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Re: Compost/ Definitely 

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

Ah, compost. One of my two favorite things about gardening. (The other is
mulch.) Glad the subject came up. I spent the last 2 days playing in my
compost piles, and this afternoon I was thinking I might share a few of the
things I've learned (as a new gardener) or that have worked for me.

When I started out this gardening thing a year ago I spent upwards of $150
for a beautiful redwood compost bin. One. ONE?????? Shows my inexperience.
Little did I know. One beautiful redwood bin might work for the 'burbs, or
for really small scale composting, but I now have 5 bins total and I
*think* I finally have my composting *system* set up. We'll see.

The redwoopd bin will now hold my finished compost. The other four are made
of pallets we scrounged. They're so much better -- more accessible, cheaper
(LOL - by definition), and not all that ugly, given that they are, after
all, compost bins. We drove two steel fenceposts into the ground to sturdy
each pallet on two sides, then put in large screws at the back corners. The
right-hand pallet of each bin serves as the left side of the newer bin
added to its right. 

The fronts are essentially *open* but once the pile is started good and
squared up a bit, we place the 4th pallet in front and hold it to the rest
of the structure with one or more black rubber bungee cords. We tried
adding hinges, but that really didn't work all that well. My next
improvement to these will be to line the inside of all the pallets and bins
with hardware cloth -- using a staple gun to attach it. Chicken wire would
work too.

A year ago I despaired of ever having *enough* compost. While I'm not sure
there is such a thing as *enough* <g>, the addition of a few animals around
here has increased our compost potential beyond my wildest dreams. I think
I'll keep them forevermore for the compost alone. They're a lot of work,
though. It's astounding to me how much farther manure goes as a green than
grass clippings.

Yesterday I built a 4 x 6 x 4 ft tall compost pile of the manure and
alfalfa and timothy hay which had dropped thru the cages from just 9
rabbits over a few weeks time (wish I'd kept track), with a bit of chicken
manure thrown in, interspersed with wheat straw, leaves and shredded office
paper. Actually, this pile was REbuilt from March 1 -- because I severely
underestimated the amount of browns needed to offset all that wonderful
green stuff and it stunk to high heaven (ammonia -- too much nitrogen).
Today that pile was smokin', but smells not a whit.  :-) 

I started another pile today with some chicken litter. It's about half as
large, and that's fine -- there's no end in sight to the manure <g> so
it'll grow. Meanwhile, I have two other fairly good sized piles that need
to be turned and probably combined and which will probably be ready by at
least mid-summer, and one rather small pile of finished compost that is
ready to be sifted and used now. It looks like I'll have a fairly good
compost crop this year, and NEXT year I should be in compost heaven. 

It helped immensely in building these two piles to already have some
shredded dried leaves on hand (bagged, tho that's probably not necessary),
shredded computer paper (also bagged), and some wheatstraw in bales. I
think I'll make it a practice to have one or more of these on hand always.
(The white paper looks pitiful, though, so I only use it deeper in the pile
and make sure no scraps escape to clutter up the place.) I also like to
cover up our kitchen scrap additions with a small handful of something.
It's more attractive, and draws less attention from various critters
including insects. Wheatstraw is cheap enough, I think, if one doesn't have
enough leaves. 

I discovered a little trick for making square piles (or squarer ones) when
I'm building a pile in a bin with an open front. I like working with an
open front because it's hard for me to lift things (like a loaded garden
fork) above mid-chest height. Anyway, once I've built a few layers and the
pile is sort of rounded in front and maybe not fully to the corners, I jab
the garden fork down in it as far as possible and shift it to the corners,
or to the front. Carefully. I built the entire large pile yesterday very
square without the front on. 

One of the things I hope to do this year (if I can figure out what to use
-- suggestions most welcome!) is add a hedge several feet in front of my
line of compost bins to hide them a bit. I want something evergreen that
naturally doen't grow much above 5 or 6 feet. Somewhat fast growing would
be nice. Camellias and gardenias are not an option. There might be a little
too much sun for rhodies.  And Leyland cypress get too large. Ideas?

I really am excited about all that compost i'm going to have AND having my
*system* of 5 bins finally in place, not to mention the endless supply of
nitrogen my chickies and bunnies so offhandedly provide. 

Patricia
Zone 7b, West Georgia
Whose best crop so far is compost, tho last year's tomatoes weren't half bad


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