Brewing the Tea - liquid fertilizer update

First, I gathered everything that I would need:

container-Did you know that Walmart sells their used icing buckets for a $1.00 (upcycling!)

 

small aquarium pump and tubing-Left over from boy's science experiment

dechlorinator-Ditto

water-It hasn't been cut off yet

compost a.k.a. kitchen scraps or things I feel guilty about for letting them go bad

molasses-New purchase, but will use for cookies at a later date (as long as I don't let it go bad)

strainer-Had and use often for cooking so hoping sterilize setting on dishwasher works well.

a stick for stirring-Left over from paint project

large spray bottle-New purchase

The article says, "You want to have a good ratio of carbon and nitrogen based compost."  I have absolutely no idea what that means.  In my house, if it goes bad in the fridge then it's compost.  However, since I have really been enjoying watching my little plants grow and I would rather not kill them, I decided to "google" it.  I found out from BigSteamyPile that there are basically three different types of compost: carbon-based (greens), nitrogen-based (browns) and the ever important do not compost items. (There is a great chart on the BigSteamyPile site if you would like an easy referral sheet.)  Well, it turns out that my compost is heavy on the carbon side.  I put all of my nitrogens in the compost pile outside a couple of days ago.  I do have some dryer lint so I am going to throw that into the mix and hope for the best. 

This is what the finished product looks like.



Now it "steeps" for a couple of more days and then it will be tea time.  I can't believe that this entire process began because my herbs are growing slowly.  I don't even know if this will help them.  Talk about a leap of faith.