What NOT to try

How great that there is now a book dedicated to pet poo use. Finding out about resources I'd never discover otherwise is one of the many reasons I like this forum.

A while back I went on an Internet fact finding mission to try to figure out the dog poo issue. The buried, bottomless bin and variations were all I found. Having a small garden with tree roots everywhere, the BBB wasn't very appealing.

Reading that Bokashi bins can deal with meat scraps (only ever used one for things the hens don't like), I thought, "this has to be perfect for carnivore poo!". One small dog eats predominantly meat, bones and veg, the other one can't deal with bones so gets a bit of kibble instead. Well, months later the contents of the bin were still intact.

Oh well, live and learn. I'm still hopeful I'll discoveri a method that suits my situation.

Hi Polly - When I hear about chickens, I get jealous. They're the best recycling critters ever, and good for the soul. Bokashi will work with dog poo and you can mix in anything else the hens won't eat. Mix up your own bokashi - cheaply and easily. There are lots of simple recipes online that require only wheat bran, EM, molasses and water. When using the BBB method, throw in septic starter and water to help the poo degrade. If tree roots make it hard to bury bins, why not just dig some deep holes in spaces between roots and bury the raw poop, with some sawdust, shredded leaves or other available brown material. Deposit sparsely. As long as there are no vermin around to dig it up, the poop will degrade and feed tree roots.

Hi Rose,

Thanks for responding. You say Bokashi works for dog poo? I wonder what I did wrong? Maybe creating a monoculture of dog poo, without any other ingredients except the Bokashi bran is where I went astray. What do you think? I don't tend to have much of anything from the kitchen that isn't used by dogs, hens or worms, but there is plenty of garden 'waste' I could divert if you think that would help.

About the only areas in my garden that aren't growing something are the paths, I guess I could dig holes in them, or bite the bullet and do the excavation needed to bury a bottomless bin.

Is there a digital version of your book? I'm not in the U.S. so ebooks are a better option for me.

Polly - Try googling the Bokashi PetCycle Waste Disposal System. It's a commercial product, but I'll bet you could replicate it using two plastic containers, bokashi and water once you figure out how they do it. The dog poop turns into a kind of (sorrrrry) gravy that can be fed to ornamental plants once it's been allowed to finish/rest. Theoretically bokashi should work on multiple organic inputs. But try the poo monoculture and see if that works.

Pet Poo Guide is available online at Barnes and Noble for Nook readers and Amazon for Kindle.

An ebook is available at a very reasonable price through the publisher at http://www.newsociety.com/Books/P/The-Pet-Poo-Pocket-Guide.