Misc Spring Cleaning

I spent most of the day re-organising pots so they're not scattered randomly and are lined up near the waterbutt for when I need to transport lots of water in a few weeks (the drought it already starting). SO HOT today, I kept having to go hide in the shade, even with a hat. And I went and broke up lots of the privet branches into smaller bits and piled them round the beds round the back, so I have giant mulch piles against the upcoming evil sun. It's slightly overkill, but it won't hurt the plants and it's a good way to get rid of the masses of twigs and leaves and sticks. And we took off another couple of branches, so we only have the two very tall ones that stick straight up now. So we now have some giant piles of branches, but an actual path cleared through them, and I've dumped two large piles out the front that I'll break up properly later. 

I also planted another little dwarf mandarin tree next to the red guava (apparently they're good companions for citrus), and I'm going to stick another tree in the ground tomorrow - just deciding which one. I have too many trees! I want it to be the apple or a peach, as it will be in a row with the other apples and peach, for pollinating, but I also have other citrus that need planting, and it needs to be a small one. 

I can put in more stuff round the back now that the privet's mostly gone, as there's more sunlight, but I'm going to be Good and Patient and wait til we've actually removed the rest of it (otherwise my baby trees will get trampled. Right now it's easy to send stuff crashing down). 

I was going to do other things today, but kept getting distracted by happy garden time. It's so nice knowing I actually have time to do most of it properly now. There are so many little things like moving stuff into sensible places and getting irrigation stuff set up and Weeding Everything and mulch everywhere, and then deciding what I can repot or plant out. And resisting the urge to go buy more plants. That's a fulltime job! (I REALLY REALLY want a couple of Rabbiteye blueberries. I'm not quite sure where to put them, but argh. WANT. They're the commonest and most productive variety, I opted for a different one (the Southern Highbush variety) initially because it's better suited to my garden. But I want ALL THE BLUEBERRIES).

I love how well everything seems to be doing (almost everything. But the 5% of plants struggling are either really difficult or are getting eaten by slugs and never really had a chance anyway). And I have lots of flowers coming out all down the driveway in nice seasonally staggered displays, which helps fill the 'designer garden' niche, and lets me concentrate on the food stuff in the main garden (which ALSO has lots of pretty flowers most of the time, I just don't design placement around the flowers).

But I really need another watering can. Or a bigger one. Or both. Though being able to run a hose of the waterbarrels this year (as they're nice and raised now) will really help. (Last year it would take me at least six trips with a watering can AND bucket to water the whole garden. Stuff is more established this year, and better mulched, but I also have more of it and I didn't actually manage to water enough last year). Watering's tricky. Too much and the plants don't send down deep roots and get too dependent on you for water. Too little and they start dying.

And the silverbeet and rainbow silverbeet and celery is still growing away and due for another mass harvest soon.

I've found a US edible called 'Miner's lettuce' which looks like it might be an awesome groundcover/salad thing that will keep reseeding and tastes nice and is too tough for the slugs. And my alpine strawberries are starting to snowball in numbers and ripeness (and tastiness!), and my normal strawberries are starting to show signs of fruit. The peach trees all have tiny peaches on and it looks like I have a nice little crop of blueberries coming. Also guavas! The rest of the plants are still budding out, so I'll have to wait and see how many apples and citrus and grapes and things I get. I'm also hoping the haskap (honeyberry), almond, cherry and passionfruit do something this year. The plum tree is covered in beautiful white blossoms and smells lovely, but isn't self-fertile so I probably won't get anything. But I'll see.

I spent a couple of evenings last week nailing chicken wire under the patio roof and running an archway with sheltercloth up to it. I've replaced the dead pepino (I must get another of those) with the red vanilla passionfruit, and hopefully it will grow up under the arch and spread across under the roof (it needs shelter and warmth and shade, so I'm hoping I created the right microclimate).

2014 Fruit & Spring 2015

Haven't posted here in a while - most of the last few months of summer and autumn were full of changes in the garden, and I just gave up on posting about it until it all settled down a bit. I bought a lot more plants, put in some new beds, and have a bunch sitting around in pots waiting for further planting space.

Thinking about the garden meant I either went straight out and started weeding or digging or wandering around planning, or I was sad because I could do anything.

And then of course, there were the many foot problems, which didn't clear up until winter made it too dark and wet to go outside. And then I sprained an ankle again! So all in all, the last few months have been a bit patchy garden-wise.

But this year, I get to see what survived, what's looking sad, and what might actually start fruiting. I also have four rain barrels set up, to help avoid the nasty drought conditions I ran into last year, and cut down on the amount of water hauling I had to do.


Summary of 2014 Summer/Autumn Fruit:


Stonefruit

Apples

Golden Russet apple in organza
jewelry bag against bugs

I got to eat 3-4 apples last year; from one of the Columnar apples (the Polka), the Blush Babe and the Golden Russet. All were a bit sharp, and ripened very late, probably because I shouldn't have let them fruit (I picked most of them off, but I couldn't resist leaving the odd one... ). I chopped them up and popped them into the microwave for five minutes to get individual apple-sized bowls of stewed apple.


I now have five or six apple trees - two local red delicious type dwarf varieties (Blush Babe and Little Rascal), two columnars tucked in up the end, one semi-dwarf Golden Russet in a pot, and one Early Strawberry (to go in the ground). I bought the first four because they were columnar or convenient (sold locally), then realised they all ripened around the same time and were fairly similar apples, so I had to get a couple more. The Early Strawberry is, well, early, and the Golden Russet is supposed to be a very different flavour of apple (and not much of a fruiter, so it's sort of experimental). I'm not a fan of the sharp granny smith types.



Peaches

Honey Babe Blossom
 from 17th August

Bang on schedule, the Honey Babe burst into blossom a couple of weeks ago, and the Kotare Honey is just starting to follow.

I actually got fruit off these last year! The Kotare Honey peaches were prolific, tiny and sad, the Bonanza ones were few, huge and delicious and the Honey Babe were in the middle. I'll see how they go this year, but if the Kotare Honey doesn't improve, I'll get rid of it. The Honey Babe needed more water.

They all got a bit of leaf curl, but I picked the worst of it off, and then they were fine.


Other

The Cherry and the Almond are still in their first couple of years, so I might see flowers this spring. The Cherry is schedule for a transplant from pot to ground at some point; it dried out far too much last year.

The pears and quinces are holding on, and not doing much. They need time and/ repotting, mostly.

I actually found a dwarf plum! It's just poking out a few buds right now, and I just have to cross my fingers that it will be pollinated, but at least I have one.

I got a couple of feijoas off the Unique, but the Bambini didn't get fertilised at all. I've moved Unique's pot round the back next to the Bambini to try and improve that this year. I did get about five little Red Guavas, which were nice, and this year should be a lot better, as the plant is bushing out nicely.


Berries

White Alpine Strawberries

The Pepino bush and the little Blueberry Muffin have been devoured by slugs, and also not very happy in the winter cold. I'll see if they get their leaves back with spring, and try moving them.

The other blueberries have been sporadically flowering and fruiting since I planted them. Once mostly died, but has new growth from the base, the others just keep popping out random flowers. I didn't pull a lot off because I didn't expect them to keep flowering. I'm tempted to indulge in some rabbiteyes, but I know they'll probably go wild, and I still don't have acidic enough soil. And I just need to give my current plants enough time to settle in before I can judge properly.

The strawberries have been doing okay - some died off, others flourished, and some of the day neutrals actually fruited all winter. The Alpines did amazingly, and I was getting a few berries a day right into winter (then the taste declined, as the period between ripeness and mush shortened to about a day or less. The big plants are still fruiting).

The raspberries got the mould, so they were out.

The blackberry and currants are all still growing into things, so I'll see if they start doing anything this year.

I also splurged on four Haskap plants, as a less-acidic-soil alternative to my blueberries (my soil is a little too neutral for me to get my hopes up over those). I thought they all died off last autumn, which was depressing, but it appeared to be a combination of transplant shock from the heat of later summer (they all came from the far end of the New Zealand, as there aren't any local sellers yet), and the onset of autumn. They all have tiny leaves starting to bud out, showing that a plant can look dead for 5 months and still be okay.

My grapes are both alive too - the one in the ground (Niagara) always looked pretty happy, but the Canadice Seedless Grape in the pot was a bit more delicate and got nasty sunburn (or a fungus) towards the end of summer and all its leaves went brown and dropped off. I left it in the hope that it would magically come back to life, and I just noticed some new leaf buds, so that's wonderful.

The Myrtus ugni were... random. They clearly hate wind and getting too dry, and the various bushes around my garden are all reacting differently. One's died off entirely, others are incredibly healthy (some practically next to the dead one). I noticed a sort of greyish pallor to the leaves in summer, which seems to be a sign that they're too hot or dry. I didn't get many berries, which may just be because they were settling in.

Citrus

These are doing... variously. Most look pretty healthy, but aren't really fruiting yet, and a few are clearly not enjoying winter. I got a handful of delicious tiny mandarins off the one round the back, and three lemons off the Meyer, as well as one absolutely fantastic and very tiny orange. The Lime has taken off and is actually growing now, it's double the size, so I won't be removing any fruit this year. I also have a few new dwarf citrus to round out the harvest seasons, a Buddha's hand because I can (it's covered in buds right now) and a Kumquat Meiwa.

Peach Flowers and Spring Growth

I planted out a lot of my seedlings and the results have been mixed; either the slugs ate them instantly, or they took off. I'm waiting to see how many survive...

But in the meantime, spring is officially here! I've been noticing new growth all around the garden, a couple of weeks before I noticed the weather warming up myself. There's been quite a bit of change in the garden over the last few weeks, and I may address more of them in a future update (I certainly got plenty of photographs!).

About a month ago, at the start of August, the bees discovered the Borage. I've since seen on other plants, but at the end of winter it was the only plant they went near.

I saw three different species within five minutes; a large bumblebee, the smaller honeybee and an intermediate bumble of some kind (Which I managed to take a photo of).





So far we have:

New leaves on the feijoa

New growth on the feijoa sellowiana out the front. It's an unnamed variety, which probably means it was a seedling rather than a graft (it was a birthday present).

It hadn't moved a bit since I planted it, which I think means that it was establishing its roots during autumn, then it went dormant for the winter. The other young trees that I planted around the same time mostly managed to start growing just before winter arrived.

My alpine strawberries and Yakon root arrived from Koanga Gardens. They will look very healthy, and it will be nice to see what happens with them. I'm hoping that the Yakon might become a good potato substitute, as I don't get on very well with potato. Either way, it's apparently easy to grow and I can stick in some horrible ground in the corner of the garden.

The alpine strawberries (three of each kind, red and white), all look very healthy and I've left them sitting in a container of water to perk up before I decide where to plant them. Some of them have flowers already. Interestingly the flowers seem to be a lot smaller than the ones I have on other plants.

This was the original Colander strawberry.As you can see,
it's doing very well and has a nice handful of fruit on it.

Nearly ready to eat I hope!

Most of my of alpine strawberries are doing really well, both in the ground and in pots. The big ones in the colanders are doing fantastically well and seem to have doubled in size. They all have at least a dozen flowers or fruit on. I tucked a few little plants in around the garden as well, and it will be nice to see how they do.

I had one small plant that I kept inside for awhile, and I managed to eat a couple of strawberries off it as they ripened over the winter.

It was one of the yellow/white strawberries, and I can confirm the pineapple taste. They were actually quite sharp - I'm going to try leaving others to ripen a bit longer once I have the patience! Although I'm pretty sensitive to sharp tastes, so I'm sure somebody else wouldn't even have noticed. From what I remember of the original fruit that were on the plants that arrived first, I think I prefer the red ones.

I've since moved it outside, because my room was so dry that I was having to constantly water it. The other plants all started flowering over the last few weeks, so I'm looking forward having more than one strawberry at a time!

Flowers and the delicate spiderweb on my Bonanza Peach

My peach trees also arrived about two months ago. They are all dwarf varieties as usual, one Bonanza, one Kotare Honey, and one Honey Babe.

The Bonanza went straight into the ground, at the end of the Apple row. It looked pretty dead when it arrived, but it started to put out flower buds about a month ago. The other two went into pots, with chamomile and alpine strawberries around the base. The poor Honey Babe, which was covered in leaves when it arrived, had all stripped off in a big storm.

I figured that the alpine strawberries might make good ground cover around the base and it would keep them contained, while also providing something similar to their normal woodland environment. The little plant poking out of the mulch on the right is actually a pea plant, growing out of the pea straw.

The Bonanza Peachtree starting to show flower buds at the beginning of August.

The Bonanza is the smallest one by far, and it's also the first to flower. It's currently covered in pink blossoms, where as the Kotare Honey has just put out its first. The Honey Babe hasn't flowered at all yet. I know that the Bonanza is supposed to be one of the earliest, but I'm not sure whether it's because it's also in a more sheltered spot.

The Bonanza a couple weeks later. The lovely flowers has been joined by the first few leaves.

It is notable that all the peach trees are flowering before they put leaves out.

The Kotare Honey starting to flower.

The Bonanza flowers after the petals dropped.

I also now own a Whitecurrant, and an additional redcurrant and blackcurrant. The blackcurrants are both in pots because they tend to spread. The redcurrants and whitecurrant started leafing out with new growth for spring.


I also ordered some blueberries, which were being sold off in the South Island where they didn't really belong (they Southern Highbush; as they're from the northern hemisphere, Southern means warmer). The varieties I got were O'Neil and Petite Blue (which I think is also known as Summer Blue).

Flowers on my Petite Blue Blueberry in the pot.

 I've planted one of each in a big pot each, and the other pair will go in the ground next to each other where they can pollinate each other. This way I should be covered against issues with soil pH in either location, as well as being able to fit more bushes in!

It was interesting to see the "two zones colder" effect of putting something in pots, as the potted bushes leaves promptly turned reddish from the cold, while the ones still sitting in a bucket of water stayed bright and green.

We've also eaten pretty much all the broccoli there was a moment, although we've got some more coming along. I have been planting out some of the potted plants, as they hit the limits of their containers and stopped growing again.

Seedling Update & First Orange

Seedlings sure move fast once they get started!

The beetroot seedlings are looking healthy and growing fast. The top picture is of the remaining cylindrical beetroot seeds, which are basically little dried seed pods.

The transplanted beetroot seedlings are doing fine in their new coconut coir bed.

The Crystal Apple cucumbers are doing well, too. There's a new seedling visible, which seemed to just appear overnight. It's a lovely yellow.

And the original seedling is going strong. You can now see the two leaves inside the seed husk starting to unfold.

The Cherrie Sweetie tomatoes are starting to appear as well. Most are still folded over, like the first picture, but one's leafy and going for it.

Bush basil seeds that I sowed the day before yesterday - they've absorbed water and swollen up, and paled from dark grey. Also, you can see a tiny root sprouting!

I also planted out more seeds at the same time. The Scarlet Runner bean and the Paris Market Carrot just arrived and look pretty amazing. I've hidden the runner beans around the garden, as well as planting them in seed trays.

They've already started sprouting! The runner beans have started to crack open (they're hatching!) and the tiny carrot seeds have little roots.

I also got to harvest the tiny orange from the dwarf Navel orange (I think it's a Best Seedless).

The cat wasn't very impressed.

So I made my own cat, who was wide eyed with citrus-y wonder.

And then I ate it (well, I shared it). It was actually really nice. I left it on the tree for about a week after the last green vanished, and that seems to be about right.

Seedlings Sprouting

My winter seedlings have started sprouting from my windowsill so I wanted to capture the very first to show up.

Stevia in a peat pot. This is quite expensive - I only got five seeds in a pack, compared to 50 or so for tomatoes. It also only lives a couple of years or so, so I'll have to try cuttings and things. If it works, it'll be a fun, useful pot plant, and would make a nice gift if I have spares.

Beetroot - the fastest to come up by far. The seeds were little clusters with multiple seeds, but I've only had two pairs and one single seedling. I haven't planted all the seeds yet, as there were only five (they were a free sample from a seed company, Gardenstuff).

Turns out that you can very gently pull the extra beetroot seedlings out (just don't hold it by the leaves!). There's an awful lot of root in there! I replanted them in another tray, just in case.

Crystal Apple cucumber! I actually thought that I hadn't put the seed in properly at first, before I realised that the plant was pushing it out.

You can't really see the seedling with the naked eye, but a really good close up photo with the flash on shows it really clearly.

Alpine Strawberry Arrivals

My second delivery of alpine strawberries arrived. This time it was a mixture of varieties from The Fragrant Garden.

They were a mixture of healthy and yellowing, some with fruit, and some without. None were named (of course), but were apparently yellow and red creeping and clumping types. And one 'cream' colour (that was just listed as yellow on the label, so who knows what it will be?).

A red alpine strawberry. WITH ACTUAL STRAWBERRIES.

Why yes, it is possible that I did eat the berries
 right after. Why do you ask?

It was very windy and rainy today (we had a strong easterly which is quite unusual - it blew my borage entirely the wrong way and the main stalk is now damaged. There's now an impressive patch of bare earth standing testimony to its mulching abilities). So I only planted out a couple of the strawberries, the rest are waiting in their pots.

 One went in with the Honey Babe peach, another went round the bag under the annoying shady tree that nothing much grows under, and a third joined the previous ones in the apple tree bed (the one with the fruit - one berry fell off as I planted it, so I ate it. And then I ate the other one. Despite the white on the berry they were definitely ripe and absolutely delicious).

Yellow Alpine in Colander

By far the happiest of the plants were the three yellow alpines I bought via TradeMe. They were big, happy, healthy plants and two have gone into the garden, with the third in a nice, big colander. This one also has a flower! 

The flower seems to be bigger than the remains on the smaller ones that arrived today. I'm not sure if this is due to the variety, the size of the plant, or the fact that it's difficult to compare them at different stages in the flower fruit cycle. I guess I'll be finding out!

One lovely strawberry flower...

So sometimes TradeMe gardeners are actually better than nurseries. They cost slightly more, but they were worth it.

But what do they taste like?

Fantastic. I'm trying to find non-cliche adjectives, but 'sweet', 'intense' and 'flavourful' keep springing back up into my descriptions like weeds.

They are like concentrated strawberries. The berry is gone in an instant, but the strength of the taste left behind seems like you just ate an entire larger strawberry. They're slightly sharp and sweet and perfect.

Delicious strawberries...

The yellow and white varieties are supposed to be mellower, or pineapple flavoured, but that may just be the colour affecting people's perceptions (nobody seems entirely certain on the difference). I look forward to blind taste tests. You know, FOR SCIENCE.

Yep. I am extremely pleased with my decision to go alpine-strawberry-mad. I am now going to start collecting them and seeing how many I can raise from seed. This will be difficult, as it involves not eating all the berries.

I don't want to divide them, as apparently the berries get bigger when the plants are bigger. Also, it's apparently easiest to grow them from seed if you just plant the entire berry (as there are multiple seeds, and obviously it's the best environment for them).

Buying the Strawberries

I have seen references in articles to being able to find them in the herb section of garden centres, but most of those articles are three or four years old. I certainly haven't seen any anywhere - though I don't exactly tour garden centres across the country. It's certainly something I'll be looking out for, though.

But so far, my options have been hunting down plants for sale online.

I've only found a couple of other sites that sell them (other than TradeMe), and they are small, difficult to contact businesses (one is a single person, the other has a defunct website and no response to my email). And Subtropica.co.nz, which has white strawberries, but only ships during summer. I wouldn't be surprised if these gardens mostly sell via TradeMe (or in person. But that doesn't help me much as they're often in Palmerston North or even further!).

They're also a lot more expensive than normal strawberries, around five times the price per plant. This is a pretty logical result of their rarity and the relative difficulty of propagating them (runners are much rarer and less vigorous. Seeds are an option, but slow. Most plants are created by dividing clumps after two or three years, which isn't particularly quick!).

Varieties are almost always described just as 'red', 'yellow' or 'white. There may be some confusion between the last two, as some of the product descriptions claim that the yellow variety turns white when ripe. It's possible that they are all "Yellow Wonder" and "White Pineapple" but I have found no authoritative source on that, or a way to tell them apart before you buy anything. They hybridise a lot once they're in the garden though, so they could be anything by now.

With luck, there will also be mention of whether it is clumping or runnering (although that's also dependent on the conditions - alpines can be induced to runner occasionally).




Sources:

Subtropica - Northland, white, ships in summer, $3 per plant

TradeMe.co.nz - variable range and prices. I've got some of my best and some of my worst plants here, but it's a good place to pick up really cheap plants, or unusual ones that are out of stock elsewhere. Or just to diversify your plant stock a bit.

The Fragrant Garden - Palmerston North, five unnamed varieties (yellow/red/creeping/non-runnering), $5.20

Koanga Heritage Gardens - Hawke's Bay, White Pineapple (an actual named variety!, runnering) and unnamed red (nonrunnering). Order by August to be shipped in spring. $12 (unclear whether seeds or plants, and how many of each). Update: I received my strawberries in the first week of September; three small, healthy plants of each type, so $4 each.

Nikau Hill - Palmerston North, problems with website and no response to email when I tried to order, but had yellow and red for $9.90 Update: New website online in Sept, '14

Heavenly Herbs - Wellington, private grower. Red. Contact by email for availability and payment, $5
Haven't tried.

More about alpine strawberries:
Strawberry Store: Alpine Strawberries (US based. Good for information, but can't be shipped into NZ)

Worm Farm is Working

A quick update to confirm that my worms are alive and starting to chow down on a full bucketfull every couple of weeks.

I bought the worm farm just over a month ago, and added the worms maybe three weeks ago. It's mostly full of compost, with a layer of food scraps and then a thick layer of newspaper.

The Hungry Bin
(read about this worm farm here)

I run the odd half bucket of water through it every few days, to flush out the leachate and dissolve some of the good worm castings. This then drains into the tray underneath, which is filled with coconut coir. The coir then expands, turns into magical potting soil without me having to wait and mix it up when I'm actually planting, and hopefully absorbs a few extra awesome nutrients.

The first bucket or so of food I put in, I just sort of hoped it would work. I was definitely overfeeding, even though I was trying to give them time to settle in. I tried to avoid poking around, but checked in occasionally under the newspaper.

The general insect life moved in pretty fast, but I didn't see any worms initially. They had a huge pile of new soil to get used to and plenty of breeding to do, as well as needing to wait until the scraps were decomposed, but I was still a bit worried as I knew there were some food scraps buried in the bin (which can be very bad for the worms when they rot).

But last week I had a look, and there were a couple of worms up on the surface enjoying the rotting veges.

The Ghost of the Melon

So I added a half melon rind, as I'd heard that worms enjoyed those. And did they ever. I found a handful of worms hanging out under it a couple of days later, and all the flesh scraped off.

This week, there's only the wax coating left, like a plasticky ghost.


So along with the melon, I added a bucketful of scraps, mashed up with a trowel (the scraps were about a week old, and I've been adding a fair bit of water along with teabags and coffee, so it was all soft and starting to rot already).

I added a second melon rind yesterday

There's already a worm under it (and some of the flesh is gone, and it's full of bugs).

The whitish plastic looking thing at the bottom is the wax from the previous rind. It's just starting to decompose now (it's edible, so it's safe for the garden). The big white thing next to it is just a badly photographed egg carton.

The Radius Garden ergonomic weeder

I know that you can run it all through a processor and things, but I'm a fan of efficiency (plus, my flatmates might revolt). Leaving it to "pre-rot" in a bucket and then chopping with my Radius Garden Ergonomic Hand Trowel seems to work almost as well.

Incidentally, a bit of fangushing over that hand trowel, and its companion weeder. I have carpal tunnel issues, and it is the best design I have ever used. The weeder works fantastically as well for pretty much any weed (including dandelion roots) and the trowel is just a decent all purpose garden tool. The handle design is just perfect and lets you apply very effective, efficient leverage without straining your hand or wrist. They're my two main tools, and I use them constantly. And the curved handle means that I can hang them off a shelf!

Anyway, back to the chopped scraps... 

This seems to have been very popular and has disappeared fast enough that it all looks the same in the bin now (I was adding food to different sections, so that I could see what was being eaten and so the worms could avoid food that they didn't like).

Citrus and onion went in as well, though when we ended up with nearly a bucketful of mandarin peel, I decided to play it safe and added that to the "real" compost bin. I know worms technically don't like acidic food, but from what I've read, it's entirely dependent on how much you give (like any well balanced diet or proper composting mix!). They've certainly gotten rid of the citrus peel so far (though some of the onion skins are still visible).

I also add cardboard and paper, though that's mostly being used to mulch weeds right now!

Hanging out in the mashed up food from a week ago
Banana skins, mandarin peel and pea pods are still visible.

The very first batch of (unmashed) food from three weeks ago. Looks almost the same as
the more recent stuff. Also note a happy compost worm and lots of tiny white wormlike bugs.

So all in all, the worm bin is working well. I can't count the worm population, obviously, but they're still alive. It seems to have a pretty healthy ecosystem, and there are no problems with bugs or smell escaping. I can't harvest any castings for a while, but I'm happy using run off for now, and it should be able to easily handle our small but steady flow of scraps.