From: ted.jensen@spacebbs.com (Ted Jensen) 
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Subject: lazy composting
Date: 15 Sep 92 17:12:00 GMT
Distribution: world
Organization: SPACE BBS - Menlo Park, CA - 10 Lines + 4gB - 415-323-4193
Reply-To: ted.jensen@spacebbs.com (Ted Jensen) 



  amz@iguana.cis.ohio-state.edu (Arnold M Zwicky) writes:

>back at the beginning of labor day weekend i was mining compost to
>build up some beds for the fall crop of lettuce (which is now up and
>looking good, thank you) when i began to reflect once again on the
>differences between our household's approach to composting and the way
>more industrious - i was about to type "normal" - gardeners do these
>things.  (mining compost is a soothing enterprise and tends to lead
>to reflection, or at least it does me.  it's also a chance to get
>scandalously dirty, with only good earthy smells nevertheless, so it's
>great play too.  and people ask why i garden!)

Well, I set up one of these round plastic compost containers one
sees in various hardware stores for about ten bucks a little less
than a year ago.  At the time, laying on the ground under my
bottle brush trees, I had lots of dead leaves and needle like
droppings from the blossoms.  Most of this stuff had been there
for over a year.  The leaves were dried out and brown, not green
at all.

I mixed in some composted steer manure (purchased in a plastic
sack from a local nursery) some kitchen scraps and a little green
stuff from the yard.  The temperature got up over a hundred
degrees for a few days.  When it dropped I turned the pile and it
went up again, though not quite as high.  Turning it once a week
I observed that with each turn, while the temperature rose, the
maximum kept getting smaller.  Adding some more composted steer
manure helped some.

After about 3 months I "harvested" some compost by using a screen
I made.  I have done this on and off since.  However, it seems
that while that which I get is okay, i.e. it doesn't smell and it
is absorbent, it doesn't look like compost I have seen come out
of other piles.  It looks more like just plain dirt (though not
as "clay like" as most of the stuff around here.

I have tried adding (was it Sulfate of Ammonia? ... anyway, high
nitrogen content) fertilizer, "compost helpers" which supposedly
contained bacteria to aid breakdown, etc.  I have probably had it
too wet at times, too dry at times, and occasionaly just moist
enough.  And while I _do_ get some material, I don't think a
single one of those original bone dry leaves from the bottle
brush tree has decomposed.  I _know_ there is egg shell material
in there that looks almost the same as it did when I started the
pile.  I add coffee grounds regularly, but have avoided other
kitchen debris for some time now.  Maybe I will have to go back
to adding more of that.

In any case, I am interested in a little more detail about how
_you_ go about "mining" your compost.  And, of course, any help
from others that might read this as to how to increase the rate
of decomposition of those old dried up leaves.

I suspect I need some raw (un-composted, un-treated) horse or
steer manure.  I have heard that chicken manure works wonders.
The problem is that I don't really want to go out searching for a
chicken ranch and then transport that stuff in my automobile and
I don't have a pickup so I could keep it out in the back while
moving it.

Any ideas?  Anyone?


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