This post comes with a warning: I don't know what I'm doing. This post is not a how-to, its a how-I'm-attempting. My husband and I were walking our dogs home from the beach in January, following an alley up that runs behind beautiful coastal property, when we came across this composting device that had been left out with the trashcans for disposal. We picked it up between the two of us and trying not to step on any dogs, we carried it a few blocks home.
I began to fill the ventilated receptacle up haphazardly with dead leaves, vegetable juice pulp and other odds and ends from my kitchen and garden. I didn't seem like much was happening, so I talked to my mom, and she said that it has to be mixed up a lot. So I began the difficult work of turning the compost every day or so with my hands or a shovel. After a few weeks I got my chickens and I began adding the chicken poop and pine shavings they nest in to the compost, that helped a lot, and I began to notice the center of the compost heating up, even steaming on a cold day.
I read up a bit on-line and decided my compost was too dry, so I wet it down a bit, lacking in nitrogen rich green material, so I asked the gardeners to dump the grass when they mowed into the compost, and finally lacking in worms, so my mom brought me a big bag from the garden store. Now I started seeing some change, the creation of some lovely planting soil.
I have yet to complete this process, but I have recently started a new compost pile to add new material too allowing the first compost pile time to complete its process without adding any new material. I need a compost pile to dispose of the waste from my chickens, but so far its proven difficult. I'd like more space and a better set-up, mixing the compost by hand is difficult work. Here are some great resources to teach you, I still have much to learn!
1 comment:
We just started composting too. We got one that rolls. Karen
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