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Re: Compost/ Sort of...

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

On 6 Mar 2000, at 11:31, Jessica M. wrote:
Hi Jessica,

	Leave your partially decomposed mulch on the beds and it'll help your 
plants with no danger.  There is absolutely no requirement to move the stuff 
to your compost pile.  About compost -

	Visit:

http://muextension.missouri.edu/xplor/agguides/hort/g06956.htm

where you'll find out more about compost than you ever wanted to know.

	Briefly though, compost is ready to use when it is soft, crumbly and dark 
brown to black with a pleasant odour.  Depending on your compost method 
this can take four weeks to a year. Generally speaking, there is no 
requirement to compost normal yard waste for a year for fear that it will be 
too "hot" for your garden.  Don't use green stuff for mulch.  Leave grass 
clippings and green leaves out in the sun and rain for a week or two until 
they're dry and light - they won't be 'hot'.

	There is one caveat about using quickly composted material on your 
garden and that is the compostion of the stuff you put in the compost pile:

	NO dog or cat manure, or any other carnivore or omnivore manure
	NO grass that has been sprayed with pesticides
	NO sawdust from anything other than untreated wood (no plywood 
sawdust either).  Most of the glues contain chloroform

	YES leaves from your unsprayed trees
	YES grass clippings
	YES vegatable peelings and unused vegetables
	YES wood chips and sawdust.

	Personally I keep one long term compost pile wherein I put diseased 
plants, animal manure, meat waste and bones and other stuff I'm hesitant 
about.  Stuff stays in there for a couple of years.  Normally though, my 
compost is ready to use in a couple of months.

	I believe the idea of compost being too "hot" for the garden comes from 
the practise of putting manure directly on the garden.  It should be 
composted first to remove any pathogens.


> Hey everyone! This is sort of a compost question: Last year on my veggie beds I used cocoa hull mulch. As it got towards the fall I added another layer of Pine Bark mulch. Also over the winter a lot of leaves made their way to my beds and settled their as well. As I was poking around in the 
beds today I noticed quite a bit of the cocoa hulls and leaves had started to decompose and the soil is really black. Here is the dilemma though:
> 
> By the basis of composting you let it set a year because it is too "hot" to put directly in the beds. So should I remove the cocoa hulls and leaves to my compost pile or leave them on the bed and turn over into the soil come sowing time. 
> 
> I use these particular beds for lettuce, chard, and other leafy greens.

	Your green leafies will do nicely on that dark brown stuff you 
manufactured.  Go girl!

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Tagline for March 7, 2000

He's dead, Jim. Spock took his tricorder, I got his wallet.
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