This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: Putting the garden to bed in the fall

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

--------------------------- ListBot Sponsor --------------------------
Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Katherine Wendt" <katherine@memberstoaction.com>
> My sq ft garden consists of two raised beds, 4' x 10' x 16" (they're 
> high!) each. Last fall I did that seemed natural: after everything 
> died in the frosts, I pulled the remains of my veggies and tossed 
> them in the compost pile . Then I layered about four inches of red 
> and silver maple leaves that had been collected either through my 
> blower/vacuum (which pulverizes some of the leaves and chops others) 
> or sucked up by the lawn mower - not particularly a mulching kind but 
> that does some chopping. I mixed the leaves into the rest of the soil 
> and left them for the winter.
> 
> Now that spring is here and I am trying to plant out there, I think 
> maybe I  didn't do the right thing. Lots of the leaves remain intact, 
> enough that I worry about some of my seeds not being able to make it 
> up through them. I sort of feel like I need to screen the dirt, which 
> wasn't what I was looking for at all!  I wanted it to be all 
> decomposed and ready to go.

I normally do most of my composting in my compost pile.
A few years ago I took about 20 large yard trash bags of leaves
from my folks place.  As my compost piles were allready full
(from my own yard/leaves and those of my next door 
neighbor)  I decided to try sheet composting.  I spread the finely shredded
leaves (they would have gone through a 1 inch screen) over the
tops of 2 4x8 beds, and mixed in a little dirt.  

By spring the leaves on the bottom had decomposed nicely but
I still found myself with a 6 inch layer of leaves that were dry 
and the ground underneath was cold and wet.  As this was
interfering with the ground warming up I removed the leaves
to one my compost piles (which during the same time period
had reduced in bulk by one half or more).  

I have not had a chance to repeat the experiment, but for
me this attempt at sheet composting was a failure.  I believe
the problem may have to do with the 
1) imbalance of greens and browns, as it was entirely dried
leaves it was nothing but browns.
2) lack of "bulk" or volume to allow heating up.

My regular compost piles (mostly greens, grass) I normally
try to mow some lawn at the same time I am mowing to 
collect the leaves.  This gives me at least some greens
to go with my browns.  My usual compost piles do not
"cook" all the way down over winter but they do reduce
in volume by half to three quarters and by the time
I have turned them once (maybe twice) in spring,
they are done.

I feel that your best way to proceed would be to pull
aside the undecomposed leaves to allow the ground
to heat up and dry out.  Later when it gets hot go ahead 
and use the leaves as mulch to keep the ground cooler
and keep the moisture in.

- Ron Souliere


______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, write to sqft-unsubscribe@listbot.com
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index