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Re: Compost!

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

In a message dated 9/10/99 2:53:28 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
kevinh@thesocket.com writes:

>  I hate the
>  thought of throwing all of that potential soil away.

Me, too.  that and lousy soil are what convinced me to develop a compost 
obsession.  

>  Cyn, If you don't mind, would you review the fast cook method.
>  I am very interested.  Where do you keep your compost pile?
>  How big is it?  What "container" do you keep it in?  How do you start from
>  scratch.  Hmmm I know, I should read the book, I remember seeing a section
>  on composting.
Well, it's pretty straightforward.  Wet the ground to encourage crawly 
things.  Build a little layer of branches and twigs.  Layer brown (leaves, 
for me) and green (horsemanure from the guy across the street -- actually, 
the horses across the street --, but also includes weeds and such) in the 
right proportions which were -- dang.  I forget. 2 green to 1 brown, was it?  
And I'm not sure if this tough ice-planty sort of groundcover -- but not ice 
plant -- is a green or a brown.  Then I'd dig small holes in it daily and 
toss my food scraps in.  One web site recommends turning a fast cooker every 
two days.   Since mine didn't start cooking, i.e. getting hot, the pros here 
recommended nitrogen.  I used up the rest of the regular lawn fertilizer and 
added some dog poop.  Water again, mix it up a bit.  I was despairing of 
doing anything with this groundcover stuff so for the new pile, I put it in 
the lower third and piled everything up on top of it.  Lo and behold, it WILL 
rot.
I've got two heaps, one a couple weeks older than the other.  A circle of 
small hole wire fencing around, about three feet in diameter.  The second 
heap for killing the prickly groundcover stuff is longer than it is wide and 
isn't enclosed.  I stuck a couple of metal poles in to hold up the wire 
circle, and most of my food scraps are going in that one.  An attempt to keep 
rats out.  
I haven't turned regularly for the last two weeks, but yesterday I dug into 
it to see how it was doing.  I was canning, too, and had lots of fruit 
leavings.  WOW!  Nice black stuff.
That's how I've been doing it and it seems to be working.  Got lots of leaves 
and an endless supply of horse manure for now.
The piles are about 20' away from the house.  I check the moisture regularly, 
since it's still hot here in Southern California.
It's magic.  I know it is.
Cyn


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