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tagsI have no special composting rig at all. Just a pile of stuff near the fence in the back yard.
My method of composting is labor intensive. Every week, I pretty much pick up the entire pile and move it 10 feet to the left or right. After moving about half the pile, I'll inject the pail of kitchen scraps, then continue to cover them.
Last week, the additions included some woefully old gourds and decorative pumpkins. Apparently still containing viable seeds, which ended up about 2 feet into the pile.
If you compost a pumpkin, chances are, you're growing pumpkins.
I also get to really see what's going on in the pile. With the recent rains, and all the warmth, plus all the aforementioned coffee grounds, the worm activity is increasing significantly.
This guy got churned up to the top during the pitchforking exercise.
When I was done, I noticed a moth flitting about, and I'd never been successful with bug photography, so I chased him for about 15 minutes.
Responses
Aaron really wants to get one of those off the ground tumbler composters....we'll see.
Compositing is also just a form of meditation and exercise for me. Me, the dogs, and the pitchfork. Better than lawn-mowing, since there's no blaring engine to content with.
In my mind at least, by forking the whole pile to a new location, I'm ensuring that the whole thing is thoroughly and completely mixed. Anything that was on the top ends up on the bottom. Stuff from the bottom ends up on top.
It seems to keep pretty good moisture distribution, plus it gives me a really good chance to embed new edibles into the middle of the pile. That's important when there's 140 pounds of dogs running lose in the yard, with a pair of really good noses.
And Moses just loves apples. He doesn't care if they have some mold on them.
Gotta bury'em deep.
I'm new to composting and very new to gardening altogether, but I can't wait until next year.
The main reason I went this route was because of my dog. I'd start keeping just a free stack in the back of my yard but he would utterly destroy it.
I'm still experimenting, but it decomposes really quickly in this rig. The first weekend I stuffed it completely and by the next weekend it was half down. So far I've mainly been adding grass clippings and vegetable scraps. Every so often I give it a spin or two to keep it mixed.
I'd looked previously at buying something similar but they were pretty costly ($150-200 locally).
I'll keep everyone posted on how it goes. My big question right now is if I should let a batch cook down and store it somehow or just keep adding materials in.