Compost Tea Throughout the Seasons

As a part of my intern duties, every two weeks I prepare and spray compost tea on our entire garden.  The "tea," prepared using a giant tea bag filled with 9 pounds of our own compost, among other things, is designed to harness the yummy bacteria, yeast, and other microorganisms living in our compost and distribute them to our fruits and veggies to aid in root growth, nutrient intake, and fruit production.

What I didn't realize when I signed up for this position is exactly how literal Malaika, our fearless garden manager, was when she said I had to spray the *entire* garden.  Although our ~1 acre of food and flowers doesn't seem much at first glance, it turns out there's much more area to cover than I might have originally thought.

The first time I sprayed compost tea, it was peak harvest season and all of our vegetables were growing in full force.  It took me almost 5 hours of slowly walking with a heavy backpack sprayer to cover 80% of the foliage and ground cover around the garden.  Though I had prepared for the worst, I found as I walked that I saw the garden in a whole new light.  Plots I had never seen before came into view - one covered in corn, squash, and beans in a "three sisters" planting in the Old Garden, which looked like autumn in early September; a patch of raspberries that was hidden from the rest of the garden that needed immediate care; a patch of lettuce that we had seeded upon my arrival now nearly ready for harvest.  Even better were the non-plant garden residents I had never seen before - a large number of bright green frogs on the huge leaves of cucurbits (squash, melons, and cukes), tiny garden snakes among the potatoes, and cats that even in the 5 weeks I had lived here I had never encountered. It seemed the garden was larger not just in physical size, but in its population.

Some argue the merits of compost tea, especially compared to the amount of effort and labor put into it.  Opponents claim that the microorganisms in solution are so dilute and widely sprayed that they would never make it to the roots and truly impact the growth of our plants.  I would argue that simply the act of giving time and attention - really, loving kindness - to all of our plants is enough to justify the practice, and love them I do.  After each batch, there is a little tea left over that can be given to my favorite crops as an extra snack - during my first batch, I gave it all to the tomatoes, which were producing heavily and in need of all the nutrients they could get.  Now that a frost has cut back tomato production significantly, I give big sips to our raspberries in the lower garden, the soybeans that I can't wait to steam as edamame, and the late planting of potatoes that need all the love they can get.  

I am grateful for the opportunity to witness the garden's evolution over these weeks, and to orchestrate the growth and happiness of the Tea itself.  Every batch we've prepared this year has tested with the highest levels of bacteria, yeast, and fungi possible - meaning that we are getting those lovely critters to all of our plants just when they need it.  In this photo, you can see a cross-generational collaboration for compost tea - Althea, our resident scientist at 2 years of age, *loves* the sprayer almost as much as she loves eating fresh veggies out of the garden! It really is an awesome opportunity for *everyone* (and everything!) that lives in and loves the garden to work together. :-)