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compost bins

I also have a 3 bin pallet system. Works great and isn't unsightly at all. I have some things that sprouted out of it and are growing up the sides of the whole bin system, and hide the wood sides. I generally fill one to the max and let it shrink a couple of days. Keep filling it for about 2 wks, stirring and watering it. My problem is getting enough GREEN matter, as I have about 3 barns full of dry manure and straw. I like to mulch in lawn clippings, but the goat corral gets raked into a 30 gallon garbage can and hauled to the compost. I've hauled 8 loads and THOUGHT I'd surely have the 3 x 3 bin filled, but it shrank like everything else. Makes great stuff, tho. Watering and aerating in a pallet bin seems to work pretty good. 
My first bin, I 'turn' by just tossing into the middle bin. Actually, if I'm really industrious, I'll start one on each end and when they're tossable, combine into the middle one and restart the 2 ends again. Even if the stuff is'nt really broken down as well as I'd like, as long as the heat is out of it, I'll mulch with it or scratch some into the soil surface, and the plants seem to perk up. 
Corn: Gardening By The Yard TV show explained how to plant corn in square foot sections.
I probably won't describe this right, but you scratch a square in the top of a plot you want to plant your corn in. Divide the square into triangles by scratching an X in the center. Plant a corn seed at the end of each x point and in the center. I think he planted 2 seeds and snipped off the one in each sprouting that didn't look the best. (Don't pull them up, you'll disrupt the roots of the healthier one.) He made his original square big enough so every distance between the seed was 1 foot. Explained that he could get 5 corn plants in the space of one square, whereas he'd normally have to expend 5 (linear) feet for the same amount. Got a better fertilization, too. You may can put them closer, if you feed corn enough, it can stand to be a little crowded.
Martha
"to plant a seed and expect it to grow is to believe in miracles."
Flylo@txcyber.com


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