Compost question...?
Question:I had a question about using lots of compost. We have a couple small flower gardens and a strawberry garden (america's favorite weed). What I'm thinking is what do you do when you have too much compost for your garden? If I'm using it overtime will I have a raised garden from adding the compost? I'd like to start a bin to reduce my food garbage but I don't understand if it breaks up enough, or fast enough, to keep doing this overtime. And yes I suppose my neighbors could use some too but lets assume they won't. Not sure if I'm explaining myself well. Thanks.
CS
Answers:
Hi there;
Yes your question makes sense, I think you are wondering if eventually you will have mountains of compost in your backyard! And the answer is YES! of course you should have a compost bin, you just need to figure out which way of composting suits you best.
First of all you need to remember that compost is a very nutrient rich product; so before attacking the compost question I would examine your soil. Is it chock full with organic matter? Does it have earthworms? If it is healthy it may only need a few inches of compost added each year to top it up.
Do you have a lawn? Lawns benefit from a screened layer of compost a couple of times a year.
What type of food waste do you want to compost? If you are in the city and pests such as rats could be a problem only compost vegetable matter (raw), scrap paper (without dyes).
As compost is "cooked" it greatly reduces in mass, thanks to our little insect and organism friends.
There is "hot" compost and "cold" compost. Hot is what you get when you layer your compost correctly, in a 3'x3'x3' pile, introduce moisture (water), heat(keep in a sunny area and closed) and oxygen(turn your compost every few weeks or poke holes in it at least). Depending on how well you do this it will happen very quickly.
You need greens (vegetable matter, grass clippings), yellows (dead leaves, straw, brown yard waste) and browns(soil, manure) each time you add layer these. It should be as moist as a wrung out sponge. Ideally a person has 3 composts: 1 cooking(not to be added to), 1 in use (layering as best you can) and one finished.
Another option entirely is find out if you can buy a "worm bin" anywhere. They are full of red wriggler worms and you make a paper layer from them and they go to town and hardly leave you with anything.
Use compost in your container gardens too or hanging baskets-mix with peat moss and vermiculite or perlite to keep the weight down.
Good luck and good for you!
Shawna
Vancouver Island
Compost is great stuff. In the process of gardening, growing lawns, etc., we humans tend to deplete the soil over time. If you find you have more compost than you need for your garden, you can always sift it over your lawn (or any lawn, for that matter) and allow it to feed the soil upon which your grass feeds. Because the soil is degrading over time, it is not likely that you will ever have too much compost.
Making compost isn't rocket science. Some folks like to just pile things up and let nature take it's course, while others like to do everything they can to speed thing along, It's all about what fits into your lifestyle. A properly constructed pile can reach temperatures of 150 degrees internally which will kill any weed seeds.
To properly construct a pile you should alternate layers of high nitrogen materials (fresh green plant material, animal manures, kitchen wastes) with materials containing carbon (dead leaves, straw, newspapers). Items you should never use are meats, bones, fats and dog or cat manure. The dog and cat manures can contain pathogens that are harmful to humans.
Using a containment system depends on how much room you have and how organized you want to be. I use recycled sections of fencing for my bins, but you can also use pallets, garbage cans with drainage holes in the bottom or anything else that will contain the compost and provide drainage. The only thing I advise against are the "compost tumblers." They are very expensive, and while the theory behind them sounds appealing, they do not have tha capacity to have a large enough mass to heat up properly, in my humble opinion.
While you will see the ads for some composting systems showing the results being this perfect brown stuff, in reality, there is always some things that don't completely break down. Use it anyway. Unfinished compost can be worked into the soil where it will completely break down. There is even a method of composting called sheet or trench composting where the raw components are buried in the soil directly.
And, yes, the addition of lots of compost will raise the soil level over time, but it won't happen as quick as you think.
Check out our website for more composting ideas at-
http://www.gardening-at-the-crossroads.c...
Good Luck and Happy Gardening from Cathy and Neal!
I doubt you'll have too much. It takes a long time to build up a big pile. What you can do is have two, or three, small compost bins side by side. Fill one, then go to the next. The oldest one will be ready while the others are still breaking down. They you get a little at a time. You can also do this with a bin that has a door at the bottom, like mine. I just scoop out the finished stuff at the bottom every year while leaving the newer stuff on top.
It's really pretty hard to have too much compost. You wind up with less than 1 tenth volume of what you put in. You can only compost veggie garbage plus yard waste, no meat or cooked foods. Weeds, leaves, grass clippings can be used. If you don't feel like turning it weekly, it'll take about a year to break down and be ready for next year's garden. If you turn it weekly and have the proper mix of green and dry, it'll compost faster. I use the lazy method and plan my compost for next year. Use it as mulch and you'll have to weed less. Over a number of years, the soil level might raise an inch or so, but hardly enough to be concerned about.
More Related Questions & Answers...