Tag: Cultivate Central

Permaculture, Writing

Cultivate In the City: Soil Health Part 1/5 – my latest article on Cultivate Central

Raidah Shah Idil

herb spiral

Check out my latest article on Cultivate Central! It’s an introduction to what we learned with Dr Sultan Ismail, an international guest speaker and soil biologist from Chennai, India. He shared so much with us, and I’m working on creating a series of articles based on his gems of wisdom.

Back to my own garden – I’ll be writing more about my newbie composting experience on Cultivate Central. There is something so satisfying about creating rich topsoil out of grass clippings, brown plant matter and the magic catalysts (coffee grounds and chicken manure). Even if you don’t have a garden, you can compost on your balcony.

We found EARTHWORMS in our second finished compost pile! I saw one big, fat, juicy one, and a few smaller ones, all of which help increase soil health. Mmm, earthworms.

Permaculture, Writing

My Cultivate Central Article: Permaculture and Petai

Raidah Shah Idil

IMAG0611After my whirlwind Sydney book launch, I’m settling back into KL, Malaysia. After living in Malaysia for 5 months, I’ve become much more accustomed to the heat, so no visiting Sydney during the winter months. I’ll turn into a popsicle 😛 I know, I know, Sydney winters aren’t that cold! But compare the cold to KL weather…

Speaking of weather, I’d like to share my very first post on the awesome Cultivate Central website – Permaculture and Petai. I wrote this in early February, right after completing the life-changing PDC (Permaculture Design Certification), organised by the Murujan crew, and held at Bamboo Village.

Kudos to the awesome Nova Nelson, founder of Cultivate Central, for being an inspirational urban gardener. She can actually compost in the balcony of her apartment in Singapore! Respect.

My husband and I have 3 compost piles in our front yard, two of which were ‘accidental’ because the grass cuttings and/or leaves started composting on their own. Amazing! Now our job is to turn the compost piles regularly (every 4 days) and water them. At some point, we need to combine them into a bigger heap, because we need more mass to keep the composting going.

Compost = rich organic matter = win!