Composting Harakeke

Who ever said you can’t compost Harakekek?

Perhaps it was someone who designed composting equipment in another country, then brought that machinery to Aotearoa, not knowing much about Harakeke or Tī Kouka leaves.

Harakeke (NZ Flax) has long, strong fibres, and Tī Kouka leaves are shorter, but perhaps stronger. If you’ve ever accidentally run over them with a lawn mower, you’ll know the frustration of trying to untangle them from the blades. That must be what happens inside a commercial compost pile.

But not in a home compost system.

Make compost by hand, and you’ll find these simple to manage.

Here are my experiments composting relatively large amounts of Harakeke as a Raranga student at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa.

Guidelines:

I’m following the basic rules of hot compost:

• Build a large pile in one session (a cubic metre minimum)
• Balance greens and browns (the Harakeke leaves fit in a range of fresh, green, moist and older, brown, dry). I add in the grass and weeds in the area where I’m composting, it adds a little more green material to the pile.
• Increase the surface area to speed up decomposition: if you can cut the leaves into short lengths, they will break down faster. I’m experimenting with the difference between long, thin strands and short lengths. Long term, it feels like the less I need to use scissors, the easier it’ll be on my wrists, and the longer my tools will last.

Stay tuned for more tips, and results of the first hot compost pile made in November 2024.

If you’d like to take part in Harakeke tidy-ups, please reach out at katrina@blueborage.co.nz.

If you’d like to support my ecological restoration work, then I’m selling woven items, seed packets, and online classes on my Ko-Fi shop here.