Yesterday, I dug out the last couple buckets of compost from the old pile and turned the pile over, so that what was on top becomes the bottom of the new pile (moving the drier stuff on the outside edges into the middle, etc). Last time I did this was in Feb.
It is interesting to do every once in awhile, gives you a better sense of what is going on in your pile. I discovered that while the outer inches were cool, it was pretty nice and warm in the middle (not what you would consider a hot pile, but definitely warm). All the lawn thatch I had put in there was tending to matt down a bit so it was a good thing I turned it and fluffed it up, separated it some. But it was definitely contributing to heating the pile up and the thatch clumps were full of earthworms. There were some euonymous vines I had put in there (similar to ivy) which were still intact and bright green, so I pulled most of it out. But pulling one branch out, it was covered in earthworms. I don't know if that means they like to eat it, or they like having the structure of something tough like that as a travel path or something. Anyway seeing that, I left a bit of it in.
Last summer when the previous year's fall leaves ran out, I bought a bale of straw and used that as a brown in the pile. That did not seem to work very well. A lot of the straw is still intact in the pile all these months later. Doesn't seem to be breaking down very well, either in the pile or where I used it as mulch. I guess I will have to look around for a different brown when the leaves run out this year. Anyone else tried straw in the compost pile? Results?
What else do you use for browns when you don't have fall leaves available? I guess I could try shredded paper. We have tons of paper at work that goes in the "to be shredded" bins, but we have a service that picks them up and does the shredding, so I'd have to run it through my little shredder at home which would be kind of tedious.
Other observations: Though the outer inches were dry, the interior of the pile was nicely wrung out sponge damp, but not wet, so my watering program must be working. Found two slugs and pulled them out, threw them in the woods. But not a lot of insect life, just thousands of earthworms.
- rainbowgardener
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The cardboard tubes from Paper Towel and Toilet Paper rolls; and things like brown paper bags from the grocery store (I don't get many of those, because we usually take our own reusable bags to the store).rainbowgardener wrote:...What else do you use for browns when you don't have fall leaves available? ...
I usually try to avoid "office" type papers that might have toner on them; so I really like "clean" brown paper items.
Rainbow, with the onset of springs warmer temperatures, and turning your pile, I expect much of the ginger will be cooked out of the straw used over the winter.
You might still be able to identify them (or broom corn stalks), but if you chopped them even a little, another couple weeks of newly oxygenated cookin' and they'll be as limp as a cooked noodle.
Brussel sprout stalks, now those buggers, go in the hugelkultur pile. for me anyways.
You might still be able to identify them (or broom corn stalks), but if you chopped them even a little, another couple weeks of newly oxygenated cookin' and they'll be as limp as a cooked noodle.
Brussel sprout stalks, now those buggers, go in the hugelkultur pile. for me anyways.
- swickstrum
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My father was always a hater of straw in his compost piles, he called them "dry browns" and he said if you used them you had to use them in a ratio that was much less in relation to the greens than if you used "moist browns." I'm not sure what that means, other than it takes more moisture to get straw to decompose than leaves or something similar.
I never have a shortage of leaves in my compost piles, I have about 16 large oak trees in my yard, and if I was to bag them, I would have well over 50 - 50 gallon bags. That is the main reason that I started my compost piles!
I recently found quite a few slugs in my compost piles and turned them into an ingredient in the compost shortly thereafter. I'm wondering now if I should have taken them out of the pile and destroyed them, because I don't know what their ability to regenerate is.
I never have a shortage of leaves in my compost piles, I have about 16 large oak trees in my yard, and if I was to bag them, I would have well over 50 - 50 gallon bags. That is the main reason that I started my compost piles!
I recently found quite a few slugs in my compost piles and turned them into an ingredient in the compost shortly thereafter. I'm wondering now if I should have taken them out of the pile and destroyed them, because I don't know what their ability to regenerate is.
- rainbowgardener
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- swickstrum
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Yeah, I chopped them into little pieces with my shovel and left them there to complete the compost process.rainbowgardener wrote:" turned them into an ingredient in the compost shortly thereafter."
Not sure what that means. If you killed them, then threw them back in the pile, then they are dead and decomposing. If you just turned the pile with the slugs in it, then they are happily reproducing in there.