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Re: Compost

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

OH!  I love your design Frank.  It is something even I can make since our
lumber stores will cut the wood to length for me.  Than all I will need is
my trusty hammer or screwdriver and the ever present baling twine.  Even
nicer is the fact I can build boxes as I can afford to and these will keep
the dogs from running rampant through my "compost pile" as they tend to do
now.
I live in Wyoming suburbia on a small piece of land that allows me room for
my row of rabbit cages(providers of raw materials) and 3 beds for plants
plus a bit of space for the dogs to run and play in
Anything that will allow me a neat tidy place for compost would be great but
sorry  I simply am not enamored of the looks of wire bins wrapped in black
plastic no matter how efficient they are.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Frank Teuton" <fteuton@total.net>
To: "Square Foot Gardening List" <sqft@listbot.com>
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2000 7:47 AM
Subject: Re: Compost


> Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
>
>
>
>
>
> >Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html
> >
> >I was reading old messages about compost and the number of piles you keep
> >going. Are any of you smack in the middle of suburbia? I've got a third
of
> >an acre (including the house) and all the back yards are just a sea of
> >lawn, separated by the occasional chain-link fence.
>
> Lucky you, I have 6,000 sq ft of suburbia....only about 1/7 of an acre.
But,
> I live in Canada, where lawn fascism is somewhat less prevalent,
perhaps...
>
> And my neighbors are happy to donate leaves, grass clippings, hedge
prunings
> etc to my composting activities.
>
> Composting is supported by municipalities here, and black boxes are
> subsidized. Here a Soil Saver can be had for 25 Canadian dollars from the
> city of Pointe Claire, and other nearby cities have similar deals
available.
> Check with your local County; I know Montgomery County has a program down
> yonder, and others may too.
>
> A well managed black box can process all the kitchen wastes and some of
the
> yard wastes for an average family. If you need more capacity and have the
> space, yet want to keep in step with neighborhood aesthetics, look to the
> designs in Easy Composting, Robert Kourik and Jeff Ball, which has the
best
> photos of all the composting literature I know of and will give you some
> useful ideas.
>
> If worm composting catches your fancy, commercial bins like the Worm
Wigwam
> can process a surprising amount of materials. The ones at NIH are supposed
> to be processing several tons of compostables each year, which is
surprising
> for such a small (3 foot high 3 feet in diameter cylinder) container.
>
> See www.wormwigwam.com for the scoop on these.
>
> As I noted, my own aesthetics are strictly pragmatic and doubtless I am a
> Fing shooey failure and an art school reject, and indeed, could never
color
> inside the lines as a kid. I am fortunate or well placed in a neighborhood
> with clotheslines, composters, cars being repaired, boats, etc....although
I
> must say that 'primer' is not the most widespread car color....LOL!
>
> Anyway my neighbors tolerate my ugly 'Great Wall of Compost', which
> disappears behind 12' high Bloody Butcher corn and various heirloom
tomatoes
> and sundry other vegetables in summertime. If I had more land, I could
grow
> hedges and obscure everything from view; my next door neighbor has a cedar
> hedge started for that purpose and I have Jerusalem artichokes on that
side
> also.
>
> In short, you may find you 'don't fit in' being a gardener and composter,
> but I just want to tell you, not fitting in has an upside especially when
> the others are all doing it wrong...LOL!
>
> I do have a neighbor who is a rose judge and she makes tons of compost
every
> year, tucked away in a corner of her yard, not strictly hidden, though.
>
>
>
> No hiding places for
> >unsitely piles. Even building the raised beds caused a lot of comment.
> >
> >So I haven't started composting yet but have been collecting some
> >materials. But in this pristine environment I was thinking about buying
one
> >of those $80 black plastic bins. Is this just a waste of money? Is it
silly
> >to do it at all if I can't do three piles? (And 3 x $80 is far too much
> >money.)
>
> If you want cheap aesthetic composting, you might try a simple design I
> made. Take four foot lengths of 2 x 2s and four foot lengths of 1 x 6s and
> make walls. You will need four walls for a simple 4 foot cube of compost.
> Use two 2 x 2s as the posts, and nail or screw the 1 x 6 boards flush to
> them;  you'll need about seven 1x6s, with some space in between.
>
> These walls can be tied together for easy take-down and pile turning, or
> removal of the finished product, and can be moved about or stored when not
> in use. You can stain them, paint them, or linseed oil them. Materials up
> here cost about 40 bucks, mine have lasted six years so far, aging to a
> graceful gray color ( I don't believe in the evil paint, neither buying
nor
> applying, around a composting operation, but if you think you must, you
can
> paint the outside of the bin....dang fussy neighbors anyway, eh? :-)
>
> This bin is more than five times larger than a black box and will process
> oodles of stuff, especially when you get the worms going....and start
> hitting up Starbucks!
>
> Another way to go is compost fleece, which is essentially thick landscape
> fabric, available in black and green, that you could use to cover compost
> piles to make their unsightliness invisible. This stuff is somewhat
> permeable to water and very permeable to air, and so allows you to compost
> aerobically and invisibly, as it were. 80 dollars worth of this would
cover
> a lot more compostables than a black box, as well.
>
> Finally, consider deep mulching as a compost method. Popularized by Ruth
> Stout, this method lets you compost in place, right where the plants are
> growing. This is both space and labor efficient, and largely invisible.
>
> So there are options out there.
>
> Good composting and courage,
>
> Frank Teuton
>
>
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