composting methods and why i do what i do

[flowerbug]

preaching zone ahead... you've been warned...

rule 1. keep it simple
rule 2. if you can get it done for less work, yay
rule 3. have fun
rule 4. laugh and make mud pies once in a while too
rule 5. naps if needed
rule 6. gardens? this was supposed to be about gardens?
rule 7. there is no rule 7...
etc.

hot composting works, but for those who like to do the quick method as often described do a lot of fiddling. and while i think it is great fun to learn about rotting and how to do various kinds of it, i don't want to play with the compost pile all the time.

i don't have any animal wastes other than those deposited on the fly or hoof by wild creatures. in the spring/early summer i go around and move the deer and rabbit poops off the crushed limestone and into the nearby garden. that is all i do.

inside the house the worms deal with the food and veggie scraps and also any paper scraps. that is worm composting. they are my best pals when it comes down to the gardens. always working and refurbishing some garden soil for me each year (about 200lbs worth each season).

if i were doing human poop composting i would probably want a hot pile for that but there's a good chance that it also works out using a slow method too (as long as the water table doesn't get too high). if i had a big enough basement i'd do worm buckets for that too - i think they'd do a great job given enough time.

so when it comes down to actually composting anything here the method i use is a slow composting method called burying. aka, dig a hole, put it in there, put dirt back over it. let it be for a few years, come back and dig it up if i need it.

for some people digging isn't easy, but if you have kids or someone with a machine you can have them dig a trench for you that is big enough for what you might do in a season and then you can fill it back in as you go. next season put another trench next to it. in a few years, come back and have them stir the original trench up.

my other considerations are that hot composting gives off heat which to me is energy lost, it also has a lot of fast bacteria and fungi rotting things down, and to me that can happen at a much slower pace in the ground itself.

so for those who've actually read this far, what other reasons would you pick one composting method over another?

the above is what works for me. i spend far more time with the worm composting but that is because i really enjoy seeing how the worms break things down and the rest of the soil community (springtails, pill bugs, millipedes, ...) that can cohabitate with them in a bucket. in the middle of winter it's nice to have some dirt to play in once in a while.

ok, i think that's it for now.

 

[Just-Moxie]

I love composting. I actually started learning it, in 1990..way down in the sand of Mississippi. That's all there was there...sand. Well, we rented a little trailer spot off base, down the road...and I wanted to garden. I had 3 kids by then, and the garden would be an excellent teacher! And fun too.

Well, we needed soil. So I started a compost pile. It grew and grew....and made some beautiful compost. And huge worms. And of course, the compost contributed to a very lucious and edible garden.

My children had a blast learning about composting, gardening, and all of the critters that live in them.
I hope they learned from the experience.

PS; I have since taught this husband about composting. Even though he will be an ex sometime in the future.

 

[Beekissed]

If composting waste matter is labor intensive, I don't do it. I like simple. I do hot composting in my chicken coop for various reasons...it creates heat there that keeps the chickens warmer in the winter(usually a steady 10* warmer at roost level than outside temps), it's a great way to utilize their waste, it eliminates smells in the coop, it creates a healthier fungal and bacteria growth in the their environment, it gives them foraging opportunities in there all year, it's a great way to get some free compost for the garden that I don't have to move around much...just deposit materials in there, remove materials out of there...end of loop.

I let that cool off in the summer months, pretty much scooping out the winter compost for garden uses, then start building it back up again in late summer and into the fall. They are out on the land all day during the warmer months, so I just keep less of a mass under the roosts, but still am composting the manure deposited there.

I also do a more cold composting of leaf, wood chip and hay in my hoops around the base of my apple saplings...just layer it in there in the fall and winter, come spring I plant something there, harvest it later, the chickens come along and kick out the compost that is left while foraging for bugs and such, then I start again.

Another type of composting I'm doing is on the garden...about the only place that I do it that involves much labor. I applied deep ramial wood chips there for 3 yrs hand running, but found it too hard to source them, so moved to mulch hay this fall. MUCH easier to transport(they load it for you), roll off the truck or trailer, cut the twine and roll it out in a sheet on the garden. Done and done. We'll see how well it composts down and how much top soil it can create for me over the years.

This year I'll also be building a lasagna type compost in hay bale raised beds...one is already started with wood chips, hay, leaves, cardboard, leaves, then more hay. Will continue to build on that until I fill it. The other is yet to be formed and I'll layer in material in that one as the potatoes grow there, sort of utilizing it like a huge container type of spud growing. We'll see if that pays off.

Great thread, BTW!

 

[ducks4you]

If composting waste matter is labor intensive, I don't do it.

Agreed!!!
I have absolutely NO time in my life to turn a pile of compost!!!
DD noticed how nice it smelled last Spring when I tilled a compost pile to use in the garden. I have been dumping stall waste that is almost exclusively manure and straw into this same spot to use next Spring.
OH!!!! NEWS!!!!
My friend/neighbor who bought the zombie foreclosure across the street has promised me all of the brick from the old fireplace flue!!!!! My not forgotten dreams of creating a hotbed continue! I even have the spot selected, south side of the garage, where I have been removing blackberries.

 

[flowerbug]

@Beekissed what you describe about your chickens in the winter is what i've heard called deep bedding. which i agree is a good way to keep things warmer for the animals. my first exposure to this method was in reading Joel Salatin's books about how he would keep his cows for the winter. he'd go in once in a while, scatter shelled corn and then put down another layer of bedding. by spring it would be fairly deep. he'd turn the cows out to pasture and then have the pigs go in and they would root through the bedding to get at the corn in there. so they did the rooting and turning of the compost for him.

by hotbed do you mean coldframe? i'm not sure what that term means (i do know what a coldframe is )...

 

[Beekissed]

@Beekissed what you describe about your chickens in the winter is what i've heard called deep bedding. which i agree is a good way to keep things warmer for the animals. my first exposure to this method was in reading Joel Salatin's books about how he would keep his cows for the winter. he'd go in once in a while, scatter shelled corn and then put down another layer of bedding. by spring it would be fairly deep. he'd turn the cows out to pasture and then have the pigs go in and they would root through the bedding to get at the corn in there. so they did the rooting and turning of the compost for him.

by hotbed do you mean coldframe? i'm not sure what that term means (i do know what a coldframe is )...

Well....sorta. Deep bedding in the chicken world is just deep bedding that one uses sort of like a diaper. When it's heavily soiled and heavy with moisture, people clean it out and pile it up, letting it compost outside, then replace new deep bedding in the coop.

Deep composting litter, on the other hand, is creating a composting process of the fecal matter while the litter is still in the coop and it remains in there for years...one never cleans it out entirely, but just gleans from it for the garden. It's sort of used like sourdough bread starter, wherein you remove what you need but always leave some behind to jump start the new materials you deposit there. My current DL was started back in '12 and I've been using it and building it since then.

Salatin uses this method in the winter months for his cattle. I've been to his place and picked up the finished compost in my hands...it's dry and light as a feather, has no smell except humus. That's exactly what my composted litter is like when I take it out in the spring...lightweight, perfect compost, ready to apply to the garden without worries of the litter burning anything due to a high nitrogen level.

I too don't know what a hotbed is...never heard that expression? But looked it up and this is what I found....and I LOVE this idea for growing peppers here. My soil stays too cool under my mulch layers to grow peppers well here, but if they were grown in a hot bed they'd do fine! From what it says, the hay bales I'm using for my raised beds this year would make a perfect hot bed.

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/compost-hot-bed-76490.html

 

[flowerbug]

@Beekissed are there worms in there? i suppose the chickens would scratch for them if they were there...

i like reading his books and stories. but i don't run cattle or chickens or anything so i have to do a much simpler version of cycling nutrients, but it works, the gardens get better each season even if i can't run them exactly the way i'd want. they're still getting better. some gardens when i started out you couldn't find a worm in them at all. now the ones i've been working on, they're starting to keep worms going.

 

[valley ranch]

Quote Moxies chickenu PS: I have since taught this husband about composting. Even though he will be an ex sometime in the future.



That don't good```

 

[digitS']

I'm with you, FlowerBug.

Maybe not precisely but, habitually:

https://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/sowing-seed-on-compost-in-place.7134/

Steve

 

[Beekissed]

@Beekissed are there worms in there? i suppose the chickens would scratch for them if they were there...

i like reading his books and stories. but i don't run cattle or chickens or anything so i have to do a much simpler version of cycling nutrients, but it works, the gardens get better each season even if i can't run them exactly the way i'd want. they're still getting better. some gardens when i started out you couldn't find a worm in them at all. now the ones i've been working on, they're starting to keep worms going.

Yes, there are worms in there, though the earthworms stay too low in the soil underneath the mass for the chickens to reach. I don't encourage them to dig through the middle of my mass, though they do tear at the edges of it a good bit. The worms they will find the most in there are a type of meal worm, plus darkling beetles, and any sundry of bugs and beetles that find the mass a warm place and a source of nutrients.

I used to like Salatin's books and have implemented a few of his good ideas, but I lost all respect for him after seeing his place and meeting him. I'm no longer a huge fan. Gots a lot of good ideas for pasture and animal management in his books, but that's about it.