Fall garden work.

Last year I filled my compost bin with leaves.

It took a few months, but eventually I ended up with some nice compost. 

I used the compost to fill my raised garden beds.  I do this every year.  I fill them to the top in the fall, and by the end of the following summer they are 3" lower.  I don't know where it goes.  Maybe it just settles, or maybe it continues to break down.  Anyway, I have a free resource, so it's not a big deal.

I think this PVC drip irrigation might have to come out next year.  I pulled the end cap off and the inside of the pipe was green with algae.

I have a couple of pepper plants hanging on even though it's November.

This bed contains oregano that I can't get rid of.  I cut it back severely last year and even dug half of it out with a shovel.  It's still going. 

I still have a number of tomato plants producing.  I'm hoping that the tomatoes turn red before we get any frost. 

Growing grass and improving soil without chemicals.

Long ago I started an experiment that I called "composting in place."  I have poor soil in my back yard and lots of shade.  That along with chickens leads to great difficulty growing grass.

I picked the spot in the picture below for this experiment.  It's low, well shaded, has hard packed soil, and sparse grass. 

March 30, 2013

I started by piling leaves there.  Lots of leaves.  The leaves were more than a foot deep, probably closer to 18 inches.  Then every so often I would throw in some oats.  The chickens would go in to eat the oats and turn over the leaves.  (Chickens love oats.) 

December 21, 2013

Occasionally during the summer months I would bag my grass clippings and dump them in there too.  Then I'd add oats and the chickens would turn in the grass clippings while looking for the oats.  My back yard is sloped.  Heavy rains would cause the partially composted material to go pile up at the edge.  I'd periodically have to get the rake out and move it back. 

July 26, 2014

I tried throwing some seeds down last fall, but they didn't do well.  I'm guess that there wasn't enough sun or that maybe it was still too hot.

September 25, 2014

By December (a year later) the entire area was covered with really great compost.  There were worms all through it.  I put a fence around the area to keep the chickens out.  They had done their job. 

December 31, 2014

In March, after the frost, I put down grass seed and some clover.  I watered the area twice a day.

April 3, 2015

March was a good time to start grass since it was still cool and the leaves weren't in on the trees yet.  This area actually got sunlight.  By April this area had more green than I had ever seen there.

April 18, 2015

By the middle of May everything had really taken off.  By this time the leaves were on the trees causing the yard to be shaded most of the day.  I managed to get this picture during a window when there was sun there.

May 14, 2015

The grass got so tall that I had to mow it!  I'm really happy with how it has turned out.  It's the best looking grass in the yard.

May 23, 2015

I still haven't taken down the fence.  I'm not sure when I'll do that.  I know as soon as I do the chickens will be in there tearing it up.  I might wait until there is snow on the ground. 

I call this composting in place idea successful, but it takes a long time.  Based on the pictures it took 17 months.  I probably starting piling leaves in that spot prior to the December 21 photo.  I wasn't in a hurry though, so I'm not going to complain.  I'm quite happy with the results.

Growing grass with chickens (again)

Earlier this month I wrote a post saying that I had stuff growing in my in-place compost.  It didn't last.  Between the chickens and the heavy rain we had last week all of the green is gone.

The rain really made a mess of things.  I raked the area to level it out.  I need something to grow there quick.  I need root structure to hold everything in place.  I threw my 2x4 screened box to the one side.  Then I scattered winter rye over the entire area.  (Winter rye germinates down to something like 35*.) 

It didn't take long for the chickens to find that seed.  In the past I've put up netting to keep them out.  I didn't want to deal with that today.  The deer haven't been bothering my garden this year, so I thought I'd use the scarecrow to keep the chickens away. 

The scarecrow is a motion activated water sprinkler.  It works great!  I wasn't able to get video or pictures, but the few times the chickens have ventured into this area they set the thing off.  The water spraying spooks them and they take off.  Even the dog has avoided going near there. 

I have it on its most sensitive setting.  It went off frequently today.  That's fine.  It's keeping the new seed watered.  The biggest problem I have had with the scarecrow is that it eats batteries.  Having it on the highest sensitivity probably won't help with that.

In place composting experiment continues

A little less than a year ago I threw shredded leaves all over a low spot in my back yard in hopes that they would compost in place.  I'm pretty pleased with the results so far.  It's clear that a lot of the leaves have broken down.  When I walk through there and kick over the remaining shredded leaves I find earthworms everywhere.  There's a lot of life in and under there.

The question now is, how do I transition this area back into yard?  I'm not sure I have the best answer to that, but I can tell you what I've done so far.  Last month I sorted through my seeds.  I found a lot of carrot seeds that were old.  They got tossed into this area.  I also found turnip and rutabaga seeds that I didn't even know I had.  I threw a bunch of those down too.  Then I threw down some of my cover crop seed, clover, wheat, and hairy vetch.  Now this area is turning green with more life.

I don't know if the combination of what I put down was a good idea or not.  The carrots, turnips and rutabagas are root crops.  I figured they would put down tap roots that would break up the hard soil under this new compost (and provide something to eat).  That's my theory anyway.  I don't know if it'll work.

The cover crops, the wheat, and hairy vetch should grow some root structures to hold the compost in place.  They also provide green material that will die or be cut down to add more compostable material to the area. 

Amazingly enough, the chickens have left this new growth alone.  I haven't seen them in this area at all.  Normally they get into and eat whatever they can.  Maybe fear of being eaten by a hawk is keeping them from venturing too far into the yard.

Fall garden maintenance

A lot of the plants are out of my garden already.  It's a good time to amend the soil before putting in more fall plants (I already have a few kale plants in).

I moved the drip irrigation line out of the way.

It's clear in the picture above that the soil in the raised bed has settled.  It's now several inches lower than when I filled it.  So what do I add to my raised beds?  I add compost, lots and lots of compost.

The hay is from the rabbit hutch.  I dumped the trays from their hutch on top of the compost from my bins.

I used a shovel to move the compost from the wheel barrow to the raised bed.  I didn't want to just dump the whole load in there with no control.  I spread the compost with a rake to get it fairly level and in the corners.

Lots of fresh compost in half the bed.  I'll fill the other half once those beans are gone.

My other raised beds needed additional compost as well.  (I'm not including pictures of all of them.  That would be redundant.)

Before.

After.

I used more than one wheel barrow load of compost per bed which put quite a dent in the compost pile.  I'm not sure that I'm going to have enough to fill all of the raised beds.  I still have a few to do. 

Yet another compost bin update.

Thought I'd post a quick status on my compost.  It's looking pretty good these days. 

I've found an easier way to deal with turning it.  I try to turn it on the 15th of every month.  It's a lot of work to move all of the compost from one side of the bin to the other.  So recently I got lazy (or smart depending on how you look at it).  Rather than move it all at once, I move a little bit every 3 days or so.

I started by pulling the compost from the top of the pile to the ground in front of the bin.

After 3 days I moved the compost in front of the bin to in front of the other bin.  Then I had more room to pull compost out of the first bin.

Three days later the stuff in front of the second bin got moved into the second bin and more was pulled out of the first bin.

Eventually the first bin ended up empty.

It took about 2 weeks but all of the compost ended up in the second bin.

I don't know how well this slow turn process will work during the first few months of composting.  I tend to fill the bins with a lot of dry leaves and they might just blow away if they're not contained.  At this stage everything is pretty much broken down so I don't have to worry about it going anywhere on its own. I'll be moving it to the raised beds soon.  They've settled quite a bit and need to be topped off. 

Composting in place status.

Back in January I dumped leaves in a low spot in my yard with the hopes that they would compost in place.

It looked like this at the time.

January 2014

Six months have passed and it looks like this now.

June 2014

It's not nearly as deep as it was, but it still has the appearance of shredded leaves. 

The chickens get into these leaves and dig everyday.  Maybe once a month or so I have to get the rake and move the leaves off of the stone border. 

It's a lousy picture, but the ground under the leaves actually appears to be damp and dark.  Prior to dumping leaves here it was dry, hard, and tan. 

I'd say that it's an improvement, but I'm thinking that it's going to be a while until I can grow grass here.

Compost Status

It's been a while since I've posted an update on my compost bins. Every month I move the pile from one bin to the other.  While I was doing that the other day I got some pictures.

I filled the bin to the top with leaves and other material last fall.  It's broken down and compacted so much that the bin is only half full now.

I checked the temperature and it was at 120*.  It was higher the last time I checked.  I might not have the right mix of greens and browns in there.

Here's the pile after it was moved to the other side.

I should probably turn the pile more frequently, but it's a lot of work.  This stuff has been in there for the better part of a year and still has a long way to go.  It should be ready in the fall.  I plan to use it in my raised beds once the growing season is over.  The beds settle over time so some of them have low spots.

Composting in place

I've written before about the difficulties I've had getting grass to grow in my back yard.  Part of the problem is that the chickens eat whatever I put down.  The other problems are a lack of sun and poor soil.  So, I'm attempting to improve the soil.

I get a lot of leaves in my yard in the fall.

This year rather than hauling the leaves to my compost bins, and hauling the compost back to my yard, I thought I'd try composting in place.

I gave in and finally bought a leaf blower/vac.  I don't know if it was actually faster than using a rake, but it was much more satisfying.  The leaf blower has a vacuum attachment.  It'll suck up, shred, and bag the leaves.  Once the bag got full I dumped it in a low spot in my yard. 

The next part of the plan involves the chickens.  They're always getting into stuff, so I figure why not let them turn the compost pile (Joel Salatin does the same thing with pigs on a much bigger scale).  I don't know if it'll work or not, but I thought it'd be worth trying.

I've been throwing oats, and bird seed into the leaves.  They scratch, peck and turn it over.  I'm sure they're adding plenty of their nitrogen filled byproduct along the way. 

This is a wider shot of the area.  It's a low spot in the yard where I've never gotten grass to grow.

I don't know how well this is going to work.  Only time will tell.  I'm hoping that in a few months I'll have something that resembles soil and that I'll be able to grow some grass in it.

Filling the raised beds.

I built some raised beds the other day.  Now they needed to be filled.

The first thing I did was run the weed eater inside the bed to get the grass as short as possible.  This picture also makes the construction of the raised a little more clear.  You can see the overlapped corners and where I put in the timber screws.

Next, I put down a layer of cardboard.  I really don't want weeds and grass growing up through the soil.

Then I threw in some rotten logs I found in the woods to do the hugelkultur thing.

At this point the beds were ready to be filled.  Here's a picture of what I used.  It wasn't nearly enough to fill all of the beds.

• Half a bag of Azomite.  I bought it at Fifth Season Gardening in Raleigh.
• 8 bags of cow manure compost
• 3 cu. ft. Peat Moss
• 4 cu. ft of garden soil
• Several wheelbarrow loads of leaf compost

A quick note about the Azomite.  Azomite is rock dust.  It adds trace elements to the soil.  I've heard good things about it, so I bought a bag of it last fall.  I can't say I remember where all I've put it or if I've noticed any improvements by using it.  I guess that's the problem with not writing things down.

I'm sure the next question is, "Why did you use so much stuff?"  I first learned about gardening by reading All New Square Foot Gardening book.  If I remember correctly, the soil composition recommended in that book was equal parts peat moss, compost, and vermiculite.  Vermiculite is hard to find.  I've found that if you want more than a few quarts of it, you need to special order it.  I didn't want to go through that trouble.

So I used two types of compost, leaf and cow manure, along with peat moss.  Why did I use ready made garden soil?  It was on sale and was cheaper than the cow manure compost.  I only used the Azomite because I already had it.  Most of it went into one bed, so with any luck I'll be able to see if there's a difference between that bed and the ones without it.

Anyway, here's one bed that is nearly full.  It could use a little more, but what's in there is probably sufficient. 

Here's the other bed I was able fill.

I covered the bottoms of the remaining two beds with my leaf compost.  I just wanted to get something in them.  I have to pick up more garden soil to fill them the rest of the way.

I can hardly wait to get plants in there.