"Let It Rot"

[Billy]

Dan, what do you think of the book?

[Dan L.]

Still reading, However, much better than Rodales Book on composting!

I just got done mowing the lawn and added one cubic yard (3 acre lawn) of grass clippings to the pile along with about one bale of straw with chicken crap and two crocks of kitchen scraps. For the rest of summer this will a weekly ritual. It took me all day to mow the yard, clean the hen house and feed myself and the dog. I am tired. Good for the soul :)

I like page 34, Stubborn Materials. I have in the past put corn cobs, Grapefruit rinds and husk in the compost to be still there. They will compost in the very large hot compost pile. But very difficult to turn. Someday I will get a farm tractor with a front loader or a BobCat (more dream than reality).

I have put some woody materials in the compost pile and they break down quickly. Some woody materials like rose bush clipping never break down! Just like on page 34.

Composting like other aspects of gardening is a big learning curve for me. Until I can afford a nice chipper/shredder I will burn or bury all wood materials. Like California, Michigan now has state wide burn bans during dryer months of summer.

I currently use open piles. I may construct several wire bins. I wish I had "Let it Rot" long ago. I switched to burying woody materials after reading "Gais Garden".

When I learn something new - I call it a good day - Today was a good day!

[songbird]

Dan L. wrote: ...

hi Dan (and everyone else :) ),

i have a ban on piles here so i cannot compost at the moment, i answer that by digging holes and burying whatever i want to rot. in a few years it digs up nice and black. the wood i have set aside and then done a "mushroom garden" in a low spot that gets plenty of moisture. i figure in a few years it will be mostly done (2 cu yds :) ).

a chipper/shredder would speed up the process but i like the sound of my shovel thunking through the dirt and the exercise from digging. :)

some day i will look into learning how to make charcoal and see if i can try that someplace. i'm hearing a lot of good things about "black" earth and from what i remember about activated carbon i can see why. the smoke is my biggest trouble (lungs really don't like it at all).

ah, i should have read ahead. :) hehe,

ditto! finally a sunny afternoon for gardening. beauty of a day to get some weeding done.

songbird (also in MI, up in the Saginaw Valley plain).

[Dan L.]

The technique for burying woody materials is called "Hugelkulture".

makes four here, that I know are from Michigan. I will let you discover who they are :)

[songbird]

...

is not a woodland area they are buried in. basically i just dug a trench, put some wood in, layered some dirt on top, then another layer of wood, and then more dirt, no mushrooms yet, but i'll expect some this fall and next spring, a lot of it already was partly decayed and had some fungi underneath it when we moved it.

i've already seen a few fly by. :)

songbird