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Post by Gianna on Sept 18, 2018 11:12:22 GMT -5
It's time to start collecting for the next compost heap. Haven't built one since last fall, but there is so much softer 'stuff' about to come out of the garden, that is just too appealing to toss into the green can. Old flower plants, weeds, squash, collards, yacon branches, etc.
As I collect it, it will be layered with ground (free) city mulch. Nice, fine stuff that will be an ample 'brown'.
This pile will be adjustable, with metal sides (repurposed decorative railings) held in place with metal 'posts' and covered on the inside with Amazon boxes (!) and perhaps plastic to keep in moisture. It'll be about 4 feet square, and height? time will tell. At least 3 feet with shrinkage a variable. It's going to be in the side/front of the yard behind some shrubs.
I'm looking forward to building it. One of my favorite garden tasks.
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 18, 2018 11:24:09 GMT -5
My compost pile is a continuous thing. I just throw the weeds, garden debris and clippings onto the pile and once in a while when hubby has his garden tractor out, he turns the pile over. I think that he likes to see the nice soil that is underneath.
I was just dumping some veggie peelings into my kitchen compost bucket yesterday and I said to hubby "Isn't it amazing how these lettuce leaves and peelings will actually turn into dirt?".
We will be moving some of our nice finished compost to cover the asparagus bed for the winter soon but I have decided not to till the rest into the garden like we usually do since my soil test showed excess nutrients in the garden soil. I think that we may put it around the fruit trees this year.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Sept 18, 2018 11:25:46 GMT -5
Oooh, timely thread, as we've encountered something unexpected with compost pile creation. When My Garden Boy tore out the garden across the street, he was going to just spread out the compost and add it to the lawn materials. But when he stuck a fork in and saw how luscious it was, he decided to take the time to load it up in a few wheelbarrow loads and bring it over here. We decided the perfect spot for the pile, so he simply put the established compost there, and we figured it would actually make good starter material for the new pile. So I eagerly start saving kitchen scraps and adding them to the pile. The first few buckets I'd dumped, I noticed scads of ants crawling all over the previous kitchen debris, so I made a mental note to make sure and add some brown material and give it a stir soon. Well, when I took the next bucket out a few days later, there was absolutely no sign of any previous kitchen scrap. Zero. And there had been a pineapple top and rind in that pile. I dumped my bucket anyway and returned to the house. Only then did it dawn on me. We have a domestic goose in the backyard. It's technically no one person's goose, it just showed up one day many years ago and all the neighbors kind of adopted it. It does a fantastic job acting as "Guard Goose" for our cluster of about four homes and yards. One of the families has given it a little nest and feeds him from time to time. But after seeing Herbert parading through our yard once or twice, I'm starting to think that he is eating my compost materials! So now, my pile of compost is put on hold because DH is going to have to actually build something that we can give a cover and a door to that will keep Herbert out. I can't make good garden compost if he eats it all!
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 18, 2018 11:32:06 GMT -5
But after seeing Herbert parading through our yard once or twice, I'm starting to think that he is eating my compost materials! Ha, ha that is too cute having a neighborhood goose! He probably is eating the scraps, my chickens actually follow me to the pile when I am dumping kitchen waste. They like to dig through everything no matter how yucky or moldy but they especially like eggshells. Anyway, I don't think that geese are big diggers like chickens so maybe you could just push or shovel some dirt over the fresh stuff to keep Herbert away. You cook from scratch a lot like I do so your pile may get ahead of Herbert's ability to eat it all. I have 8 hens and there is still material left for the roaming skunks and possums and I still get compost.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 18, 2018 12:06:24 GMT -5
I missed a batch this year, Still have severak bags of shredded leaves and one of shredded pine boughs. I have the orginal Compost Tumbler which is now on the second barrek skin since 1996. I've always got about a cubic yard curing in a bin below it. It is so effective that doe deer heads vanish in one long cycle. (Bucks take twice as long.) Squirrels and culled pigeons also quickly vanish. They all become blood meal and bone meal. Present barch ready to be dumped but first need to use at least 50 gallons from the winter batch which has been curing since May.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by bestofour on Sept 18, 2018 13:37:03 GMT -5
ladymarmalade, keep putting out the scraps and you'll surely have a fatted goose for Christmas dinner My compost is an ongoing pile too. I keep it turned and keep adding.
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Post by ladymarmalade on Sept 18, 2018 13:51:49 GMT -5
ladymarmalade, keep putting out the scraps and you'll surely have a fatted goose for Christmas dinner My compost is an ongoing pile too. I keep it turned and keep adding. Lol! That's what a friend of ours suggested too. I can't imagine the neighborhood ruckus if he suddenly disappeared, and there we are, knowing exactly where he'd gone... However, we have been considering introducing a lady friend, which would (in theory) produce goslings, which could then be, uh, harvested at will.
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Post by Gianna on Sept 18, 2018 16:29:55 GMT -5
Keeping an on-going pile is ideal. Alas I've never been able to have that fit in with how I work. I seem to be all or nothing. I used to try keeping compost buckets in the kitchen to take out to the pile, but instead they often would just sit there and become fruit fly cultures... and buckets that required work to clean up. So I had to stop doing that in spite of my best intentions.
Now the piles I make tend to be larger but built all at once. But that means collecting garden refuse in trash cans for several weeks. That's the stage I'm just going into now, and have enthusiasm for collecting such residue. Plants shake in their roots as I walk past, judging if they are ready to be 'recycled'.
This morning I surveyed the place I'm planning on putting the new pile, and it looks good. Its on a slight slope, so I'll have to do some minor soil work first. I'll have enough space to build the initial pile, then enough adjacent space to turn it back and forth, while not disturbing anything else in the area. Well, not too much. Since these days I only have one pile going at a time, two 'slots' work well.
Looking forward to getting on with it. Later I'll remove the Scabiosa bed which has bloomed all summer. But there are massive amounts of seeds, and I don't think I want it in the pile yet. It will be a hot pile but experience says seeds near the edge don't always get zapped.
I still have about a yard of compost from last years pile coupled with a layer of totally decomposed compost at the bottom of the mulch pile.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 18, 2018 18:11:47 GMT -5
Gianna,you have the right idea by making a big pile to start. Some of mine were 5' to 6' tall when started. Looked more like a huge beaver lodge but without sticks. One year the pile had 7 deer heads in the core and they cooked down to compost over winter. A small worthless hide was laid across the top and it was still steaming next spring. I never turned any of my piles any more than just to pull back the peak and rake the outer layer into it. Key was to keep internal heat and moisture from escaping. Then it will compost almost to the very outer layer. Martin The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Gianna on Sept 18, 2018 21:18:45 GMT -5
I have to make my compost piles large here - or they just dry up over the summer. I also usually have tops and sides covered in plastic for the same reason. Last year's pile was lovely. It stayed hot for a very long time. I did eventually turn it because I wanted to, and if I recall, I thought it was getting a bit dry. It produced great compost - nice and fine and dark, like coffee grounds.
Last year I watched a few YouTube videos where people got rid of large dead animals (sick cows), and offal, in extremely large compost piles. I think there were regulations about how it should be done safely. Pretty impressive. I'm not sure I'd want to put something dead in mine, unless it was something small like a gopher or ground squirrel. Probably not because of possible odors and the neighbors.
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Post by bestofour on Sept 18, 2018 22:00:36 GMT -5
I have only one compost pile. I've never put a dead animal in it, didn't even know I could. Mine has grass, leaves, discarded plants (not garden plants) egg shells, banana peels, and other types of stuff from inside. I have always turned it a few times a year because somewhere down the line I think I was advised too. It's a messy job.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 18, 2018 23:23:43 GMT -5
Plants die and are naturally recycled back into the ground. Special herd of mincro-organisms are there to speed the process. Same applies to animal life but just different herd cleaning up. For years, only composted birds and small animals plus heads and "soft" parts of deer. Then a son-in-law worked for a county recycle facility. They had two huge tumblers for organic material including whole roadkill deer. After 8 days, no sign of anything from a deer. I now chop the legs into 4" pieces and they vanish. If the pile or tumbler is set up properly, results on animal products are as if it were a slow-cooker but for weeks instead of hours.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 19, 2018 6:53:39 GMT -5
If your pile is not really hot, and mine isn't, then turning will speed up the decomposition process.
You can really heat up a pile by adding grass clippings to your pile. I don't add meat or meat scraps because it attracts predators to come and eat them. I don't have deer heads of course but I do give cooked meat scraps to my chickens and they love it. We also feed several feral cats so they get any non vegetable leftovers too.
At my house trash is just paper and other non edible materials. Anything edible goes to either the compost pile or the animals.
BTW is you think that I am the neighbor with the trashy, smelly yard - I do not live in a development and our large compost pile does not smell. Our property is 4 acres and is adjacent to a wooded area and a large undeveloped area. It is semi rural where I live and there is a big farm on the other side of the undeveloped area.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 19, 2018 8:47:04 GMT -5
If a large pile is not working when it should, and no way to properly turn it, use a rod or pipe and punch deep holes in it. Pout water into the holes and that solves most problems. Then covering with tarp or plastic will keep the moisture in.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by bestofour on Sept 19, 2018 10:04:40 GMT -5
Interesting info. Speaking of smelly, I thought if compost is done correctly it shouldn't smell bad.
Do you guys bake egg shells before adding them?
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Deleted
Posts: 0
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Sept 19, 2018 12:50:30 GMT -5
Most paper is compostable unless it is slick finished. That paper would take longer than regular news paper stuff.
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 19, 2018 13:04:21 GMT -5
Speaking of smelly, I thought if compost is done correctly it shouldn't smell bad. Do you guys bake egg shells before adding them? My compost mostly smells like fresh soil but when I dump a bucket of kitchen waste on the side it may smell like rotten vegetables until we cover it with soil but nothing really that objectionable. No I would not waste energy baking egg shells. I just throw them in the pile whole. I have a stainless steel bucket with a lid that I keep under my kitchen sink for peelings and such. I empty it when it gets full which is usually every 2-3 days in the summer. I never notice any smells from it and it never gets fruit flies probably because of the lid.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 19, 2018 18:27:21 GMT -5
Saying that a compost pile does not smell is not exactly correct. Initial desomposition is rotting and how offensive it is depends upon what it is. Even grass has an initial bad odor. When I add a deer head and bones, the first day or so may seem offensive to some but it is basically the smell of cooking meat. The only animal which I think does stink is wild rabbit. Head, skin, feet, and innards go into the tumbler and the smell is distinctive. Squirrels go in as is and little stink. Composting of any animal is complete including the teeth. Deer lower jaw bones are the hardest no matter if buch or doe.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Gianna on Sept 20, 2018 0:02:29 GMT -5
The only offensively smelly compost pile I ever built was one of my first many years ago. Too much green material, and too much moisture. It became anaerobic and was putrid. It's a mistake you only make once. Hopefully. That was easy to fix however by turning it to get more air into it, and adding more dry brown material.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 20, 2018 9:56:03 GMT -5
For the ultimate "stink up the neighborhood", start with about 150 garlic stalks. Run them through a bagging mower. As soon as that starts heating, it can be smelled a block away! That's been an annual event here for over 30 years.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by brownrexx on Sept 20, 2018 12:27:37 GMT -5
paquebot, I think that might smell nice.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 20, 2018 14:12:22 GMT -5
paquebot, I think that might smell nice. That will clear any sinuses and bring tears within 50 yards at its peak! Martin The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Sept 21, 2018 9:55:27 GMT -5
You must be really popular with your neighbors during that week each year.
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Post by paquebot on Sept 21, 2018 14:16:20 GMT -5
I bribe them with garlic!
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Gianna on Jul 17, 2019 21:28:45 GMT -5
Well, it's time again to build a new compost heap, 2019 version. I just had a load of sifted city mulch delievered today and am going to build the new pile with this. It's finely ground, uniform green waste. I'm going to add kitchen scraps to it, but other than that? Nothing. I'm going for a fast decomposition and am planning on turning it ever few days. I actually enjoy turning compost piles - good exercise. This pile is not as large as piles of the past. I am building it in front though sort of hidden by a tree, so it has to be at least mildly aesthetic - or at least not offensive to look at. This is an upper middle class neighborhood and I dont want to shock the neighbors too badly, lol. They've had to live with 'eccentric', but more than that might be a problem. The neighbors are actually extremely nice. Martin bribes his neighbors with garlic, I bribe mine with extra produce. For the supporting sides I'm using 4 semi decorative metal panels I found while 'sidewalk shopping'. These will be lined with black plastic sheeting since moisture is our limiting factor. These panels are about 3.5 feet long, and 2.5 feet high. I might add a bit of something to make it higher since 'the stuff' will shrink as it cooks. The corners are anchored with 4 garden forks stuck in the ground, and the panels are tied to them to make the structure sturdy. Easy up, easy down. I think it wont be offensive to look at. Most people wont even notice it. This is a 'walking hill' with many people on foot passing by. The experiment continues....
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Post by Gianna on Jul 20, 2019 12:54:15 GMT -5
I just finished building the new pile. It went pretty quick. The dimensions are a bit different than planned. It's longer and less high. I decided it was easier to make it that shape (less lifting). When I turn it in a few days, I'll be able to go higher when using a fork instead of wheelbarrow. Basically I just piled up the mulch, and moistened it as I went.
In effect, this new pile is actually the first turning. The pile of sifted mulch sitting on the concrete drive is already hot. The material is only slightly moist, and right underneath there is already (since Wed delivery) a layer of grey decomposition. And it is quite warm to the touch, and lightly steaming. I stuck a thermometer in several places and the temp was generally 155*F - which surprised me greatly that it was that hot. One spot was even 160. I don't know if this thermometer is accurate however. First time I used it for compost.
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Post by brownrexx on Jul 20, 2019 13:40:27 GMT -5
Gianna, how do you get enough moisture for composting? Do you have to add water to the pile?
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Post by Gianna on Jul 20, 2019 15:27:09 GMT -5
Gianna , how do you get enough moisture for composting? Do you have to add water to the pile? In the summer, all water used in the garden and house is municipal water from the tap. Municipal water is a combination of well and local reservoir water, and some imported state water. And it's generally horrible. Safe, but high mineral content, alkaline, and obvious chlorination. Cooking and drinking water in our house is bottled (costco, 70Cents/gallon), though some people use some sort of in-house filtration systems. Rainwater can be collected too, but that can be cumbersome, and not really enough for an on-going summer garden. A cistern would be nice, but... And, yes, to answer your question, I do add water to the compost pile. The compost pile I just built is at 105*F already. Pretty good since the air temp here today is barely 70*.
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Post by paquebot on Jul 20, 2019 21:20:50 GMT -5
Too much water is worse than too little. If there is enough live green material, no added water is needed. In the tumbler, I just want the material to be damp. Remember that grass and most other green is 95% water. Often doesn't need a lot more.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Gianna on Jul 21, 2019 9:32:31 GMT -5
In my part of the world water is usually the limiting factor - unless you are building a pile during the rainy months. Right now, the only things that are lush and green in the yard are in areas that are being watered, and those are my crops. Things here (the browns) are often so dry that they repel water, which makes making a 'just moist' pile seemingly impossible. Usually I line the sides of the compost with plastic sheeting. Last year I lined one with cardboard, and that was OK - but now I'm back to plastic. Besides keeping the outside of the pile damp, here the plastic helps distribute the moisture inside the pile so that those things that are resistant to being moistened will dampen up with the added water when it in 'sauna' conditions. This kind of pile might sound too wet, but it's not at all. The pile this morning is up to 125* and it's still cool outside. I'd love to turn it tomorrow, but the day is already stacked. I'm planning on Tuesday.
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