Thursday, November 3, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Saturday, February 28, 2009
BackYard Composting
Hi Susan, Great to hear from you. You definately want to take advantage of the grass clippings and leaves and such, especially stalks and dead plants from your garden, refeed the soils. Put a large box (as large as you expect your compost to be for the year) in the corner of the yard, and another one beside it, make the box's so that the front opens and drops down. Consider a cover for the rain and the snow, remember on warm days to water it.
This compost will get fairly warm but my dad does this and his is full of worms that over the years just found their way into his box so the worms can go warm you just don't want to cook them. Me I am impatient I would throw some worms in their as a starter. He is in Alberta where it gets pretty cold but the depth of the box and the wood frame protect the worms. (by the way red worms are great for fishing)
The second box is for cycling your compost. After a few months or more depending on the worm population (a no worm box could take 12 months to compost) take a pitch fork and move the contents from box A to box B, do this in layers - for example estimate the full box into 6 or 7 levels, take the top level of A and put it on the bottom of B until all of A is upside down in B. That will speed your composting along.
When your compost is finished and mostly broken down empty box B about 8 to 12 inches a day, even better if you go through what you are removing with gloves to see if there are any worms in it, and throw them back on the pile. Also throw anything that has not composted back in the pile. The worms will keep digging down each day to escape the light, when you get toward the bottom just leave the worms there and throw stuff you have been saving to compost right on top of them. Remember no pesticides or chemicals and let grass sit in those bags for awhile to begin to get mooshy.
If you want to take the compost you have made and make some super soil take an icecream bucket (or any bucket) of compost, throw it in your wheel barrow then add a bucket of vermiculite and a bucket of wet soaked peat moss and mix it all up, process all your compost that way. You will have the most incredible soil as you work this into your garden and your garden will require less water, holding the water better.
Now if you want to get into raising fishing bait, I would suggest you set up boxes that will be in the home or a garage where water wouldn't freeze, in contained boxes. You really could get a bunch of worms in a fairly small area and have them eating all your fruit and vegatable scraps and you BF's too if necesary.
But if you don't want to mess with Red Worm Farming, do put all those peals and cores and egg shells and such from your kitchen in the compost pile, remember to bury food in the pile so the criters don't smell it and so it breaks down faster. My theory is when you take the fruit and vegatable scraps and put them back in the soil you are taking vitamins and minerals from around the country and adding them to your garden and your diet, goodies that would not otherwise be in your soil.
Please e-mail me with any questions or input, thanks appreciate you.
Happy Gardening, Dan Hamon e-mail dkhamon@hotmail.com
This compost will get fairly warm but my dad does this and his is full of worms that over the years just found their way into his box so the worms can go warm you just don't want to cook them. Me I am impatient I would throw some worms in their as a starter. He is in Alberta where it gets pretty cold but the depth of the box and the wood frame protect the worms. (by the way red worms are great for fishing)
The second box is for cycling your compost. After a few months or more depending on the worm population (a no worm box could take 12 months to compost) take a pitch fork and move the contents from box A to box B, do this in layers - for example estimate the full box into 6 or 7 levels, take the top level of A and put it on the bottom of B until all of A is upside down in B. That will speed your composting along.
When your compost is finished and mostly broken down empty box B about 8 to 12 inches a day, even better if you go through what you are removing with gloves to see if there are any worms in it, and throw them back on the pile. Also throw anything that has not composted back in the pile. The worms will keep digging down each day to escape the light, when you get toward the bottom just leave the worms there and throw stuff you have been saving to compost right on top of them. Remember no pesticides or chemicals and let grass sit in those bags for awhile to begin to get mooshy.
If you want to take the compost you have made and make some super soil take an icecream bucket (or any bucket) of compost, throw it in your wheel barrow then add a bucket of vermiculite and a bucket of wet soaked peat moss and mix it all up, process all your compost that way. You will have the most incredible soil as you work this into your garden and your garden will require less water, holding the water better.
Now if you want to get into raising fishing bait, I would suggest you set up boxes that will be in the home or a garage where water wouldn't freeze, in contained boxes. You really could get a bunch of worms in a fairly small area and have them eating all your fruit and vegatable scraps and you BF's too if necesary.
But if you don't want to mess with Red Worm Farming, do put all those peals and cores and egg shells and such from your kitchen in the compost pile, remember to bury food in the pile so the criters don't smell it and so it breaks down faster. My theory is when you take the fruit and vegatable scraps and put them back in the soil you are taking vitamins and minerals from around the country and adding them to your garden and your diet, goodies that would not otherwise be in your soil.
Please e-mail me with any questions or input, thanks appreciate you.
Happy Gardening, Dan Hamon e-mail dkhamon@hotmail.com
Friday, February 27, 2009
Anyone Can Compost
I am an 'assembly line' kinda guy. I take a process and refine it and refine it. In that way my 'speed composting' has become rather unique and won't appeal to everyone. Heck probably wouldn't have appealed to me 25 years ago. The heart of my system now is a Vitamix blender which I use to mash both kitchen scraps and soggy shredded paper. There are alot of things I used to do in composting that I no longer do for speed and efficiency sake. Not only for the sake of 'speed composting' though, have I made so many refinements but also because my operations cannot weather the winters here in Buffalo so I turned to 'basement composting'. Of course if you are composting inside you want to avoid the smells and flys and bugs that so often accompany composting but which are of no concern if you can compost outside year round.
My point is, as I consider my personal experiences with composting over the last 35 years I realize that I have used so many different styles of composting - that I would hate to alienate anyone who could not relate to how I do things now but may benefit from past experience.
Anyone can compost. You can compost in a lidded Rubber-maid container in the kitchen, on the back porch or on the balcony. You can compost in a big bottomless box in the backyard, heck you could just make a big pile in the backyard without the box. I have twice taken a sand and rock yard and dug it out 12 to 18 inches deep, removed the rocks and clay added aged broken down manure, once horse manure, once cow manure - mixed it up with the sand and then added red worms. When it settles add to the soil with some rich top soil and more compost and when it has settled level plant grass seed. The reason I go so deep is in case I ever want to turn it into a garden, which would be easy because it is so dang furtile and rich, the worms keep it aerated and composting.
One of my most pertinent messages is 'use red worms' they are the composting kings and 1 pound of red worms will eat 1/2 a pound of scraps a day and under optimum feeding, warmth and moisture conditions will multiply exponentially every 7 days. What if you don't have everything perfect? So what they still lay an egg every 7 days or so, it hatches with up to 20 little worms who will begin breeding in about 3 months. The more you fine tune the process the closer you get to the averages.
Many sites speak about overbreeding and having too many worms in a box, if you don't want to expand your operation don't worry about it. If they are overcrowded they will get smaller, a pound of worms will still eat a half pound of food. Also if you introduce those overcrowded smaller worms to a new bin with more room, the new generation will be full size.
If you are thinking about composting and want more info their are rich resources on the Internet, read widely and take what works for you - iF I can be of assistance I would be happy to help you put a plan together.
Happy Gardening, Dan Hamon, email: dkhamon@hotmail.com
My point is, as I consider my personal experiences with composting over the last 35 years I realize that I have used so many different styles of composting - that I would hate to alienate anyone who could not relate to how I do things now but may benefit from past experience.
Anyone can compost. You can compost in a lidded Rubber-maid container in the kitchen, on the back porch or on the balcony. You can compost in a big bottomless box in the backyard, heck you could just make a big pile in the backyard without the box. I have twice taken a sand and rock yard and dug it out 12 to 18 inches deep, removed the rocks and clay added aged broken down manure, once horse manure, once cow manure - mixed it up with the sand and then added red worms. When it settles add to the soil with some rich top soil and more compost and when it has settled level plant grass seed. The reason I go so deep is in case I ever want to turn it into a garden, which would be easy because it is so dang furtile and rich, the worms keep it aerated and composting.
One of my most pertinent messages is 'use red worms' they are the composting kings and 1 pound of red worms will eat 1/2 a pound of scraps a day and under optimum feeding, warmth and moisture conditions will multiply exponentially every 7 days. What if you don't have everything perfect? So what they still lay an egg every 7 days or so, it hatches with up to 20 little worms who will begin breeding in about 3 months. The more you fine tune the process the closer you get to the averages.
Many sites speak about overbreeding and having too many worms in a box, if you don't want to expand your operation don't worry about it. If they are overcrowded they will get smaller, a pound of worms will still eat a half pound of food. Also if you introduce those overcrowded smaller worms to a new bin with more room, the new generation will be full size.
If you are thinking about composting and want more info their are rich resources on the Internet, read widely and take what works for you - iF I can be of assistance I would be happy to help you put a plan together.
Happy Gardening, Dan Hamon, email: dkhamon@hotmail.com
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Homemade Compost boxes
A composting box for the garage, basement or outdoors in a warm climate can be made out of a sheet of plywood or even a 2 x 12 piece of lumber. Cut 4 walls, the floor and if outside maybe a lid. I never use a lid, I use wet burlap as a cover.
Your compost box does not need to be complicated, I use 3 shallow rubber maid containers as "worm hatcheries". I use 12" deep boxes though deeper than most people suggest and have had huge success in making the bedding deep for my "soil factory" box. When focusing on soil you don't want to agitate the soil too often and you are looking for volume, lots of compost. When focusing on worm production I feed them more often and have smaller shallower boxes, easier and quicker to work with.
With my system though I have turned what was once a very arduous task into a much simpler job. I only feed the "soil Factory" box a few times a month but substantially each time with about a gallon of my special feed which I create using my Vitamix.
This feed not only allows the worms to process their food much quicker, but I believe is more nutritious, creating a more fertile soil because the scraps are not left to decompose and be soft enough to eat but are already in a slushy digestible form - this way no nutrients are being lost in undigested food or have to be continually filtered and put back in the new bin till the chunks of food break down.
A couple of last thoughts on bins if you are inside composting:
1. Put your bin on a table or stand, don't be bending over all the time to work your bin.
2. As per advice on the internet I used to put holes in the bottom of the boxes for drainage. Now I put plastic in the bottom of those boxes so they don't leak and to hold moisture. If your box is outside you have to have drainage or the worms can drown. But inside you monitor your bedding so it is lightly damp, sometimes even sprinkling with water. They love the moistness, but hate when it is too wet.
I have included the link to another homemade box:
Happy Gardening,
email me at DKHamon@hotmail.com
http://tinyurl.com/bcftpx
Your compost box does not need to be complicated, I use 3 shallow rubber maid containers as "worm hatcheries". I use 12" deep boxes though deeper than most people suggest and have had huge success in making the bedding deep for my "soil factory" box. When focusing on soil you don't want to agitate the soil too often and you are looking for volume, lots of compost. When focusing on worm production I feed them more often and have smaller shallower boxes, easier and quicker to work with.
With my system though I have turned what was once a very arduous task into a much simpler job. I only feed the "soil Factory" box a few times a month but substantially each time with about a gallon of my special feed which I create using my Vitamix.
This feed not only allows the worms to process their food much quicker, but I believe is more nutritious, creating a more fertile soil because the scraps are not left to decompose and be soft enough to eat but are already in a slushy digestible form - this way no nutrients are being lost in undigested food or have to be continually filtered and put back in the new bin till the chunks of food break down.
A couple of last thoughts on bins if you are inside composting:
1. Put your bin on a table or stand, don't be bending over all the time to work your bin.
2. As per advice on the internet I used to put holes in the bottom of the boxes for drainage. Now I put plastic in the bottom of those boxes so they don't leak and to hold moisture. If your box is outside you have to have drainage or the worms can drown. But inside you monitor your bedding so it is lightly damp, sometimes even sprinkling with water. They love the moistness, but hate when it is too wet.
I have included the link to another homemade box:
Happy Gardening,
email me at DKHamon@hotmail.com
http://tinyurl.com/bcftpx
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
A Composting Flyer
Here is a nice flyer from the City of Vancouver http://tinyurl.com/aco3fs
There are a lot of ideas out there about composting, and hey if you find a way that you like doing it that is great.
For me composting has come to be all about creating the perfect soil while recycling would be landfill. I will be talking more about that on the blog, but if my blogging gets too slow for you on covering some issue on composting do drop me a line and ask a question.
Happy Gardening
Dan Hamon
There are a lot of ideas out there about composting, and hey if you find a way that you like doing it that is great.
For me composting has come to be all about creating the perfect soil while recycling would be landfill. I will be talking more about that on the blog, but if my blogging gets too slow for you on covering some issue on composting do drop me a line and ask a question.
Happy Gardening
Dan Hamon
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