Status updates in
red on what I'd planned to do by now/in the near future:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben E Lou
Now through Monday, November 5th--Continue gathering materials from kitchen, neighborhood bags on Monday mornings, and Starbucks, and add to existing compost piles. Turn piles weekly. Over the next three Mondays, I'd expect to be able to add enough materials to the piles I have to make the overall production somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 cubic feet of compost. That would be enough to cover the entire planned garden area with 2.5 inches, and leave me around 20-25 cubic feet of it for other projects--flower beds, adding small amounts to areas where seeds are planted, etc. I've decided to make the area where I'll use compost a bit larger. Specifically, the area below the "vegetable" section where I threw a bunch of wildflower seeds last year will also get amended with compost. Basically, I'm shooting for 1.5 to 2 inches of compost in the entire area surrounded by the bricks posted in the pic above. That area is roughly 700 square feet, so I'm looking at needing around 100 cubic feet of compost to pull that off...
So I've added a third compost pile. (Pic later on.)
Also at some point in the next three weeks I intend to add lime to the area that I'll be gardening next year in the amounts recommended by the soil testing. Lime is complete. Did that on 10/25.
November 6th-December 31ish--No additions to existing compost piles. Let what's in them rot, only turning if/when temperatures fall below 140 degrees. Gather leaves as available but do not add to existing piles. After using them as a light mulch over the entire garden to inhibit weed growth over the winter, just throw the rest in a big pile for later use. (i.e. starting a new pile in spring/summer when all I have is grass/weeds and need that "brown" matter.) I've got the entire garden area (other than the part that's under compost piles, of course,) covered with leaves now--mostly shredded ones. However, I'm not sure what I was thinking about where I'd be able to store a big pile of leaves. until next spring. I *might* grab a few more bags and stick them under the deck, as my wife rarely goes in the back yard during the winter, so perhaps that might fly since she wouldn't have to look at them.
One other thing I'd like to do is actually pull back the leaves, put a half inch or so of used coffee grounds directly on the soil throughout the entire garden area, and then recover all of that with shredded leaves. We'll see if I get the energy to make that happen.
Some time in mid/late November once lime is settled, re-test soil for pH. Upon further reading, I'm probably going to wait a bit longer for this--probably early to mid March--as it takes a few months for lime to raise the pH.
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There has also been a change in my projected planting dates and process, as I've discovered mini-greenhouses and read great reviews on them. I'm probably going to get
this one. Combining that with earthen biodegradable planting media, and I'm thinking I can plant as early as mid-March, then transfer to the ground in late April after danger of frost has passed.
Anyway, here's a pic taken this morning of the garden area:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5d17gr8blb...piles.jpg?dl=0
Pile #3 was completed Monday morning, and is up around 145 degrees. The others are in the upper 150s. As you can perhaps tell from this pic, the first two are starting to look a lot more like dirt.