Goodbye food scraps. Hello homegrown food!
Your balcony can become a garden. Or your rooftop, or the courtyard in your home. You can grow a small garden anywhere – in containers, in bamboo frames, in wooden boxes or in water barrels. The most important thing is to have good soil for your plants – and the best soil is that you make yourself with your food waste.
It’s easy to get started with bokashi at home. Makes no difference whether you live in an apartment or house – all you need is your daily food waste, an airtight container, and a bag of bokashi bran.
The first step with bokashi is always to ferment your food waste in the kitchen. The second step, once your container is full, is to let it ferment for a week while you fill another container.
After that you can make soil! There are a number of different ways of doing this, and we’re here to show you how.
Apartment, no balcony?
If you live in an apartment and don’t have a balcony, you can make what we call a “soil factory” – basically a rice tub where you mix old soil and bokashi to make a steady supply of new soil. Give it to friends, or donate it to a community group. Or put some round all the valuable trees in your neighbourhood!
Apartment with balcony?
If you live in an apartment and do have a balcony or rooftop garden, you can make compost directly in pots and containers ready for planting. It’s fast and easy and you will have the best-looking potplants in town.
Small house with courtyard?
Fill your courtyard with pots and containers and make bokashi soil in them directly! You can grow a lot of plants in containers if you only have good soil.
You can also make a carpark/rooftop garden on cement and surprise your neighbours how much you can grow in it!
House with small garden?
You can grow in containers, make a carpark/rooftop garden on cement, or make garden beds using wood, bamboo or bricks. Or dig a garden bed straight into the ground. Using bokashi and dry leaves you can grow a lot of vegetables in a small space, or create a tropical paradise that will amaze your neighbours.
Time to get started?
If you live in Yangon, you’re welcome to come along to one of our workshops to learn from us hands-on. You can buy everything you need to get started after the workshop, if you wish.
- Join one of our popular workshops “Bokashi for households”
- Buy a bokashi start kit from us
- Frequently-asked questions
Want to learn more?
We have a community group on facebook where bokashi users in Myanmar can help each other to get started with bokashi. We answer questions in both Myanmar and English, and love to see pictures of what you are doing with your bokashi. Please join!
And if you want to get in touch with us, please send us a message on our facebook pageand we’ll get back to you. In either English or Myanmar.
Bokashi is easy, once you get going. Really. And hopefully soon, when you’ve been doing it a while, you can take part in these groups and help others. The more people we can help get started, the better!
STEP ONE: filling and fermenting your food waste in the kitchen
Airtight bucket with no tap
The cheapest and easiest way to get started. All you need is an airtight bucket, some bokashi bran, and a container or garden bed to make soil.
Airtight bucket with tap
A more convenient method is make bokashi in a special bokashi bucket with in-built tap. The liquid that you drain from the bucket is a valuable fertiliser.
Airtight barrel
An airtight barrel is a good choice if you have a large family or generate a lot of food waste. The principle is the same as for a smaller bucket; you will need some form of absorbent material to soak up the liquid from the food waste.
STEP TWO: making soil and planting in the garden or on your balcony
Planting container
You can add fermented bokashi straight to a planting container and start growing. Ideal for courtyards, balconies and rooftop gardens.
“Soil factory”
Even if you have no balcony, you can make bokashi compost indoors! You just need a tub and some outdoor soil to get you started. It’s easy, and won’t cause you any problems. Give the soil away when you’re ready!
Garden bed
You can dig down fermented bokashi directly into a garden bed. Cover it with soil, and plant sow seeds, or plant seedlings or bushes. They will thrive on the nutrients, and it will hold water really well.
Garden compost
You can add fermented bokashi straight to a planting container and start growing. Ideal for courtyards, balconies and rooftop gardens.
Donate
When the Yangon Farmers’ Market is up and running, you can drop in your household bokashi to us on a Saturday morning. We will exchange your container. Alternatively, you can consider donating your bokashi to someone nearby who has a garden and knows how to use it.
FAQ
Here we’ve summarised the most common questions people ask when they are starting bokashi at home.
If you have others, please ask fellow bokashi-people in our community discussion group on facebook, or send us a message.
Bokashi Myanmar 