As promised, here is my "two bin" composting process and how to harvest it.
When my very first bin filled up, I was uncertain as to what I should do next. I knew three things: it needed to "cook" a bit longer before I could use it, there wasn't any room to add anything new, and I didn't want to stop. I decided to start a second bin. They were labeled Bin A and Bin B.
Year 1- Start A and fill as much as you can in one year
Year 2- Start B and add your materials. Don't add to A. It's cooking. Just stir it up once a week or so.
Year 3- Harvest A and refill with left over uncomposted materials. Don't add to B, but stir once a week.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
This process worked really well for the 4 years I had my compost bins running. You could probably even have a 3rd brewing and then you'd have even better compost!
Harvesting is super simple. You can Google and find all kinds of sifting screens, but I'm lazy and my way works well for me.
Most of my compost went to starting new flower beds so I just dumped the bin out where I wanted the compost, shoveled buckets full to use in other locations, and set to work tilling it in! If there was a random apple core or pineapple top, I tossed it back into the bin. I made sure to leave a few inches of compost in the bin as a starter so I didn't have to completely start from scratch. Don't worry about random nut shells or anything else small. They will continue to cook down in the garden.
At the end of the growing season, you can empty the flower pots right back into bin and the cycle will continue. I like to reuse my potting soil so I have a bin that the soil goes into while the dead plants and roots go into the compost. When I go to fill flower pots again, I use roughly 50/50 or 25% compost and 75% soil- depends on the type of plant and what kind of soil they like.
Tomorrow- amending Middle Tennessee's crappy soil!
Showing posts with label composting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label composting. Show all posts
Friday, February 12, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Composting and Gardening, part 1
I just posted about starting a new compost bin. I was asked a few questions about how it's done so here's a post all about composting my way. This will be a series of a few posts for fear that I might write an epic tale!
There are two very important aspects of composting: greens and browns, and drainage. If you don't have these two ( I guess 3) things, your compost isn't going to work out so well.
Greens are things like veggie scraps. Browns are paper, leaves, grass, etc. You want to have a good mix of both in order for your compost to be the most beneficial.
Here is how you start a small bin:
You want a very, very big plastic bin. I use the biggest rubbermaid storage bin with lid that I can find. Drill plenty of holes in the bottom and around the sides. You can do some in the lid too if you want. You'll want your compost to have optimum drainage so I rest my bins on top of bricks or cinderblocks. I haven't quite found a way to retrieve the "tea" which also makes great fertilizer, but one day I'll find a way.
There are two ways to start filling. You can either aquire some compost (then just add to it) or you can do the layering method. If you are going compelely DIY, start by laying down some newspaper or empty the contents of your paper shredder. Then lay down some greens. Continue layering greens-brown-green-brown. I try to do two layers of each. Replace the lid and Voila! you are composting!
It's best to stir every time you add to it. Once every couple of days at the least. It's a good idea to dig a small hole and bury your additions just in case there are some pesky raccoons around. It will take about a year of adding and stirring. In the warm months, the bin will probably feel hot inside. This is the compost cooking. If at anytime it starts to stink, you've got a problem. Usually it's drainage. The cooking pretty much stops during the winter, but you can still add to it. I didn't know this until recently so it's a new addition to our repetoire.
There are a few things you will want to avoid:
Gourds including the decorative ones you in the fall- the seeds don't seem to die off, thus growing in our veggie garden and choking most of the plants (true story.)
Weeds- It's hard to know if the seeds will die and that's the last thing you want growing in your garden. For this reason, I don't put grass clippings in my bin.
Meat/anything from a meat eating animal- Bad bacterias will grow. Droppings from vegetarian animals like cows, horses, guinea pigs, rabbits, etc are fine and even encouraged.
Ash- It will affect the ph balance.
Synthetic materials- no plastics, lint from the dryer is fine but only if it's natural.
Human waste- refer to Meat/anything from a meat eating animal.
Oil or Grease- it doesn't break down well
A few things that people don't think about that are great additions: egg shells, leaves, wood shavings, urine (seriously... it's great for it!) tea bags, coffee grounds and filters, nut shells, cardboard (tear it up first) and hair.
We shred all of our important documents then compost them just for some added security. I don't know about composting cooked fruits and veggies because I try to finish them off. That is something you might want to look up.
If you are looking for a more uninvolved compost collection, you can do what The Grandfather did when I was a kid. Just pile up grass clippings and leaves. Dig a hole in the pile to add your food scraps then cover it back up. Over the course of 5-10 years you will have some amazing compost.
The pile I grew up with served not only as our fishing bait (worm) collection area, but as an animal burial ground. While it's supposedly against the "rules of composting" The Grandfather informed me that dead chickens, an occasional deceased cat, and one dead calf all composted down just fine in about a year. I wouldn't suggest it, but if the need arises you could always give it a shot.
Tomorrow I'll tell you all about my "double bin" process and how to harvest your compost for usage!
There are two very important aspects of composting: greens and browns, and drainage. If you don't have these two ( I guess 3) things, your compost isn't going to work out so well.
Greens are things like veggie scraps. Browns are paper, leaves, grass, etc. You want to have a good mix of both in order for your compost to be the most beneficial.
Here is how you start a small bin:
You want a very, very big plastic bin. I use the biggest rubbermaid storage bin with lid that I can find. Drill plenty of holes in the bottom and around the sides. You can do some in the lid too if you want. You'll want your compost to have optimum drainage so I rest my bins on top of bricks or cinderblocks. I haven't quite found a way to retrieve the "tea" which also makes great fertilizer, but one day I'll find a way.
There are two ways to start filling. You can either aquire some compost (then just add to it) or you can do the layering method. If you are going compelely DIY, start by laying down some newspaper or empty the contents of your paper shredder. Then lay down some greens. Continue layering greens-brown-green-brown. I try to do two layers of each. Replace the lid and Voila! you are composting!
It's best to stir every time you add to it. Once every couple of days at the least. It's a good idea to dig a small hole and bury your additions just in case there are some pesky raccoons around. It will take about a year of adding and stirring. In the warm months, the bin will probably feel hot inside. This is the compost cooking. If at anytime it starts to stink, you've got a problem. Usually it's drainage. The cooking pretty much stops during the winter, but you can still add to it. I didn't know this until recently so it's a new addition to our repetoire.
There are a few things you will want to avoid:
Gourds including the decorative ones you in the fall- the seeds don't seem to die off, thus growing in our veggie garden and choking most of the plants (true story.)
Weeds- It's hard to know if the seeds will die and that's the last thing you want growing in your garden. For this reason, I don't put grass clippings in my bin.
Meat/anything from a meat eating animal- Bad bacterias will grow. Droppings from vegetarian animals like cows, horses, guinea pigs, rabbits, etc are fine and even encouraged.
Ash- It will affect the ph balance.
Synthetic materials- no plastics, lint from the dryer is fine but only if it's natural.
Human waste- refer to Meat/anything from a meat eating animal.
Oil or Grease- it doesn't break down well
A few things that people don't think about that are great additions: egg shells, leaves, wood shavings, urine (seriously... it's great for it!) tea bags, coffee grounds and filters, nut shells, cardboard (tear it up first) and hair.
We shred all of our important documents then compost them just for some added security. I don't know about composting cooked fruits and veggies because I try to finish them off. That is something you might want to look up.
If you are looking for a more uninvolved compost collection, you can do what The Grandfather did when I was a kid. Just pile up grass clippings and leaves. Dig a hole in the pile to add your food scraps then cover it back up. Over the course of 5-10 years you will have some amazing compost.
The pile I grew up with served not only as our fishing bait (worm) collection area, but as an animal burial ground. While it's supposedly against the "rules of composting" The Grandfather informed me that dead chickens, an occasional deceased cat, and one dead calf all composted down just fine in about a year. I wouldn't suggest it, but if the need arises you could always give it a shot.
Tomorrow I'll tell you all about my "double bin" process and how to harvest your compost for usage!
We've started up again!
We've restarted our compost bin! I can't tell you how excited I am to say this. I was really beginning to miss how much fun was.
Our failed worm bin has been sitting on our deck since our little adventure. Since it was just sitting there with shredded paper, some carrots, and an apple core, I might as well just continue to add to it. Of course, it will be much smaller than our original bins, but it's still something and we can use it as a starter later on down the road.
I set out a bowl on the kitchen counter for compostables collections. It will be emptied and washed every night so we don't get any buggies in the house.
I haven't quite decided if The Father is being very resistant to this minor change, or if he really has forgotten how to compost. Last night I found a full coffee filter in the trashcan and leftover fried rice in the bowl. hrmmmmmmm... slightly backwards! It's ok, he'll get the hang of it soon enough. Plus, I remember how much he enjoyed having homemade fertilizer for his veggie garden (that's a whole other story- I might tell you one day.)
The coolest part about restarting our compost collection is that when it's ready in the summer of 2011, LBG will get to use some in his very first flower pot! Yes, I fully intend to help him plant a seed when he is 1.5 years old! It will be something fun for him to watch grow. Maybe by that time we won't have to use a shovel to mix up our bin. Hopefully, we'll have a bin mounted on a stand that uses a crank to spin the bin around thus mixing everything up. I bet he'd have fun turning the crank!
Yay! I can actually feel like I'm not wasting our kitchen scraps.
Our failed worm bin has been sitting on our deck since our little adventure. Since it was just sitting there with shredded paper, some carrots, and an apple core, I might as well just continue to add to it. Of course, it will be much smaller than our original bins, but it's still something and we can use it as a starter later on down the road.
I set out a bowl on the kitchen counter for compostables collections. It will be emptied and washed every night so we don't get any buggies in the house.
I haven't quite decided if The Father is being very resistant to this minor change, or if he really has forgotten how to compost. Last night I found a full coffee filter in the trashcan and leftover fried rice in the bowl. hrmmmmmmm... slightly backwards! It's ok, he'll get the hang of it soon enough. Plus, I remember how much he enjoyed having homemade fertilizer for his veggie garden (that's a whole other story- I might tell you one day.)
The coolest part about restarting our compost collection is that when it's ready in the summer of 2011, LBG will get to use some in his very first flower pot! Yes, I fully intend to help him plant a seed when he is 1.5 years old! It will be something fun for him to watch grow. Maybe by that time we won't have to use a shovel to mix up our bin. Hopefully, we'll have a bin mounted on a stand that uses a crank to spin the bin around thus mixing everything up. I bet he'd have fun turning the crank!
Yay! I can actually feel like I'm not wasting our kitchen scraps.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Adventures in Vermicomposting
In the backyard of our former house lived two blue bins. What lived inside those bins was gold-ok it was black, but worth more than gold to me. It was my compost! I obsessed over what I could add to it, turned it regularly, and grew to love my ugly boxes of decay. Of course, in our adventure known as "moving" I had to dump out my precious compost and yes, I cried.
I've been sitting in our current house, a rental, missing the process of adding to my bins and knowing that after a few years I could feed all my beautiful flowers. This past Monday I decided this was just plain silly. I should be able to compost no matter where I live! With a little bit of research, a power drill, and some worms; I built a vermicomposting bin.
Being in the dead of winter, I didn't want my wormies to become wormcicles, so of course I stored them in our 1/2 bath downstairs! I knew we wouldn't be expecting any guests in the near future and The Father and I could use some exercise walking up the stairs to the throne. This was so much fun already! I fed them a few baby carrots and an apple core and made sure their newspaper bedding stayed dry.
Everything was going well until this morning! CAUTION: Worms on the lam! I woke up to find 15 worms shriveled up into sticks on my laundry room floor. There were 5 more that we rescued just in time. This time we secured the lid to the bin using the attached latches. There were air holes so surely they wouldn't suffocate.
4 hours go by... we return home from an outing to the library and hardware store.
I SHIT YOU NOT- 25 worms all over the bathroom floor, 3 two feet up the wall, 1 on the toilet seat and 1 had made his way into our kitchen!!!!
[insert the quiet sound of Taps being played on a tiny worm-sized bugle]
Where oh where did I go wrong? and better yet, what do I do now?
Did I mention how much worms gross me out? No? Well they do and I use a toothpick to move them from the from one area to another. No, I don't stab them like an appetizer; I just scoop them up and relocate their precious, squirmy selves.
For the moment, they are living in the garage as I try to find a better place for them to live.
I tried... and I failed. I accept my defeat.
I've been sitting in our current house, a rental, missing the process of adding to my bins and knowing that after a few years I could feed all my beautiful flowers. This past Monday I decided this was just plain silly. I should be able to compost no matter where I live! With a little bit of research, a power drill, and some worms; I built a vermicomposting bin.
Being in the dead of winter, I didn't want my wormies to become wormcicles, so of course I stored them in our 1/2 bath downstairs! I knew we wouldn't be expecting any guests in the near future and The Father and I could use some exercise walking up the stairs to the throne. This was so much fun already! I fed them a few baby carrots and an apple core and made sure their newspaper bedding stayed dry.
Everything was going well until this morning! CAUTION: Worms on the lam! I woke up to find 15 worms shriveled up into sticks on my laundry room floor. There were 5 more that we rescued just in time. This time we secured the lid to the bin using the attached latches. There were air holes so surely they wouldn't suffocate.
4 hours go by... we return home from an outing to the library and hardware store.
I SHIT YOU NOT- 25 worms all over the bathroom floor, 3 two feet up the wall, 1 on the toilet seat and 1 had made his way into our kitchen!!!!
[insert the quiet sound of Taps being played on a tiny worm-sized bugle]
Where oh where did I go wrong? and better yet, what do I do now?
Did I mention how much worms gross me out? No? Well they do and I use a toothpick to move them from the from one area to another. No, I don't stab them like an appetizer; I just scoop them up and relocate their precious, squirmy selves.
For the moment, they are living in the garage as I try to find a better place for them to live.
I tried... and I failed. I accept my defeat.
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