Re: Composting

LOL, I turn mine (i have 2) about twice a year.  Sometimes they get watered,
sometimes not.  They break down but it takes like a year or so to get real
compost.  Longer now w/ the drought having gone on so long.

On 11/16/06, Johnson Cyndi D Civ 95 CG/SCSRT <cyndi.johnson@edwards.af.mil>
wrote:
>
> Bonnie wrote something the other day that made me laugh a little. I
> mentioned all the sycamore leaves and how, if I had time, I should shred
> them and use them as mulch. Bonnie said, just pile them up and next
> summer you'll have compost. Which gave me instant envy for a climate
> where you could do that.
> It's dry here. I mean, it's really dry. When we moved to our current
> house years ago, the first time I mowed the lawn I didn't have an area
> set up for a compost pile, so I just dumped the grass over on the side
> of the yard. And it just sat there. Now, I have a big yard, and we had a
> lot to do, so I forgot about it for a couple years while we got
> everything set up like we wanted it. One day I went over and kicked that
> pile - it was pretty much like I'd left it only of course it was dry and
> slightly smaller. The stuff at the bottom looked pretty much like the
> stuff on the top. No decomposition had taken place at all!
> Compost here requires human intervention, mostly in the form of water.
> When I was more energetic, I would get out there every week and turn
> over the pile, soaking everything with my hose during the process. But I
> don't do it much any more - in the vegetable garden I just pile the
> spoiled hay from the sheep pens right onto the beds. Because those get
> watered all summer it does break down, and there's a lot of it, so I
> don't really need the finished compost. I still have a pile, but I'm not
> very good at maintaining it. And I throw away a lot of stuff from the
> kitchen that could go out there.
> I decided just the other day I should start using the hay on the front
> garden, till now I've mostly just used bark mulch on the bare spots. It
> looks nicer and it too will eventually break down (takes a lot longer
> though). But I think I'd get better results from the plants if I used
> the hay, and now of course we have all that horse manure. I started
> piling that into the chicken pen - it's pretty big - and I'll let the
> chickens kick through it and maybe it will help fertilize all the trees
> and shrubs in there. I don't know how much that can absorb though. It's
> amazing...you know, you feed sheep and you get back piles of these
> little pellets...feed a horse and you pretty much get back the same
> volume of stuff!
> So how many of you have real compost piles? Are you diligent about
> turning them or is it just a place to dump organic matter?
>
> Cyndi
>
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-- 
Pam Evans
Kemp TX
zone 8A

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