Your going to have rodents but you'll learn to deal with them. The biggest shock I ever received was when I lifted the plywood cover and a Garter snake was smiling back at me...
Posted on 03/02/2012 8:10:56 AM PST by JustaDumbBlonde
It breaks down much faster. I try to turn my compost every two weeks. I'll be turning both piles today.
Does “open air” compost bring critters though? How much water do you add?
Thanks for the reply!
Good info.
Don’t the kitchen scraps bring mice and flies etc? That’s my main hesitation with just an open pile on the ground.
No critters in my open compost piles - just worms.
I bury the kitchen scraps - and chop into smaller bits to help it compost faster.
Wetter is better - downright soggy.
How far down do the leaves need to be broken? I will be planting my first vegetable garden this year. I found several garbage cans full of leaves on the side of our house.We weren’t even thinking about mulch so they just sat there over the winter. Mostly dry on top with more wet leaves at the bottom. None were really broken down except at the very bottom. (They all had drain holes except one. That one was very rotty and bad smelling, probably not usable)
Can you just till in the leaves if they aren’t broken down yet, or will that cause problems?
A drum bin of some sort will probably suit your needs much better.
Please add me to your list.
I had my front lawn dug up recently to replace a sewer pipe, and now need to plant grass there. I plan to work in some compost (old leaves from 1-2 years ago), then cover with fertilizer for new lawns, then seed.
Any comments?
Thanks
We had a bit of hail here in Central Missouri this morning. Fortunately it was small so no damage was done.
I had intentions of hauling composted horse manure in over the weekend but the rain has put the kabosh to that.
My orchard trees are about to start blooming. It’s too early and the blossoms are sure to be frozen.
Everything I've read indicates that a compost pile should be moist, but that any excess water should be able to drain away. Don't put your compost material in the lowest spot of the yard.
If rain is not providing your compost pile with enough moisture, you will need to add some water yourself. Collecting rainwater is a good practice, because rain is generally close to pH neutral and has no added flouride or other chemicals.
I do not add additional moisture to my heap unless there is an extended drought. Simple reason is that I don't have time to worry about it. I'll use it when it breaks down, but I'm not really helping the process along as much as many folks will.
Your going to have rodents but you'll learn to deal with them. The biggest shock I ever received was when I lifted the plywood cover and a Garter snake was smiling back at me...
A good working temperature for your active compost pile...
Bump & can you add me to the ping list please
But then at Lowes I found these planters designed to sit on a fence (or perhaps a ledge between two rooms). I've got plenty of sunny space on the dock, several feet from the existing hydroponics, so I ran another line and planted some tomatoes. I think this is going to work out well, especially in the winter.
The tomato on the right in the second picture is actually a decent size chunk I found on my living room floor one cold winter morning, BTW.
My order this year is going to be a combination of market crops and prepper crops. Things like apples, cucumbers, kiwi, and peppers for market, and things like witch hazel, hulless oats, and several varieties of beans for stocking up. I might not plant them all this year, in fact I don't have room yet for everything on the prepping side of the list, but I want to get the trees planted and have the seeds on hand just in case. I've already got a big box full of seeds, including several I saved from last year. There was something satisfying about watching my piles of squash and beans grow last fall.
There's a shop that buys produce from local gardeners to resell, so I won't have to worry about actually running a produce stand. Last year, they were surprisingly short on cucumbers and zucchini.
Exercise? [grin]
When we bought this place 20 years ago, the garden was as hard as concrete. My husband had a dickens of a time plowing it. The old garden fence had been removed, and wouldn’t you know it, the soil on the other side of the fence was a beautiful rich black and extremely easy to work. The previous owner had thrown scraps, trimmings, and weeds outside the garden. The only fertilizer he used was chemical because he didn’t want weeds.
My husband spent years adding clippings and dried manure from the barn, and plowing it into the soil. No more chemicals have been added, no pesticides. He spends endless time, squishing bugs by hand. Yuck! But it certainly has paid off.
I LOVE the concept of those planters. I’m going to check my local Lowe’s to see if they have them. They would be perfect on my deck!
“The bacteria and other critters that are responsible for the breakdown in a compost pile are aerobic creatures. Air flow in the pile is essential or the aerobic critters will die.”
That right there is the reason to turn the compost pile.
I have read that some people use PVC pipe drilled with many holes placed into the middle of the pile with the open ends sticking out of the sides in an attempt to get O2 into the pile.
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