Saturday, February 9, 2008

Luke Warm Compost

4:00 this afternoon the compost pile was 80 degrees after adding the bunny poo tea earlier. Added some liquid fish and more water. My last shot is some blood meal. If that doesn't work, I guess we are going to tear it apart and start over.

6 comments:

  1. Umm....maybe I do it wrong, but I just go dump stuff on the compost pile, and it always comes out nicely. Just kitchen stuff, rabbit stuff, weeds....you know, anything compostable.....I don't really worry about it, or check it's temp, or anything like that. Am I doing it wrong?

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  2. Sherry,

    You are right - Compost happens. That is absolutely the right way, the zen way, the calm and collected way the universe makes compost. Unfortunately last year I took a Master Composting class and a man taught me how to hurry compost up. My OCD took over and now I have a hot compost obsession. Plus I didn't keep this fall/winter pile wet and compost did not happen.

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  3. Hi! I'm afraid if my compost gets too hot my nightcrawlers will die. So, that's my excuse for just dumping it in and turning it a couple of times in the early summer and fall.

    I did get excited about making a sifting screen this year. It's made with 2x4s with hardware cloth stapled around all four sides. You scoop in a pile of composted soil and whatever falls into your wheelbarrow, you put in the garden. Whatever stays in the screen goes back in to the pile.

    (I also have a friend with two piles... one "active" and one not so. She occasionally shifts stuff from one to the other.) :-)

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  4. I was told by Don, at Rabbit Hill Farm that my worms are fast enough to move away from hot spots in the compost and also to get away from fire ants. Don't know if it true, but I always have red worms in both the compost and the worm bins. My Manly Man made me a compost screener (worm bin lid) when I recieved my worms. It works great. I keep showing non gardeners the screened compost and getting blank stares (them thinking "this loon is showing me dirt").

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  5. Ha! If we're loony, so be it! ;-)

    By the way, do you use red wigglers indoors in the winter? I came very close to trying it this year!

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  6. Nope, they stay outside in their bin covered in my shredded bills. However, we rarely have a hard freeze long enough to actually freeze the ground. I can almost always dig.

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