An Average Day's Haul of Compost Material.....

[boggybranch]

....from the grocery store I work at. This is the MAIN reason for not being active on the forum, lately. I cut and tear all the material up into small pieces before adding to the pile. This is in the new composting "tower" that I built to handle the material. Inside dimensions is roughly 5'X6'. Takes anywhere from 5 to 8 hours to process each day's "take". This, particular, pile has an average depth of, between, 3-4 inches.

 

[boggybranch]

P.S.........This batch contains lettuce, bananas, apples, strawberries, kiwi, apricot, collards, cabbage, shredded carrots, papiya, cucumbers, grapes, tomatoes, onion skins, corn shucks and silks, mushrooms, yellow squash, zuccinni and potatoes. (I'm quiet sure that I have left something out, too)

 

[ninnymary]

Boggy...are you perhaps working to hard on the composting? Do you really need all that much? It just seems that it is taking alot of hours to cut it all up and I'm wondering if perhaps you need to cut back. Don't want you getting burned out.

I know that gardening work is really joy for us but it can take it's toll on our bodies. Just worried for my friend.

Mary

 

[wsmoak]

5 to 8 *hours*? Just run over it with the lawn mower and toss it in there! Maybe add some worms.

Granted your way will probably get the compost done faster, but, my time is more valuable than that.

-Wendy

 

[boggybranch]

Boggy...are you perhaps working to hard on the composting? Do you really need all that much? It just seems that it is taking alot of hours to cut it all up and I'm wondering if perhaps you need to cut back. Don't want you getting burned out.

I know that gardening work is really joy for us but it can take it's toll on our bodies. Just worried for my friend.

Mary

That's really sweet, Mary......but, now, ALL I have is time on my hands AND it keeps my mind occupied.....a kinda inexpensive (free) therapy session, each day.

 

[boggybranch]

Do you really need all that much?

Mary

Hahahaha....it doesn't "go" as far as one might think. I got a LOT of raised beds to, eventually, fill up.

 

[thistlebloom]

I had a thought Boggy, maybe later when the gardening gets busier
you'll need a faster way to process it, and I agree with Wendy about using the mower, or even, (don't actually know if this would work, but it seems like it would ) you could put a blade on a weed whip and pulverize it all in a trash can... just a wild thought...

You are the ruling compost king!

 

[AmyRey]

If you could get some of these in your pile, they'd have it reduced to compost in no time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermetia_illucens

 

[vfem]

You need to you a chipper!!!

 

[digitS']

Here's something you will have a hard time imagining, BoggyB : I can put green plants below 8" of soil about November 1st and dig up those plants April 1st and they will still be green. If they were in fairly good shape going into a garden bed in the fall, they probably could even be pulled up to the soil surface and they'd start to grow again in April!

I would need to struggle to imagine how quickly organic matter in the soil would disappear in a place where there's 10 or 11 months to a growing season!

Here's something else I'm struggling to imagine . . . it snowed last night! Luckily, it wasn't as cold as the Weather Service prophesied and it is all melted now! After lunch, I'm going to believe the WS that it will be above 45F and go above 50 tomorrow! Out I'll go to the garden . . . really, for the first time this year!! I may even set out these Texas onion plants but the 28 promised by tomorrow morning kind of scares me. Still, those southern onions need to find a home in some soil and the WS was wrong about this morning! The onions would have shrugged off the 32 we actually had.

Ah sunshine ! I could get used to this . . . and it beats trying to get used to the idea of scraping lichens off the permafrost instead of having veggies this year!

Best of Luck in your gardening, BoggyB ! Maybe a more serious bend towards ornamentals this year, what with all that access to veggies at work . . ?

Steve