Composting, gardening, etc...I have a few questions!

[Dayle in Guatemala]

Dh and I have been talking for a while about container gardening on our upstairs patio area since it's pretty much wasted space and we'd love to use it wisely. We also want to plant in our back yard area, but, the soil will need some TLC and composting is a good way to do that and decrease our garbage since we do use a LOT of fresh veggies and fruit and can compost the waste.

 

I started reading the book Radical Homemakers and LOVE IT!!!!! It has inspired me to stop talking about it and start doing it. Love this book.

 

Anyway, what do I need to begin composting, a large garbage can is one thing on the list, but, what else? Also, has anyone container gardened before that can give me some great tips? What kinds of plants (veggies) work well in containers and which don't? How did you make the containers? We were thinking wood and garden liner would work. How raised should they be or can they just sit right on the floor of the patio if there is sufficient drainage?

 

Thank you!:001_smile:

[MomOfOneFunOne]

I don't know about most of that, Dayle, but as far as composting goes, you don't need anything especially if you plan to garden.

 

You can mark off the space you intend to garden next year and start composting in that very spot. Google trench composting. Here's a start: http://organicgardening.about.com/od/compost/a/trenchcompost.htm

 

If you don't want to do that, you just need a space.

 

If you have animals, you can put a fence around it. This is what we do b/c of our pets and other animals. I got 4 pallets, stood them on end to make a box, and wired them together. Pallets are free all over (in these parts) b/c there is farm country in the surrounding areas and a lot of feed is delivered on pallets. This is what a pallet is:

Oh, wow! it posted the whole pic! Well, I stood mine on end and wired them together. One side is more loosely attached so I can open it to get the compost.

[Sue G in PA]

I know nothing about composting but am starting a garden this spring as well. I love the new Square Foot Gardening book. I don't know how readily available peat moss, vermiculite and compost in a bag is where you are, but the author suggest a "formula" of those 3. You can build a 4x4 "box" without a bottom and 6 inches high and fill it with this formula and plant. That way you don't have to get your soil ready for planting. You can build higher boxes for veggies that grow down. I'm so excited to start this.

[helena]

I built a compost by using plastic chicken wire, plastic pull tabs (to close it into a circle), and wooden stakes to anchor it. I think I need to buy a pitch fork, because it's hard to turn the contents.

 

It was so easy to make, and it filled up quickly. I did layers 6" green, 6" brown, pee (:tongue_smilie:), and food scraps through the week. I turn it weekly, and once I buy the right tool, I'll do it more often.

 

I'm having a hard time believing that it's going to work. I look at it and think, "I've just built a trash pile". I'm also having a hard time believing that something so easy to make will work..

If I stick with this, I'd like to build a nicer compost using the wood pallets.

 

There might be something helpful here for container gardening: http://www.earthbox.com/

[Spy Car]

Over the years I've come to the conclusion that (if you have the out of sight space) it is much easier to just have a pile or piles. Actively managed containerized may (or may not) compost faster, but even for a big strong guy they require a good amount of hard physical labor. Better I think to build up a good pile and let nature do it's thing.

 

Bill

[helena]

Over the years I've come to the conclusion that (if you have the out of sight space) it is much easier to just have a pile or piles. Actively managed containerized may (or may not) compost faster, but even for a big strong guy they require a good amount of hard physical labor. Better I think to build up a good pile and let nature do it's thing.

 

Bill

 

So I could pull off the chicken wire, and just stir it around every other day? Do I keep adding food scraps?

[keptwoman]

I don't know about most of that, Dayle, but as far as composting goes, you don't need anything especially if you plan to garden.

 

You can mark off the space you intend to garden next year and start composting in that very spot. Google trench composting. Here's a start: http://organicgardening.about.com/od/compost/a/trenchcompost.htm

This is how I compost, the compost breaks down so much quicker than it would in a pile, if the scraps are 5-6" under the soil, you can plant on top of it pretty much immediately. I've never had much luck with compost piles doing what they ought, trench composting (well more "dig a hole and plonk it in" here) is the bee's knees.

[Spy Car]

So I could pull off the chicken wire, and just stir it around every other day? Do I keep adding food scraps?

 

You could keep adding scraps, maybe dig them in a bit, and walk away. As long as it stays somewhat moist and it is not so compacted that it gets little air, nature will do its thing. Maybe slower than an actively managed pile, but way less work. The deeper the pile the better it seems to work.

 

Bill (a lazy composter)

[KS_]

Also, has anyone container gardened before that can give me some great tips? What kinds of plants (veggies) work well in containers and which don't? How did you make the containers? We were thinking wood and garden liner would work. How raised should they be or can they just sit right on the floor of the patio if there is sufficient drainage?

 

Thank you!:001_smile:

 

I built some Earthtainers last year:

http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/

 

They worked out very well - I used them for tomatoes, but you can plant a variety of things in them. When I was researching building them, I came across a number of knockoff planters (some people used 2 five gallon buckets stacked, etc.) that could be built much less expensively. The main idea is that they're self-watering and much easier to keep watered than just a large container with a saucer underneath.

[helena]

You can mark off the space you intend to garden next year and start composting in that very spot. Google trench composting. Here's a start: http://organicgardening.about.com/od/compost/a/trenchcompost.htm

 

 

I've got the perfect place to do this!! Now we can compare how the two methods work. Thanks :001_smile:

[Poke Salad Annie]

This is how I compost, the compost breaks down so much quicker than it would in a pile, if the scraps are 5-6" under the soil, you can plant on top of it pretty much immediately. I've never had much luck with compost piles doing what they ought, trench composting (well more "dig a hole and plonk it in" here) is the bee's knees.

 

Yep, this is me too.

 

Funny story.... A friend of mine, who has helped me with my backyard garden, came by one day to give me some plants she had rooted. She asked where I would like to plant them, and I told her anywhere would be fine. Well.......she found a spot and we got shovels and started digging. I turned over a nice chunk of dirt, when suddenly the most horrible stench filled the air. It smelled like raw sewage, no lie. I almost fell out! :eek:

 

After a few minutes I realized that I had buried some *goodies* in that same spot the previous week---among them was some leftover pancake batter. Let's just say that you don't want to go on a search to find how the pancake batter has decomposed after a week or so. Not good. No sir, not good.

 

We laughed about the whole thing as we chose a *better* place to plant the flowers she'd brought, but whew!, that stuff stuck to my shovel and I could not get the smell to go away!! Lesson learned. Do not bury pancake batter and then go find it a week later. :D

Edited March 1, 2011 by Poke Salad Annie

[OrganicAnn]

There is fast composting and slow composting. If you want easy and slow, then dig small holes or trenches and add food scrapes and cover with dirt. After 6 months or year, dig and turn things over.

 

Fast composting means you will pile up higher and are a little more careful about the mix of what you add to the pile. For small areas, a garbage can with holes drilled in all sides work. For areas with lots of room, a pile within chicken wire or wooden bins.

 

Make sure you are careful with what you put in your pile. Fruits, vegetables, egg shells etc. Some things break down slowly (orange or banana skins). The more you chop up things the faster they compost.

 

Organic gardening has a website with forums and information on composting if you need more info.

[brasilmom]

I wish I could use the bury method in WI. However, once spring/summer is here I use the garden for just that, gardening. So, in order to "recycle" scraps I have a compost pile that we keep on adding throughout the winter. It is frozen, but we still add to it. Spring comes and I will give it all a good turn, maybe "harvest" some and then work on it until fall. I guess our process here is really slow. Oh well. I thought of a worm farm, but honestly having to keep it inside just does not appeal to us.

[Truscifi]

We have plenty of room, but use the trash can method because of pests, mainly raccoons. We have very tight bungees on top of our cans to keep them out.

 

We are also planning to get a couple of worm bins to start worm composting. They are pretty easy, just build a small box, add dirt and worms, and start throwing scraps on top. The worms eat the scraps and compost them for you. And that stuff is supercharged, you only need a little to mix in with most soil types.

[Spy Car]

There is fast composting and slow composting. If you want easy and slow, then dig small holes or trenches and add food scrapes and cover with dirt. After 6 months or year, dig and turn things over.

 

Fast composting means you will pile up higher and are a little more careful about the mix of what you add to the pile. For small areas, a garbage can with holes drilled in all sides work. For areas with lots of room, a pile within chicken wire or wooden bins.

 

Make sure you are careful with what you put in your pile. Fruits, vegetables, egg shells etc. Some things break down slowly (orange or banana skins). The more you chop up things the faster they compost.

 

Organic gardening has a website with forums and information on composting if you need more info.

 

Hey Ann, other than aesthetics what advantage to you see to contained bins. Even with active (hot) piles I have had more luck with unconfined "free-form" piles than ones in bins. And they have been less work to turn.

 

Why is that wrong? Or is it?

 

Bill

[OrganicAnn]

If you have a contained pile that you added the perfect mix of material you will have a hotter pile than a free form pile. Another advantage is that you have a better defined place/target when you eat veggies straight out of the garden and throw the ends (of carrots, cukes etc) in the pile. If you do have animals (even domesticated ones) it might keep them from digging around in it. I'm sure there are other advantages. We've done most type of composting except worm composting. The easiest to mess up is the kind in a trash bin - too heavy/breaks the bin or too much green and not enough brown matter/turns to goo. But most methods are good.

 

The most beautiful compost bin I've ever seen was a bench where you raised the lid and that is where you threw in the scraps. I think it had planters on each side of the bench. There were plans for it in a magazine. I just wondered how it felt to sit on a bench above composting matter. Warm? Stink? If you do it right, compose isn't supposed to stink.

[keptwoman]

There is fast composting and slow composting. If you want easy and slow, then dig small holes or trenches and add food scrapes and cover with dirt. After 6 months or year, dig and turn things over.

In my experience, composting in the ground has everything broken down in under 2 months, even in winter. We are a coastal climate, no snow and little frost but definitely not tropical. I find it much, much faster than compost piles, but then I haven't had much luck with compost piles. I don't dig it over though, I use lasagne gardening, so the layers of composting food gets covered with layers of composting browns (grass, clippings, straw etc) and some cow poo and left to do it's bit. I tend to plant over it quite quickly.

 

However, the danger with this type of composting is that there is no heat involved, so seeds are not killed. It's important not to do this with anything you will not be happy to have growing if it can't be pulled easily. My entire tomato crop this year is spread in various places in the garden and is almost exclusively self seeded from composting. I get a lot of other things self seeding, but most just get pulled and dumped on the latest compost pile. Using this method for grass with seed heads or which spreads by runners is an absolute no-no.

Edited March 3, 2011 by keptwoman

[Guest patriciathorney]

you did a great decision! composting is really fun! glad i found this thread where all people are in love in composting! :)

 

composting | compost bins