Quote Originally Posted by Berlin View Post
Pete, I've spread a small amount but most is heaped up into a big pile. I sprinkled a high nitrogen fertiliser between layers and watered it all and will let it hot compost. A lot of it was tree tops so there is a lot of green amongst the wood chip.

I've made a series of smaller piles and am making an experimental grey water filter, a sort of wood chip swale with a piece of ag pipe running through it. In theory the grey water then soaks into the ground behind the swale and the bacteria in the pile mop up the 'grey' while they build my compost. We'll see.

Matt
The grey water filter sounds interesting, it will indeed be interesting to see what happens, at a guess it might depend on how much water is held in the swale, the length of time the water sits there for and probably things like depth of water.
I would reckon for your swale system filter to work as a whole there might need to be consistency with the water level, a constant water level would most likely give you anaerobic (without air) bacteria (like a bog) and only periodical water give you aerobic (with air) bacteria, swapping between the two systems may not be good in too soon a time frame, but that is just a guesstimate by me.


Pete