How To Make Compost

The How Do Gardener ^ | April 13, 2020 | The How Do Gardener

[daniel1212]

Been composting for years - grow all of my veggies in rich, dark soil from my piles. - Two 4' x 4' x 4' chicken wire bins. - Ground up leaves, kitchen scraps (peels, coffee grounds, egg shells, etc) and chicken manure. - Stir it with an auger once a week. - Water it during dry spells. - Twice a year I get about six wheel barrows full of dark soil.

You must be in warm weather, as up here it takes me over a year to get a 1/2 barrel of compost, though it is a vertical one (turn with pitch fork) and only gets about 4 hours of sun a day, and about half of the year it is cool to freezing weather.

What is your brown (like leaves) to green ratio? How about fruit?

[Psalm 73]

"You must be in warm weather,"

Konnecticut, middle

"What is your brown (like leaves) to green ratio?"

Probably 75-25 - I mulch my leaves with the lawnmower in the fall, rest of year the manure and kitchen scrap gets turned in with the chopped leaves.

"How about fruit?"

Heck yeah - the worms love fruit.

I find composting to be mainly a conservative-leaning bunch - we were green before green was hip. (Can we still say hip? Or am I dating myself...)

[central_va]

What do you call a guy with no arms or legs in the yard in a pile of leaves?

Russel.

What do you call him after he dies?

Pete.

[daniel1212]

Probably 75-25 - I mulch my leaves with the lawnmower in the fall, rest of year the manure and kitchen scrap gets turned in with the chopped leaves.

Since we have been getting a lot of surplus veggies and fruit in the summer, then my mix has often been about just the opposite. Only so much room to store leaves in this densely pop. city.

I find composting to be mainly a conservative-leaning bunch - we were green before green was hip. (Can we still say hip? Or am I dating myself...)

And getting back to nature, with our love of Westerns.

we were green before green was hip. (Can we still say hip? Or am I dating myself...)

Yes, you are dating yourself, however groovy, with your Ipana toothpaste, Esso gas (free glasses!) and Admiral refrigerators. .

[daniel1212]

Thanks. and here is the most informative and substantive video on growing tomatoes I have seen yet (may want to take notes), praise the Lord.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“I find composting to be mainly a conservative-leaning bunch...”

Yep. Proud to be a ‘Conserve’-ative! Lots of us walk the walk, not just talk the talk and send a check to the Sierra Club or Mother Earth News! :)

[daniel1212]

Yep. Proud to be a ‘Conserve’-ative! Lots of us walk the walk, not just talk the talk and send a check to the Sierra Club or Mother Earth News! :) Are you serious? I do not know much about either, except that the former is loathed as liberal by conservatives here.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I think you misunderstood - I meant that non-Conservatives (aka Socialists) support those programs, not me! :)

[CJ Wolf]

That is kinda my method, every fall my chicken Coop has about 3 feet of leaves blown into it. They make short work of it and have a ball.

[Uncle Miltie]

Yup. 3 feet of leaves becomes 3 inches mixed with chicken poop and composted kitchen greens. Great stuff.

[daniel1212]

I think you misunderstood - I meant that non-Conservatives (aka Socialists) support those programs, not me! :)

Oh, that is a relief. I must have read "Lots of us walk the walk" as "let us walk the talk..." Sorry, I was in a rush, as I am now, this time to go screen some dirt for you-know-what. See you on the garden thread.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

No worries! I’ve spent most of the day playing in the greenhouse and re-seeding the house yard lawn where Beau had to dig it up last fall for a new gas line from the propane tank. :)

[daniel1212]

Been screening soil and working on a underground irrigation system. Average mean temp 38.3 this month, and too cold at night for the 75+ toms. very slowly growing in the windows, by the grace of God.