I Used to have Big Bins!

[digitS']

My compost piles in the bins used to be Gargantuan affairs. I would add-to, add-to, add-to . . . right thru the growing season. There was an addition of usually manure but always soil to the pile about the 1st of July but, really, most of what went into it came later.

I'd add-to, add-to, add-to . . . Then pile on the frost-killed plants at the end of the season. That was finally capped with "usually manure but always soil."

Winter would come and go. The warm weather would arrive and that pile would be absolutely teaming with manure worms!

I wouldn't touch it.

That compost would sit there thru the growing season. I'd keep the surface free of weeds. Another winter would come and go. Meanwhile, another pile had been built next door. That new pile would be absolutely teaming with manure worms! The first pile would be fairly well decomposed and I'd use that for the garden. Not one bit of that compost would be less than 18-months old.

The only "problem" I had with this method over the many years I followed it was when my "manure" was horse manure with too much shavings! It didn't really turn out to be a problem because I knew I was in trouble as soon as I saw the guy dump it in the pickup . . . almost asked him to take it out . Anyway, there seemed to be little choice but to use ammonium sulfate in the pile that year.

Steve

 

[momofdrew]

Steve you just discribed my composting method...I have just started to turn my gardens for the fall and I am going to try your buried method...

 

[Smiles Jr.]

Steve - what you described in your post #11 is how I do it. I have done this method for 10 years or more and every year I look at my 4 piles (which are now corralled by old wooden pallets) and wonder if there is something I should do different. I have a new pile out there right now (pile #5) that is about 4 ft. tall and 4' x4' at the base. It's all the leaves, grass, and scraps from the veggie and flower gardens this past growing season and fall clean-up, plus about 100 lb. of chicken and rabbit poo. I also put soil on the pile several times as the pile grows taller.

If I'm patient enough it usually turns into wonderful black, powdery, odorless compost. But it takes at least 18 months to complete the process. I never cover it and it gets lots of snow and spring rains. Many times during the torrential spring rains we get here I have wished I had a cover over the piles as I'm sure some of the goodies in there are washed away. Having 4 piles allows me the luxury of time for the composting process to take it's course. I also have luxury of lots of space for composting way back in "the north forty" and nothing is visible from the house.

With your inspiration I think I'm going to try your method of burying the materials in a hole in one of the veggie gardens.

 

[digitS']

If it's not broke, you may not want to fix it.

The big bin, 18 month method really worked for me even tho' I was doing various buried techniques in the garden, also. But, I no longer have the garden where I felt that the big bins were an acceptable part of the landscape.

Water? I have to build compost piles where the sprinklers hit them! Otherwise, there's a risk that the material will petrify instead of decompose. Now, I'm not saying that it is so arid that you can find 100 year-old buffalo chips here but . . . comes close.

Burying seems a good idea for here & now. Not just because the material is out of sight and will retain moisture but also because the soil is so rocky. Rocky anyway - until I get that soopermarket shopping cart to sift out the rocks ! Anyway, the technique would probably not work so well in clay. Not sure about that but just don't have that experience.

Steve
who agrees with Red Green, "if it ain't broke. let me take a shot at it!"