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Durgan
My Garden Journal
My Weather
My Garden
My Time
| | Posted on Tuesday, October 09, 2007 - 10:43 am EST : |   
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http://eemea.notlong.com 9 October 2007 Composting Procedure.
All plant vegetation is put through the chipper shredder (seven years old, pull start and starts effortlessly), and put on the compost heap. Grass clippings are obtained from my neighbour. My grass clipping are left where they fall.The total compost produced is about 4 cubic yards per year. This product is spread on the garden in the Spring, and worked into the underlying soil. I fork the pile over to an adjoining bin a couple of times a year. I notice that the grass clippings have high bacterial activity, and can get too hot to touch. The pile always has a relatively pleasant odour. During the winter I cover with a tarp.
http://www.durgan.org/Blog/Durgan.html
Durgan
- Ontario,
Zone "5"
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Melonhead
| | Posted on Friday, December 28, 2007 - 10:49 am EST : |
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When the bug really got hold of me I could be seen driving slowly through the neighborhood in late Autumn with various brands of trash bags stuffed with leaves arrayed on the roof and on the open tailgate - and yes, on the hood.
Off to the horse farm for a yard or two of the fresh stuff.
Last years garden and kitchen scraps.
Sprinkles of blood meal and bone meal and muriate of potash.
The piles were five by five feet wrapped in fencing, unwrapped and turned every four days 'til cool - 8 or 9 times.
Once got three piles made in one winter.
I've tried more ornate methods of composting but always go back to the stiff fencing reinforced with 2x2s every couple of feet,
wrap and unwrap.
Once achieved 160 degrees f. in a pile.
Compost tea recipe' if you want it.
Also veg gardening with hydroponics.
Melonhead
- fl,
Zone "4"
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Periwinkle
 Supporting Member
My Favorite Photo
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| | Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007 - 02:08 am EST : |
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I've SAID I've composted for several years but I really don't think I did it right.
Yes, there is Nothing as good as compost and manure. OUr Black Gold!
Denise--Northern Wisconsin, Z3b
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Nibbs
Supporting Member
My Garden Journal
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| | Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007 - 03:31 am EST : |
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I'd love the recipe for compost tea. I was doing a little research today on putting the garden to bed and realized I should have fed some of my plants bone meal. I think that was in a Garden's West magazine .. or today's newspaper. I need to write these things down and check them off as I do them. Yes, please, the tea recipe!
Diane British Columbia Zone 7b |
Jim49631
My Weather
| | Posted on Sunday, December 30, 2007 - 05:06 pm EST : |
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Does anyone use shredded paper tilled
into the soil?
jim
Jim49631
- Michigan,
Zone "5"
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Sylviatexas
My Weather
| | Posted on Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 03:52 pm EST : |
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Jim, I compost shredded paper:
I mix or cover the paper (carbon) with coffee grounds from Starbucks (nitrogen), & it breaks down beautifully.
You can make a pile or bin, but I usually just heap it where I want to make gardens in the future.
Sylviatexas
- DFW Texas 8a,
Zone "8A"
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Jim49631
My Weather
| | Posted on Thursday, January 10, 2008 - 04:17 pm EST : |
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Thanks,
I have been saving shredded paper in
garbage bags while the ground is covered
with snow.
I shredded a lot of leaves last fall,
I'll mix them all together this spring
and try a compost pile.
Jim49631
- Michigan,
Zone "5"
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Ej
Supporting Member
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| | Posted on Friday, January 11, 2008 - 09:09 pm EST : |
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I'm wonder if this is a good way to compost.
http://www.natureshead.net/
Ej So.Cal. Zone 10a
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Jak3
My Weather
| | Posted on Saturday, January 12, 2008 - 08:45 am EST : |
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Well, it SAYS composting.....is there any way to access the compost? This could be useful if you had a huge property and didn't want to have to run back home to "go". Sort of a modern variation on the old Outhouse.
Jak3
- Ontario,
Zone "4/5"
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Bluewillow
My Favorite Photo
| | Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008 - 07:01 am EST : |
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It's a shame it's not automatic though. Looks like you have manually get it going.
Bluewillow
- Canada,
Zone "Zone 5b"
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Chicken
My Weather
My Time
| | Posted on Sunday, March 02, 2008 - 02:29 am EST : |
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I've been 'composting' for years with all the veggie garden plants at end of season, grass clippings, pine shavings with chicken manure (what I line my coop with), periodically some dirt, kitchen scraps, and dead leaves. I just pile it up in the back corner of my lot about 5'diameter by 3' high and periodically toss it with a hay fork and/or shift into another pile so the old stuff is on top of new stuff. It seems to break down rather nicely over a year into brown crumbly stuff, HOWEVER, my piles have never developed any heat. I've periodically added commercial composting powdered stuff and doesn't seem to make any difference. I keep hearing about compost developing heat and wonder why my piles never get hot - any clues?
Chicken
- Washington,
Zone "7"
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Stephie
| | Posted on Sunday, March 02, 2008 - 10:02 am EST : |
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I also put lime on my compost because it keeps the rats and bears away. I bought chicken manure from a farm once (1/2 ton)...they said it was aged but it was raw...raw manure is always dangerous until it's "cooked" to kill germs; what I found was that farm chicken manure contains dead chickens...I found beaks, feet and an assortment of bones in mine and the "stink" was beyond normal. I unloaded it all by hand (my husband couldn't do it but it's surprising what gardeners will do for their plants). I cooked it over one summer....tarps on bottom and top...and the next summer it was sweet, black and usable.....but I don't want dead chickens in my manure anymore...thank you.
Stephie |
Stephie
| | Posted on Sunday, March 02, 2008 - 10:03 am EST : |
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Oh...and I have a sign out front..."trespassers will be composted".
Stephie |
Cozyglow
My Garden Journal
My Weather
My Garden
| | Posted on Thursday, March 06, 2008 - 12:33 pm EST : |
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Stephie, I like your post. That was cute. Here's what I have to say: I am moving my toolshed to a better location in my backyard. I want the spot where the toolshed is, now, to have a garden. First, though, I need to compost the ground. Here's what I have to ask: Will the ground be any good for growing veggies after the compost takes over the ground where the toolshed used to be?
Any help on this would be very appreciated. I'm a first-timer at this, and don't know nything about compost, or how to get it started.
Susan
Cozyglow
- Texas,
Zone "Southeast Texas"
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Stephie
| | Posted on Thursday, March 06, 2008 - 12:52 pm EST : |
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Any aged compost is safe. Manure that isn't aged can have ecoli bacteria in it that could infect your produce and make you sick if your produce isn't washed properly. vegetative compost (leaves, grass etc) is better put in if broken down abit....vegetable waste from the house should be cut up small for faster composting and should be layered with soil, green stuff and manure to get her cookin'. Stick you hands into a pile of green grass clippings and it will be quite warm....the heat kills certain soil pathogens which is what you want. Compost doesn't happen overnight so you can buy some for the first year while yours is working. No meat, no fat, no dairy products. I put prawn shells in mine but cover with lime to discourage animals. With your Texas heat, you shouldn't have too much trouble....keep turning your pile too! My chicken manure was pretty bad so had to really cook it with the tarps on all summer; by the following summer, chocked full of red worms..which is always a good sign! Nothing like worms!!!! Wood chips and sawdust are slower composting but are also good heat producers (don't used cedar...plants don't like their oil) and hops are really good too. I sometimes put my slugs into my pile because slug poop is good...sort of my little composters at work and they kinda hand around there instead of the garden.
Good luck with your garden...it will become addictive once you find how tasty home-grown stuff is!!
Stephie |
Cozyglow
My Garden Journal
My Weather
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| | Posted on Thursday, March 06, 2008 - 06:04 pm EST : |
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thank you, Stephie. I will heed your advice. Sounds like you know really know gardening. The price of produce, here, is obscenely high, so the only thing to do is grown my own.
Again, thank you for all you wrote. It's going to come in handy for me.
Hugs,
Susan
HAVE A BLESSED DAY!
Cozyglow
- Texas,
Zone "Southeast Texas"
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Roelie
Supporting Member
My Garden
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 02, 2008 - 03:26 am EST : |
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I have three of them but I bought 500 gram worms and they do the work for me
Roelie
- Overijssel,
Zone "Holland"
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Grubbyknees
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 02, 2008 - 08:52 am EST : |
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Worms (red wrigglers) are the best way to go! When I lived in Western Canada I emptied the composter over the garden beds in the fall (decomposed or not) and rescued as many worms as I could. I overwintered them in a tub in the basement - feeding them occasionally. I was advised by a longtime indoor composter not to put citrus peels in as they encourage fruit flies - I did as advised and never had a problem. The rest of the kitchen waste went directly into the frozen composter outside. This was usually overflowing by spring time (winter was loooong). I put the worms back into the composter as soon as it had defrosted and covered the wet mass (it shrinks significantly once defrosted) with a layer of dry leaves or soil. I left the worms to it, adding more kitchen waste daily. I would recommend two composters if you want really fine compost - gotta give the worms time to do their thing. I now live in the Arabian Gulf and have resorted to burying my kitchen scraps (fruits and veg. ONLY) in the sand around the shrubs. It breaks down very nicely, and occasionally produces surprises after I have watered.
Grubbyknees
- Kuwait,
Zone "11?"
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