I keep a large hot pile of compost in the city.

[Veggie PAK]

My mother and grandmother both used compost piles for their gardens, so how could I not do the same?

Although I live in a large metropolitan area, I manage to have a tremendous compost "facility". A compost tumbler just wouldn't work for me, so I constructed my own area. Initially, I turned the compost every day and checked the temperature. The resources for feeding it are all around me, especially the day before trash day when everyone puts out their bags of grass clippings or leaves. I look for elm or walnut leaves in the bags before I take them. If I find them, I leave the bags there. I have become selective in my approach to picking up the grass clippings too. I take the greenest ones I find and toss them into the back of my truck. I've processed as many as 9 bags of grass clippings at a time, blending it into my compost pile with my great uncle's old hay fork. When you mix the clippings with the compost material you already have, it is SO much better than layering it. I'm a firm believer in turning the compost every three or four days to get the oxygen into the pile. It seems to work well for me. I get a LARGE batch of compost ready for use in about every 30 to 45 days.

I have tried the compost recipes where you turn it every three days and after 15 days you have usable compost. It works, but I like it composted a little more than that. For leaves and grass clippings that works fine because they're not too coarse and they break down easily.

I kept records of my composting adventures and assembled them and made a blog post that you can visit to see it. I think it's pretty neat. The address is:

http://backyardorganicvegetables.blogspot.com/2011/02/evolution-of-my-composting-area.html

 

[digitS']

Wow, what a comprehensive look at your composting!

Besides the details, I also like how you showed us what didn't work quite so well and then how the structures and techniques came together for great results.

And of course, the pictures with the grandkids are wonderful!

Steve

 

[lesa]

Very nicely done!! I find composting to be one of the most fascinating parts of gardening. How cool is that we can make dirt??

 

[Collector]

Veggie, I really enjoyed your composting blog! My composting setup is is subpar to say the most about it, lucky if it gets turned once per month (sad but true). I enjoyed all your pix of various states of decomp, shows what one can accomplish with some elbow grease added. I also like that you use family members tools I do the same thing, and think about them every time I use them. Maybe I will start to pay more attention to my compost heap or at least try and turn it once per week. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Veggie PAK]

One of the main reasons that I'm so into composting is that I read that if you distribute six 5 gallon buckets of cured compost in each 100 square feet of garden space, you don't have to rotate your crops because of the beneficial micro-organisms taking care of things in the soil that can adversly affect your plants. Consequently, I have to make a lot of compost but I really believe it's worth it. Plus, the nutrients in the compost are in a form that makes it very easy for the plants to take up.

Collector, I just love using the old family tools! I think of my folks that I actually new when I was a little boy, but they have long ago passed on. But I'm still able to use the tools they grasped in their hands to grow food to live on during the depression. I have a wooden "D" handled shovel with my Great Uncle John's initials and the year 1937 carved into the handle. How neat is that? I wish everyone thought this way. Maybe people would appreciate things and each other more than they do today.

 

[thistlebloom]

Nicely documented Veggie', and inspiring too.
I noticed particularly how you check for elm and walnut leaves before you pick the bags up, I assume it's because of the allelopathic compounds they contain?
I have access to lots of leaves in the fall, and I run them through my shredder then till them into my beds and let them sit through the winter. I have brought home hundreds of pounds of horsechestnut leaves and processed them this way, then in my winter readings I discovered they contain allelopaths! That could explain part of my gardens poor performance last year. Do you have any idea how long they hang around in the soil?
This year, horse chestnut leaves won't be coming home with me.
Also, I was wondering about the grass clippings you use, I've always been a bit wary of them because of the use of weed and feeds that get applied to lawns, any thoughts on that?
Thanks for sharing your information, now if I hurry I'll have time to turn my pile before I go to work!

 

[Veggie PAK]

Nicely documented Veggie', and inspiring too.
I noticed particularly how you check for elm and walnut leaves before you pick the bags up, I assume it's because of the allelopathic compounds they contain?
I have access to lots of leaves in the fall, and I run them through my shredder then till them into my beds and let them sit through the winter. I have brought home hundreds of pounds of horsechestnut leaves and processed them this way, then in my winter readings I discovered they contain allelopaths! That could explain part of my gardens poor performance last year. Do you have any idea how long they hang around in the soil?
This year, horse chestnut leaves won't be coming home with me.
Also, I was wondering about the grass clippings you use, I've always been a bit wary of them because of the use of weed and feeds that get applied to lawns, any thoughts on that?
Thanks for sharing your information, now if I hurry I'll have time to turn my pile before I go to work!

While I'm not sure how long the allelopaths hang around in the soil, if I were in your situation, I would get as many neutral leaves as I could and shred them then till them into the soil 2 or 3 times before winter this year. I would also try to get as many lawn clippings as I could, spread them out, and till them in as well. My thought is to try to dilute the allelopaths in the soil before planting time. Given your situation at hand, I would sure begin turning my pile regularly so I could use it to counteract the allelopaths.

As far as the grass clippings go, I read somewhere that in an active compost pile, any weed-n-feed types of products get dissipated with the activity of the pile. Frequent turning eliminates any "pockets" of undisturbed product, thus allowing the composting process to neutralize them. I like turning it every three or four days. That's very effective! By the way, I don't put any shredded wood in my pile because it takes so long to decompose.

 

[thistlebloom]

Well thanks Veggie', I'll definitely do that. The garden in that area seems to be doing a bit better this year. I didn't shred as many leaves last fall since I worked right up until the snow came ( and it came early! ) so I mostly just spread them on top of the beds I had tilled. When I found out about the horse chestnut leaves I raked them off the beds as soon as I could in the spring. I do have some in my big pile of leaf mold in the making, a large pile of mixed leaves that I'm letting sit for several years. Do you think the allelopaths will leach out or decompose by the time I use it? I'm thinking it will probably sit for about two or three more years.

 

[gardentoad]

I too enjoyed your compost information. Right now I am using a tumbler, but after reading your post I am giving though to a bigger pile
As we will be only containers next year we will need to give our plants as much help as possible. We have very hard clay here, and I can no longer run a tiller, so we will do container.

I only have one ole tool that gives me pleasure when I use it..it't not for garden but for fence building a post driver that my 3older brother all used and mom would stand at the end of the fence and give directions.. Days gone bye if we could only get a few of them back.


Don weather guesser says 107 today sure wish he would be wrong

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Loved the blog. Question, my biggest compost pile is cooling, only reaches 120 -110 degrees (was reaching 150). My second pile is still getting about 140+ and I started a third pile today although I am wishing that I had just added it to my second to make a monster sized pile. The first pile is only about half broken down. It looks a lot like compost but I can still tell some areas are from grass or shredded bedding. Should I add more green to try to heat it more or just keep turning it for another couple weeks then let it cool for a month or so. This pile is very large and I am hoping to use it for my garlic and maybe fall broccoli. This is the one I started in the spring and was adding to until about 3 weeks ago. The other two piles I am not rushing because I will just use them next year and just keep adding to them for the rest of the summer. I am turning them every 2-3 days.

I have never had a hot compost pile before this so this is all new. My daughter loves helping with it also. She likes to take the temps and helps with "feeding the compost breakfast".