Re: Compost and weeds
- Subject: Re: Compost and weeds
- From: M* T*
- Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2001 01:03:09 -0400
Now, this is really strange; the 2nd message Bill has posted that
hasn't hit my inbox...
I agree, Claire...pile and let rot. If you water the pile, it rots
better.
Once upon a time, some 30 years ago when I was younger and much more
energetic, I followed the Organic Gardening instructions for making
finished compost in 14 days. I hauled in a lot of horse manure and
rented a chipper shredder and shredded all of it with accumulated
garden weeds, kitchen scraps and whatever I could lay hands on;
watered each layer as the heap was made. It was a *big* heap. I
dutifully turned that sucker every two days, as I recall.
It steamed like mad and, sure enough, in two weeks it was pretty well
finished compost. Marvelous stuff and without many weed seeds left.
However, never did it again; just simply way too much work. The key,
however, to getting it to heat fast and hot is to shred the material,
make sure you have the proper carbon to nitrogen ration and that the
materials are damp.
Now, I use that plastic mesh fencing sold at Home Depot and Lowes to
create a sort of square. Fill that in one season and the next I move
the fence to an adjacent spot and fill that while the previous pile
becomes the one I dig into. Anything that isn't quite cooked gets
tossed in the working heap. I tend to sift my finished compost which
removes woody bits, uncomposted stuff, etc. The leavings get tossed
into the working heap.
I have been trying to remember to cut up long stems and NOT add the
zillions of woody twiggy bits the trees drop. This helps things rot
down a bit faster and makes digging the finished compost easier.
Bill, if your garden doesn't have a good spot for a nice sloppy
compost heap, there are ways of masking an area with shrubs, vines,
etc. so it is not in plain sight.
Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor: Gardening in Shade
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> From: ECPep@aol.com
> In a message dated 10/25/01 11:14:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> Blee811@aol.com writes:
>
> <<
> What I'm wondering is whether I could add these weeds to compost
if I bought
> one of those drum type composters, the kind where you fill it,
close a door
> and then turn the handle to rotate the drum each day. They are
advertised as
> creating compost quickly. The question is whether they'd kill off
weeds I
> added. >>
> Bill,
>
> We had a friend who paid around 400.00 for one of these. Every
time you
> opened the door on the end the odor was overpowering. As far as I
know he
> never accomplished any compost with his wonderful machine though he
was fond
> of owning it.
>
> When age begins to be a factor in what you do outdoors, you will
forget bins,
> machines and formulas for the easy method of letting nature do it.
You only
> need patience.
>
> Choose a location, wheel the garden debris to it and make a pile.
> Occasionally throw on sods (all gardeners tear up grass) or some
soil, water
> it if you like or not if you like and in time you will have
compost. Choose
> a place where other members of the family will not be angered for
the
> untidiness of compost. We form a circle, or try to, taking the
oldest part
> of the pile first and adding to the other end the newest
contributions. Ours
> is behind a barn.
>
> There is a ton of information on composting, even a society for
extending the
> knowledge of composting but no trick. It all rots away and becomes
compost
> in time with virtually no effort and some patience (more than one
year for a
> better product, more than two years if it does not rain a lot).
>
> Claire Peplowski
> NYS z4
>
>
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