Re: unloading compost?
- To: s*@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
- Subject: Re: [SG] unloading compost?
- From: C* P*
- Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 21:47:00 EDT
In a message dated 10/25/00 3:48:56 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
campanin@NTX1.CSO.UIUC.EDU writes:
<< Then we get home and that's when the problem begins. We're usually
not putting a whole truck full on a given bed >>
There is something else to be said for making compost on site where wanted or
piling on site where may be wanted.
We garden on a downward slope and wheeling anything uphill is not easy.
Compost piles are made right in the gardens. For example, there is one
immediately next to a lilac which is about six feet square and bordered by
hollyhocks. Other ways to do the same thing is put debris from the garden
around plants, strong growers as hostas, then cover with wood chips. Compost
is formed right where you want it.
As you grow older, heroic projects are less desirable. There is another
compost pile right in the middle of the raised veg frames. If you pile up
debris around four feet and cover it with wood chips, it is not so bad to
look at.
Margaret, wood chips left over a season or two would not sprout. Here in NY
there are very few elms that are actually alive when taken down. I leave the
scrounged chips in huge piles working on the oldest to mulch. This way they
are partly decayed when spread and incorporate into the soil quickly. If
esthetics are very important to the gardener some of these ideas would not be
useful.
If you can bargain for chips ground with the leaves on the branches, so much
the better. This way you get ready made humus along with the chips.
One does not need chutzpah (abundant in NY) to get a tree service truck or
power company truck to come to you. If your location is nearer than their
dumping area you are doing them a favor. If you ask for the location of
their dumping area and would rather go there and help yourself, it is usually
free for the taking. My husband usually passes around some cans of soda and
a thank you giving us all the chips we can handle.
Claire Peplowski
NYS z4
