lesa
Garden Master
If it were me, I would lay all that good stuff in the garden right now and till it in come spring.... I guess that is the lazy gardeners way!
I need help with my compost.....
- Thread starter homesteadmomma
- Start date
digitS'
Garden Master
IdHoe!?!
There are lots of dry square miles in Idaho! My garden is located where the entire 3 months of summer may only grant it an inch of rain.
I have found all sorts of lazy ways to grow compost.
There are 3 things I try to do in my compost-making: get a reasonably good mix of ingredients in the pile, maintain moisture, and have patience.
Cow manure is just about a perfect blend for composting. It's about 20 parts of carbon to 1 part of nitrogen (20:1). Chicken manure is a little higher N while horse manure is a little lower. Kitchen wastes vary but tends towards higher N, lawn clippings are about the same. But, where we quickly tilt the C:N scale in the wrong direction is with the addition of bedding. It doesn't mean the pile won't compost - it just won't compost quickly.
As far as not composting: I've told the story before about a neighbor who built his compost pile - on stilts - is a wire bin. There was room enuf for a tomcat to walk under that thing at full sail. The material in the bin was apparently "pertified" nothing changed for, at least 5 years - then the bin collapsed and, I suppose, the material finally composted on the ground.
To avoid petrifying my compost, I start the bin below grade. The 8 inches or so of soil that I dig out, is used in the pile. It seems especially important to cap the top of the pile with either soil or manure at the end of the season.
And, there it sits. I have 2 compost piles going at any 1 time. I have the compost from 2008 to use this year. The pile that I built thru the 2009 growing season can wait until 2011 - I just keep the weeds off it. Patience . . .
Steve
Did you know that if Idaho Territory had been admitted to the union intact, it would be the largest state in the contiguous United States, by far.
If Idaho County was a state it would not only be larger than Rhode Island, but larger than Delaware and nearly the size of Connecticut. And yet, I bet half the population of Idaho doesn't know where Idaho County is. Only 15,000 people live there
.
There are lots of dry square miles in Idaho! My garden is located where the entire 3 months of summer may only grant it an inch of rain.
I have found all sorts of lazy ways to grow compost.
There are 3 things I try to do in my compost-making: get a reasonably good mix of ingredients in the pile, maintain moisture, and have patience.
Cow manure is just about a perfect blend for composting. It's about 20 parts of carbon to 1 part of nitrogen (20:1). Chicken manure is a little higher N while horse manure is a little lower. Kitchen wastes vary but tends towards higher N, lawn clippings are about the same. But, where we quickly tilt the C:N scale in the wrong direction is with the addition of bedding. It doesn't mean the pile won't compost - it just won't compost quickly.
As far as not composting: I've told the story before about a neighbor who built his compost pile - on stilts - is a wire bin. There was room enuf for a tomcat to walk under that thing at full sail. The material in the bin was apparently "pertified" nothing changed for, at least 5 years - then the bin collapsed and, I suppose, the material finally composted on the ground.
To avoid petrifying my compost, I start the bin below grade. The 8 inches or so of soil that I dig out, is used in the pile. It seems especially important to cap the top of the pile with either soil or manure at the end of the season.
And, there it sits. I have 2 compost piles going at any 1 time. I have the compost from 2008 to use this year. The pile that I built thru the 2009 growing season can wait until 2011 - I just keep the weeds off it. Patience . . .
Steve
Did you know that if Idaho Territory had been admitted to the union intact, it would be the largest state in the contiguous United States, by far.
If Idaho County was a state it would not only be larger than Rhode Island, but larger than Delaware and nearly the size of Connecticut. And yet, I bet half the population of Idaho doesn't know where Idaho County is. Only 15,000 people live there
.
HunkieDorie23
Deeply Rooted
I am having the same problem. I saw it in a magazine last year and thought it was a great idea. The wire is 4" and I'm 5'3" (really dumb huh!). I can't do anything with it and was going to start over this spring.homesteadmomma said:
Please post what you come up with because I am going to do something else. What, I don't know yet.
damummis
Attractive To Bees
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I have figured out with my compost was that I was not turning it enough. You definitely need to turn it. DH bought me a Claw for my b-day a while back and it has been devoted to the compost pile. I turned it everyday adding water when it got dry and before I knew it it was cooking. You can add a compost activator too.
