One Person, Garden Compost

[ducks4you]

Didn't know the best thread to post this.

Could Dissolvable Cranberry Film Replace Plastic Packaging Someday?

Imagine making a bowl of oatmeal or a cup of instant ramen noodles. You likely rip open a plastic package and fish out the little sachet of desiccant destined to be thrown away before pouring the rest of the contents into a bowl. But what if you could toss the whole package directly into the...

modernfarmer.com

 

[digitS']

Wait! They are robbing compost facilities of a product??

Oh, okay. You can still compost what they did with the berry skins ... or, eat it! Or, they can make a compostable bag to hold kitchen scraps and then you toss the whole thing into the bin, bag and all .

I dumped 2, 5-gallon buckets of scraps this weekend. And, I just might be able to do that again but the top of the compost was frozen. There is still snow wherever there is shade in the yard. I was out pruning some rose vines to be out of the way for me throwing snow over the backyard gate. It is NOT the season to do the final pruning but they were in the way for shovel work and would need to go in the Spring. I allowed for some freezing die-back and cut them for the garbage can. First thing that happened was a lump of snow fell off the vines and down the collar of my jacket!

No, I do not compost rose canes - thorns in compost aren't appreciated.

Steve

 

[Zeedman]

OK, I'm REALLY late to this discussion.

Until recently, I've nearly always gardened on 5000 square feet or more; so composting as a separate step was never practical for me. I would have needed a tractor with a bucket to load, turn, and spread that much material, and a place large enough to handle the process (and have to deal with the rodents which would nest there). Although I have access to all the organic material I could use in the form of fallen leaves, I had no way to collect large quantities. Those were all obstacles to maintaining soil tilth & fertility at an acceptable level - and I refused to use chemical fertilizers as a band aid.

But having observed techniques used by local farmers - who compost in situ - I just started mowing the garden mulch & debris in place, returning kitchen scraps to the garden they came from, and turning everything under in the Fall. Provided all organic material is chopped finely, everything composts fairly quickly in-ground... and appears to benefit from the soil biota which builds up in successive years. Absent the heat of composting, I don't turn under any diseased material, or weeds with seeds; those things are burned, and their ashes returned to the garden. Scraps from supermarket produce run the risk of introducing disease, so I make it a rule never to add them to the gardens... those get dumped into the back lot for deer to peruse. Anything which manages to survive back there has my deepest respect.

A couple years ago we purchased a large-scale lawn & leaf vacuum, that can be run either connected to the mower, or independently with a vacuum pickup. It holds about a cubic yard of shredded material, and can be towed & dumped where needed. When connected to the mower, I set the blade height low enough to mix some grass clippings with the leaves, for a green/brown mix (I delayed my Fall lawn mowing to increase the "green" ratio). With the help of my DD & 2 neighbors who allowed me to collect their leaves, this finally enabled me to spread a 2-3" layer of shredded leaves over the entire garden. I also screened charcoal & leeched wood ashes out of the fire pit, turning them under as well. The gardens in both 2021 & 2022 showed a tremendous increase in fertility... and the greatly improved performance of varieties previously grown in the rural garden made it painfully obvious how depleted that soil had become.

I was unable to collect leaves in the rural site last year, because a big wind storm blew all fallen leaves into surrounding farm fields. There was nearly a repeat of that this year; but between picking up leaves from another neighbor & enough leaves falling later, I was able to spread about 2" of OM on the rural garden. When the ground is snow covered, I'll spread some wood ashes there as well. Hopefully that will improve the plot, should I decide to garden there next year.