Composting | Inspecting Some Neglected Compost Piles
Channel: JBro Gardening
Date: 2020-03-13

This is a quick video from my phone as I start to dig around and inspect these compost piles.  There are three next to each other at the community garden where I recently rented a plot in San Luis Obispo, CA.

The one on the right had a lot of larger branches and big plants.  It was dominated by a bunch of four foot high broccoli plants.  They smell like crap when breaking down!  Anyway...

In the middle box was a lot of weeds piled up.  It looks the most promising for having good hummus underneath.  The far left box was the smallest.  I started pitchforking through it first.

It's a community, urban garden, so there was trash buried in it to remove, mostly recyclables.  Nothing that would contaminate it luckily.

When first attacking old compost piles, I want to organize the contents if possible.  The three box setup was perfect for this.

I cleared out the trash, rose branches, and berries that had thorns from the small side.  I put the branches and wood pieces to the side and the larger plants went into the large compost pile on the right.

The weeds that will quickly break down went into the middle pile.  I wanted to get some of the good composted material on the other piles to introduce the microbes that will help them start breaking down more quickly.

I turned all three piles as best I could in the amount of time I had.  It was a good start.  I am going to sift out the best hummus next and mix it with the soil mound on my garden plot.

I will get the small pile cleared out and start moving the pile from the middle to the left.  That is phase 1 and I will plan from there as I go!  If you read this far, you are awesome and dedicated!  Good luck to your gardens.