Comments on: All you need to know about compost and composting

By: admin

admin — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:03:07 +0000

Ben, thanks for droppin in my man!
“My lot ignited one summer all of its own accord, the bacteria really get excited when the moisture is just right, the nutrients are just right, the temperature is just right, and the microbes go ballistic! Almost caught on a nearby tree. That would’a been bad.”
Can I ask you a question please? Are you just trying to say that your compost pile caught on fire? And this was where again Ben? In Central Vic, in the great South land of Oz? Uh, huh, I see…I think?
No Ben, I’m picking at you buddy! I thought you comments were funny, and I do LOVE to laugh! Thanks, they were great!
Seriously though you did bring up a good point in regards to composting. It will catch fire, no doubt, and sounds from your experience you got lucky! I’ve never had a compost pile before Ben, and I take your advise with all intent on watching this pretty closely. Here in Fla. there are a lot of old dried up lake bottoms. Sometimes these things start to burn, and it goes into underground peat caverns, and it keeps burning along underground. Kinda like coal mines I think, an their underground fires.
Anyway, I will keep it pretty damp through our heat periods, and I appreciate you taking the time to comment! Also, because of you, I was out there today, turnin that motha!
Please keep readin, come back and see us more often!
D&D

By: admin

admin — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:43:52 +0000

Mississippi…what’s up? Thanks for helping out, you’re great!
Crossing fences, on posted land I’m sure, hand shovel in hand, copping cow pies, while husband hangs his head in shame? Sound just like my kind a woman!! Where have all the REAL women gone?? LOL!!
Seriously, thanks for all your help Sandra, okay? We’ll be talking to you.
D&D

By: admin

admin — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:37:55 +0000

Hey Linda! Thanks for ALL your input, it’s greatly appreciated! I’m really kickin myself in the rear for not starting this (composting) earlier. Got manure, got leaves, got grass clippings, hay, vegetable scraps, soil…. but never took advantage of them. Big changes going to start taking place here! Old dog, but learning new tricks!
Thanks for reading, and you come back and visit with anytime, we’d love to hear from you!
D&D

By: Ben

Ben — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 04:37:25 +0000

Hi, guys.
Love your page, started out readin’ ya on CFP. Now, here is the place.
Like yerselves I like the remote locale, got twenty acres on a small basalt hill in central Vic, in the great south land of Oz.
Compostin’! Well, there’s an interestin’ process. One thing to watch for – in the summer, better keeping it a bit wetter than usual. My lot ignited one summer all of its own accord, the bacteria really get excited when the moisture is just right, the nutrients are just right, the temperature is just right, and the microbes go ballistic! Almost caught on a nearby tree. That would’a been bad. Other approach is turn it more regularly, that is where I messed up, wasn’t doing it, and whoof! Well, not quite, but it sure took some putting out, despite the moisture already in it.

Cheers.

By: Sandra

Sandra — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:16:14 +0000

To Linda
You sound like my kind of girl. Composting leaves. We have loads of hardwood trees where I live. It used to take a long time to break them down for use in my garden and I would just use them for mulch. My yard and garden center started carrying a product called cotton burr compost. It is very high in nitrogen and works like a manure. Since I no longer have access to manure I use this and it works quite well. I am a fairly laid back gardener and looked for easier ways to enjoy this hobby as I have gotten older. Try Lasagna gardening. I did Lasagna gardening when I broke my digging foot and it worked out quite well. To Orion 777, moved away from the horse farm to city suburbia, lost all my manure connections. Now traveling, I keep a little plastic bag and a hand shovel at the ready and when we pass a cattle pasture I am over the fence copping cow pies. My husband stops for me, but hangs his head in shame.

By: Linda

Linda — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:30:35 +0000

We subscribe to the compost heap idea. Our land is pretty much pure sand, except for the garden. Twenty years of pouring any kind of organic matter we could scrounge was tilled into the garden. When we first moved here, after watering the garden area we would sink to our knees if we tried to walk across it. Now, we can actually walk on it, wet or dry, and moisture stays a bit longer in the ground.

Our compost heap is whatever size it decides to be. We add horse and/or cow manure, leaves, grass clippings, wood chips and whatever else we find. My husband came up with the brilliant idea of tilling the compost heap with the roto-tiller, rather than turning by hand. If it spreads too much, we simply push it back up with the atv blade. I try to keep a balance of green vs. brown matter in the heap. Since we have a never-ending supply of manure, we have to resist the temptation to let it get out of balance. Our soil pH is very high, since we live in the west, and we are always looking for compostable items to lower the pH, although finished compost in and of itself, is the very best additive to balance pH. I belong to an online freecycle group in this area. The members who live in the city are coming to know me as the lady who will collect bagged leaves from them. Although we have many trees on our property, we can never have enough leaves to add to our compost heap. I pile them up, chew them up with the riding mower, and mix into the compost pile. They compost sooner if first broken into smaller pieces.