| |
THIS GARDENER'S FALL HARVEST: COMPOST
To most gardeners, "harvesting" connotes picking armfuls of squash, tomatoes, carrots or some other garden vegetable or fruit crop.
Recently, I "harvested" my first crop of compost and it was an even more satisfying experience than the many vegetable, fruit and flower harvests I have reaped over the years.
Shortly after I moved to a new home in Carver County in 1993, a three-man construction crew (my father, my son and I) built a two-compartment wood frame-and-wire cloth compost bin. Each compartment is 4-ft. square and 3-ft. high. Building the actual bin was a fun project in itself. For years, I have wanted to compost but - on the postage-stamp size lot at my Minneapolis home - I had neither sufficient room for a compost bin, nor sufficient "stuff" to put in it.
Shortly after my new compost bins were set in place, I began filling them with oak leaves (my house is surrounded by mature red and bur oaks), grass clippings (collected before I traded my city "bagging" mower for a recycler model), vegetable and fruit scraps and coffee grounds from the kitchen (we don't have a garbage disposal), and any other green or brown plant material I wanted to get rid of from my new home site.
Every couple of weeks, I used a 4-tine pitchfork to turn over the bins' contents. I kept the more "mature" contents in the right compartment and added newer material to the left side.
Very little decomposition occurred during the winter months of 1993-94. But as spring turned to summer, the mixture of plant materials began responding to the rain, heat and humidity and gradually decomposed into a fragrant (in an earthy sort of way) pile of gardening potential.
Finally, in late September, I declared my first crop of compost "mature" and transferred it to two old 30-gallon garbage cans moved from the city and a half dozen smaller containers.
What will I do with these eight containers of "potential," you ask? Good question.
I have already used a couple of the smaller containers of compost for planting two blueberry bushes. Compost is ideal for this application because blueberries require a low-pH (acidic) soil. My soil tends towards a neutral pH so I mixed up a planting mix of black dirt, peat moss and 50 pounds of compost to help the blueberries feel at home.
Another key use for the compost will come next spring when I transplant annuals and perennials to outdoor beds and pots. Compost is also ideal as an additive to garden soil and around the base of newly planted trees.
One fun aspect of composting is watching the transformation that takes place inside the bin. This fall, I filled both bins to capacity with leaves and other yard wastes. By next spring, the piles will have shrunk to less than a third of their current size. I'm sure the ratio of input to output must be at least 10:1 - you need to add a lot of "stuff," in other words, to produce a crop of compost.
If you don't presently compost your leaves and other yard wastes, I suggest you give it a try - it's a fun project, and you'll feel like your labors are well rewarded when you "harvest" your first batch of natural, rich, healthy, organic compost!
For information on getting started with your own compost pile, pick up a brochure from your county extension office.
|
|
|
 |
| |
|
 |
| |
PUTTING DOWN ROOTS:
A Delightful Blend of
Gardening Wisdom, Wit
and Whimsy
$10 + $2 for shipping
by Cliff Johnson |
 |
 |
| |
|
