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Making Compost # 1

To those interested in compost:
	Chris Anderson is right.  In his - how I grew my champion pumpkin -
posting,     he said soil is the most important part of a succesful garden.
 I'll like to add, nothing is better for soil that natures own soil
additive - compost.  Compost will keep the soil's ph from getting out of
balance,  the live microbs in the compost helps to fight off plant
deseases, molds, viruses, dampening off, it helps hold moisture, brakes up
clay soil, adds body to sandy soils, etc., etc., etc.
	I make compost three different ways, each having a slightly different use.
 1. seed starting and seedling medium,  2. Hot sterile compost as a soil
additive and summer fertilizer,  3. leaf mold as a mulch.  I'll explain the
first now and the others in later posts.

1.  Seeds and seedlings - well rotted turf compost.  This is a very old
garden technique/material and is still widely used for the production of
potatoes in Ireland.
	I plant an area ( <10X10 ) with grass seed each fall.  In early summer I
cut this plot into rolls, like you would buy from a landscaper. While it
may look like you're taking two inches of good soil with the green grass,
in reailty you are taking grass roots about 2" with a little bit of dirt
attached. Then I stack them into a plie and let 'em rot.  
	By summers end you have a pile of rich and mellow soil.  I use this
material in late winter to start seeds in cell packs which will then be set
out into my cold frames.  I, also, use about a gallon or two of this
material to transplanted my pumpkin seedlings into their final position. 
In a couple of days the pumpkin roots grow out of the "well rotted turf"
and into the well prepared soil which includes hot compost.
	
2.  Hot Compost - This is a material / technique that allows you to take
yard waste and turn it into compost, ready for the garden bed in 14-21
days.  There is a great deal written on this subject and a couple of dozen
web sites to visit for more info.
I'll write more about hot composting in a later posting.  

	There is a compost e-mail list which is visted by many ag.ed students and
can at times be very informative.  It is not archived though and that's to
bad. Access like most other e-mail lists - compost@listproc.wsu.edu
	
COMPOST HAPPENS

MIchael in Akron
mcohill@neo.lrun.com
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