hoodat
Garden Addicted
Goats and chickens are the world champion composters and produce milk and eggs while they are doing it. You can't get more efficient than that.
Sowing Seed on Compost-in-Place
- Thread starter digitS'
- Start date
ShowMe31
Chillin' In The Garden
I don't milk my goats, unfortunately we never tried. They are pygmys and were purchased to clear a large large amount of brush and undergrowth. We call them the weed and feed crew, LOL!
I have thought a time or two about getting a milk goat. The money-maker in this house doesn't think it's such a good idea. I would like to learn to make soap with it. Ahhhhhh, maybe some day.
I have thought a time or two about getting a milk goat. The money-maker in this house doesn't think it's such a good idea. I would like to learn to make soap with it. Ahhhhhh, maybe some day.
- Thread starter
- #13
digitS'
Garden Master
Here is the 2009 potato bed compost-in-place after 12 months. It grew bok choy late that year, then onions and lettuce this season:
Other than what appear to be melon seeds . . . I can't find anything identifiable in the ground! Well, identifiable in terms of what went in that soil in August of 'o9! My rocks seem a little diluted and there are those worms!
Here is what I tossed in and, basically, what it got in 'o9 -- compostables!
It is a real mix of plant material. About my only compost rule is "no meat and nothing cooked."
Here is what I put on top (It is too late for sowing seed):
This bok choy was thinned and transplanted from the bed shown in the 1st picture on this thread. These are from the last seed sown in that bed.
I like to do this annually but it requires a great deal of compostables and a good deal of digging. I can do this in my smaller garden, however, and have for several years.
Steve :tools
Other than what appear to be melon seeds . . . I can't find anything identifiable in the ground! Well, identifiable in terms of what went in that soil in August of 'o9! My rocks seem a little diluted and there are those worms!
Here is what I tossed in and, basically, what it got in 'o9 -- compostables!
It is a real mix of plant material. About my only compost rule is "no meat and nothing cooked."
Here is what I put on top (It is too late for sowing seed):
This bok choy was thinned and transplanted from the bed shown in the 1st picture on this thread. These are from the last seed sown in that bed.
I like to do this annually but it requires a great deal of compostables and a good deal of digging. I can do this in my smaller garden, however, and have for several years.
Steve :tools
hoodat
Garden Addicted
Different climates demand different methods. In Oklahoma it got so hot that anything I dug into the soil was gone in a month or two. I had to use the deep mulch method and let the jumper worms drag it down into the soil. Even in the deep woods there the leaf litter is no more than two or three inches deep. It just disappears. Large dead limbs from the trees don't last a season on the ground except for pine knots which are so full of pitch nothing decays them.
Here in San Diego coarse compost dug into the soil will last a full growing season and still be there as humus the next year.
Here in San Diego coarse compost dug into the soil will last a full growing season and still be there as humus the next year.
- Thread starter
- #15
digitS'
Garden Master
I bet that's right, Hoodie.
Our soil here is frozen to the depth I am digging for several months each winter. If I dig into this bed in the Spring, I will find things much as they are now - I've done that. So, I'm a little surprised that it all disappears (or nearly so) in 12 months. It is, however, all green matter at this time of the year.
Soon, I will use very mature garden plants that the frost has killed. Below, is what that material looks like after a year. It isn't entirely gone, by any means!
S'
. . . . zinnias, if i remember right.
Our soil here is frozen to the depth I am digging for several months each winter. If I dig into this bed in the Spring, I will find things much as they are now - I've done that. So, I'm a little surprised that it all disappears (or nearly so) in 12 months. It is, however, all green matter at this time of the year.
Soon, I will use very mature garden plants that the frost has killed. Below, is what that material looks like after a year. It isn't entirely gone, by any means!
S'
. . . . zinnias, if i remember right.
