Composting on a mountain made of stone, impossible? Challenging, perhaps, but we're learning.
One of my favorite hats had the simple phrase “Compost Happens” printed on it. And that's just about all there is to say about that.
It does happen, everywhere, and all the time. There are ways to speed it up but the basic process really can’t, nor should it, be messed with.
The basic composting process is, of course, millions of little bacteria bugs eating stuff. Research has shown that there is an optimal carbon to nitrogen ratio in the “stuff" which the bacteria are the happiest and work best. This ratio is around 25-30 parts of carbon for every 1 part nitrogen.
So what do we do here? When we first started building soil for our planting beds, we realized that the best source of nitrogen available to us would be grass clippings. We have about 10 acres of fields, including all of the areas around our berry patches and other beds that we mow all season. That's a lot of grass!
In order to utilize it, we purchased a commercial sized grass catcher from Woodland Power Products . We have used this machine for several years now and although I have modified the frame and wheel structure to help it survive our “simple mountain life” the basic machine has always done a fine job. The collection bag is large enough so it doesn't have to be emptied but every 1/2 hour or so, but it's light enough to be pulled by our 25 HP Sears 48 mower. This thing will really pick up some grass!!!
For a while I mixed the grass with rotten sawdust from a local sawmill by using the rototiller on my garden tractor. It made some great compost but having the sawdust delivered got to be too expensive.
Recently we've been tilling the grass directly into the planting beds and letting it compost there. That works O.K. but it's very slow. The problem with this approach is: you obviously can’t till the grass into the soil with plants growing there, but if you don’t till it in the clippings turn into a slimy, smelly mess which rivals a big ol' manure heap (technically called anaerobic digestion –which simply means breaking down without oxygen). So we just do this on new or empty beds.
A site we love is Garden Mandy . GardenMandy.com was started in July of 2007 and has quickly grown into one of the internet’s leading resources on organic green gardening solutions. Check out her site, she's one cool gal!
Worms and Worm Poop
This is Ed's worm box, a first attempt at vermicomposting. It worked pretty good, only problem was it sat too far away from our everyday activity to remember to keep it moist. The worms dug deep enough that they survived anyhow, but it was less than ideal conditions for them. Future plans for this box are to move it closer to our new camp store and offer it as a place for campers to dump their own food offerings and watch the miracle of worm soil come to life!
These creatures make beautiful composted soil.
Here's a great place to gather information on composting, organic gardening, pest control, identifying insects, and boo-coos of other really useful things from the kind folks at Organic Gardening Info.
Ed's been thinkin' again...
We also need a supply of compost to include in the “potting mix” for our nursery plants. I've been kicking around the idea of building what I call a Batch Enviro Leaf Composting House, or B.E.L.C.H. I probably need to work on the name. The acronym doesn’t seem to describe the process. Anyway, the idea is to have a closed container, probably of painted plywood to make it simple and cheap, into which I could deposit a mix of shredded leaves and grass clippings. The box would have a manifold of air pipes connected to an air inlet at the bottom of the container. The top of the container would be connected to a solar chimney. As the solar chimney heats the air in it, that hot air would rise and draw fresh air through the mixture. Will it work? Who knows. I’ve tried crazier things. Stay tuned.
Update Jan 2021
I still haven't tried to build this composter yet!! Too many ideas and too little time. It's still on my list though.
Here is a great composting site with loads of information about the entire process.
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