we want to have the light and sunshine coming into the house.

Would you have any suggestions ?

The best would be good compost - well made compost which has heated up - but my compost does not heat up much and has always seeds from wild plants which will germinate. I use it for transplanting mix but not as sowing mix. I also use earth from molehill as transplanting soil but again it is not seedfree which makes it not very practical as sowing mix. On the other hand if I'm sowing seeds from trees I use just my compost because even if some wild seeds germinate, it is easy to tell them apart from the tree seedlings.

Hello,
Nice story ! and lovely Sinterklaas gift ! I come from Belgium therefor I'm familiar with Saint Nicolas
Personnaly I never tasted dahlia - they don't grow well in my sandy soil when we have a dry season - which happened a few years ago and they could not stand it... I prefer the simple florwers too...
Here a some organic dalhia bulb producers which are part of the slow flower network - but I see they don't chose especially the ones bee can pollinate ... I guess the most popular for bouquet are the big ones with many petals...
https://www.lent.be/product-category/ecological-dahlia-bulbs/
https://www.lesfleursdekeraret.com/galerie-dahlias
Best wishes,
Kali