Composting leaves

[allabout]

When I first began my compost bin I thought the higher it was the better it was!!! I crammed my autumn leaves in there four feet high! Problem was it was taking forever for this to compost.

To reduce the size of your leaf pile and hasten composting you must shread your leaves with a mulcher, or like me, with your lawn-mower. When you place these shreaded leaves into your compost remember to include a shovelful of soil every few inces to add the bacteria necessary for decomposition. It is amazing the difference you will see when doing this.

Now, off to gather those leaves!!

 

[sparks]

Or throw them in the chicken run and they will really get them started for you!

 

[allabout]

oh yes!! I'm so far behind on my fall cleanup.....the leaves are everywhere. They have their share to work on too!

 

[Mikeeeeeeeeee]

oh yes!! I'm so far behind on my fall cleanup.....the leaves are everywhere. They have their share to work on too!

What is fall cleanup? Sounds like a dirty word to me.

Hi Claudia...........

 

[allabout]

Mikeeeee!!!! My favorite BYC buddy!! With your wooded 5+ acres of woods you can teach us about leaves.

Okay, on your message this morning you said you were going to do raised beds. What you going to plant....annuals, veg...whats the plan? If you already have the beds in place then throw some shreaded leaves in there.

My compost bin is my pride!!! You can lift up the black soil and the worms are everywhere. Beautiful red worms. I didn't have a big appreciation for what I was doing until I took five gallon buckets of the stuff to amend my clay/rocky soil. WOW!!

 

[Mikeeeeeeeeee]

Mikeeeee!!!! My favorite BYC buddy!! With your wooded 5+ acres of woods you can teach us about leaves.

Okay, on your message this morning you said you were going to do raised beds. What you going to plant....annuals, veg...whats the plan? If you already have the beds in place then throw some shreaded leaves in there.

My compost bin is my pride!!! You can lift up the black soil and the worms are everywhere. Beautiful red worms. I didn't have a big appreciation for what I was doing until I took five gallon buckets of the stuff to amend my clay/rocky soil. WOW!!

My raised beds are made with 2x10 lumber.
They measure 4' x 8'.

I found a lady on freecycle that keeps horses and had a bunch of hay to get wet. U cant feed wet hay to horses.
So, I have been getting it and mixing it with chicken poop in my 1st raised bed. Leaves have not been added as of yet. I have a chicken tractor that measures 2 under 4 x 8 so that I can sit it inside the raised beds. Then you leave it there for about a month and they will till and fertilize for you.
Move it to the next bed and plant the one it was on.
My gardening will be the 3 sisters garden. Corn, peas, squash. Read here.

 

[Madfarner]

Dry leaves are going to be slow to compost by themselves--not enough nitrogen. The optimum ratio is 30:1, carbon to nitrogen. Add some fresh manure.

Madfarmer

 

[thedeacon]

Ialways let my grass grow a little longer as the leaves are falling. I then mow the green grass and shred the brown leaves at the same time. Rather than having layers, I now have a mixture. Oh ya, I also layer in chick poop and rotting apples and a shovel of plain old dirt every now and then