pjt
21st December 2014, 01:38 AM
A couple of pics of my cold compost,
334668334667
The pile in the top left is the new compost pile, the pile in the lower right is coarse stuff from off the screen and the stuff in the wheel barrow is just gone cold hot composted grass clippings.
Basically I'm layering green stuff with brown stuff, the green stuff is the Lab Lab bean and corn I recently pulled out, the coarse stuff is what has come off the screen from a previous cold pile and about three wheel barrows of green grass turned into one barrow after hot composting.
Previously stuff like the corn stalks I would have just added to a pile of other stuff and left for a long while, this cold pile I have made a little more purposefully as a result of a few things coming together, chiefly being the screen which is just an old double bed that I raise one end of by hanging it off an old swing set frame, I have also attached an old washing machine motor with an attached offset weight to add some jiggle to the frame so now I can screen out the coarser stuff and add it to a fresh pile to further break down. I also add soil to the pile which has lots of rocks in it so the screening takes the rocks out.
I would have previously just used the cold compost pile when I thought it had broken down enough, the same with the hot composted grass clippings (when cold) and spread it on the soil surface but I sometimes have issues with bugs that like the coarse stuff so now I go thru this screening process which gives me nice fine stuff and less bugs.
And the last pic is the screened fines spread on top of existing soil (no dig by me) (worms do the digging) ready for something to be planted, this area previously had some rough old concrete laid on a base of course rocks so I my aim is to improve the soil such that I can eventually screen all the rocks out, bit of a process but that's the way of it.
Pete
334668334667
The pile in the top left is the new compost pile, the pile in the lower right is coarse stuff from off the screen and the stuff in the wheel barrow is just gone cold hot composted grass clippings.
Basically I'm layering green stuff with brown stuff, the green stuff is the Lab Lab bean and corn I recently pulled out, the coarse stuff is what has come off the screen from a previous cold pile and about three wheel barrows of green grass turned into one barrow after hot composting.
Previously stuff like the corn stalks I would have just added to a pile of other stuff and left for a long while, this cold pile I have made a little more purposefully as a result of a few things coming together, chiefly being the screen which is just an old double bed that I raise one end of by hanging it off an old swing set frame, I have also attached an old washing machine motor with an attached offset weight to add some jiggle to the frame so now I can screen out the coarser stuff and add it to a fresh pile to further break down. I also add soil to the pile which has lots of rocks in it so the screening takes the rocks out.
I would have previously just used the cold compost pile when I thought it had broken down enough, the same with the hot composted grass clippings (when cold) and spread it on the soil surface but I sometimes have issues with bugs that like the coarse stuff so now I go thru this screening process which gives me nice fine stuff and less bugs.
And the last pic is the screened fines spread on top of existing soil (no dig by me) (worms do the digging) ready for something to be planted, this area previously had some rough old concrete laid on a base of course rocks so I my aim is to improve the soil such that I can eventually screen all the rocks out, bit of a process but that's the way of it.
Pete