from 'comunity garden' - into 'first try at a garden'..

[vfem]

You probably have some good rot going, but I don't think with all the wet the heat has been high enough to 'cook' the pile on your garden area yet

I would personally buy a few bags of commercial compost and mix it in to cover your area. That way you'll be ready for planting in a month or so. If you get more leaves, plant matter, brown matter, ect... start a new pile away from the garden to work on to have and use to feed your garden for the season.

You're doing REALLY well!

It's the 1 day burst of "I'm GOING to do it!" that will literally get you started. Staring at a plan on paper, it like staring out the window thinking about where you COULD go. It's nice, but it can better when it happens.

So go you.

 

[canesisters]

Oh vfem, thank you!! I was really trying hard not to be toooo discouraged about what looked like a compost/garden failure.

I did some more research and have found a couple of other suggestions:

- The 'pile' is about 15' x 1' - I should pile it all up in the middle, 'it's called a pile for a reason'
- while condensing the pile I was thinking that I should add more leaves - but you think that I should hold off on adding new stuff this close to wanting to plant?
- I have a friend who raises a LOT of chickens and a LOT of rabbits... Maybe I should ask if I can come clean out their pens on Saturday??? I don't think my 6 chickens are making nearly enough poo for that big of an area

 

[vfem]

I had a friend who had a great idea with her chickens, I never got around to trying. She put all her leaving in the chicken pens and let them tear them up for a few days, then she shoveled out what little litter they left behind and added that to the garden because it was broken down so well for her. It quickened the process extremely!

I through a lot of the things I normally throw in the compost right into the garden myself. I tilled it under a few weeks ago and its breaking down nicely right into the soil. I'm still adding rabbit droppings right now, and I'll add more compost direct from the pile I have at the back of the property in the next couple of weeks.

I hope that is of some help

 

[897tgigvib]

Get determined Cane! Make that stuff compost. Next time you turn it add stuff like bone meal and if you can find it in a store, add microbes. Or do a mushroom hike and collect buckets of them to add.

Next time you srir it, chop it to pieces, everything in your compost pile, whatever it takes, chop it all up. Just doing that alone will make it look like it's done

If you have availablea a pile of lawn clippings, great, because you can try something else,

Begin starting a second compost heap UNDER this heap you're working on finishing in a determined no holds barred way.

Have that pile of grass clippings stacked tall. Shovel your chopped up, organic nutrient and biologic added almost done compost over your newly starting pile of lawn clippings.

Your compost will get heated from that pile of fresh lawn clippings. Small bits compost much faster thsn large bits, one of those math formulae i forgot, but it means small bits compost up a huge lot faster than big bits not twice as fast for one half the size, but like 1 over the square root of it times faster...never trust a neanderthal to remember trigonometry...The microbes will help it finish faster...practically any beneficial soil microbes will do, and they will do well with the mixed in bone meal or other organic meal type fertilizer...

Make that good stuff fast! Pile it TALL. Plop some old pallets along the sides of it to hold it up. If it is wet and mucky set a tarp loosely over it, not to stop air. don't let that happen!

If you chopped it up real good...whatever way you can think of...it will be ready really soon...so get your beds ready for it!

 

[so lucky]

And my philosophy: It's never a failure till you quit and walk away. Till then, each attempt is practice.

 

[MontyJ]

If it's basically a really wet pile of sawdust and hay, you have your work cut out for you. First, it needs to dry out some. If you can squeeze more than a few drops of water out of a handfull, it's too wet. Next, you will probably need to supplement the nitrogen content. You can use urea, but without seeing the pile first-hand, I can't say how much. Finally, keeping it turned and aerated will help get it going. It should be piled up to help retain heat. If all else fails, spread it out and till it in, mother nature will take care of the rest

 

[canesisters]

SoLucky - that is a GOOD quote!!!


Here's my wet sawdust pile.

As you can see.... it's raining.... again.

Marshall I really like the idea of heating it up from underneath. I contacted my friend with the rabbits and she said that they have a great big manure pile and that I can come get all I want. So early Sat I'll be heading to their place with a couple of totes. The next pict (unless anything ELSE comes up) will be of a LARGE pile with a tarp loosly draped over it and maybe, just maybe with a little bit of steam above it.

I can't remember when I saw more than a very few mushrooms at one time around here ... do you think that a couple of packages of the grocery store ones would help?? That might justify spending the money for a lovely mushroom omelet....

Thanks for the help yall.

 

[897tgigvib]

Sure, store bought shrooms should be just as good.

But still, DON'T EAT THEM AS THEY GROW IN YOUR GARDEN BECAUSE A WILD POISONOUS ONE MIGHT LOOK LIKE THE EDIBLE ONES.

Please confirm that you read my warning! I sure don't want to be the cause of any poisoning!


MUSHROOM POISONING CAN TAKE HOURS TO WEEKS TO KILL A PERSON. SOME KINDS TURN THE LIVER OFF IRRETRIEVABLY. OTHER KINDS MAKE THE BLOOD NOT TAKE OXYGEN. SOME THEY STILL DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY DO.

ONLY WELL TRUSTED MUSHROOM COLLECTORS CAN TAKE WILD MUSHROOMS SAFELY OR BE ABLE TO TELL WILD FROM DOMESTICATED MUSHROOMS.

Sorry about the capslock, but this is important enough for it.

 

[canesisters]

What!?!?!? I'm not supposed to eat yard-shrooms!?!?!?





Actually, it's the spores inside that I'm after - right? So in the interest of speeding this up as much as possible - would it help or hurt to run a pound or so through the food processer with some warm water. Sort of a nice spore tea for the pile to relax with over the weekend once it gets it's warm, cozy bunny-poo seat to sit on...

 

[canesisters]

Ok Marshall, I hope you weren't teasing the garden newbie about heating the pile from below....

As you can see, it's another lovely day here in southern Va. I'm wondering if the fact that the MOST snow covered spot in the yard is my compost is a bad sign......

I dug up about 150lbs of donkey/chicken/bunny poo early this morning. Then raked back the center of the compost/garden.
I dumped about half of the donchiunny poo down.

Using my brand new leaf blower/vac for the very first time, I sucked up a bunch of hay - which should've been chopped to itty bitty bits... Well it broke it up a little, so I mixed it into the half load of poo.

Then dumped the rest of the donchiunny poo and started making my big circle into a pile. I spotted several worms - which I didn't see just a week ago when I first stirred it up, so that was incouraging. The little guys were carefully moved onto their new high-rise condo because I felt really bad that they had finally moved in and here I was scooping their home away when it was in the 30's outside.

I haven't made the 'shroom tea yet, but here is Mount Rotmore, all tucked into it's heated seat, swadled in a nice dry tarp.

See any steam from the top yet?? Yeah, me neither - but it's only been about an hour!