should I mix soil with compost before I intend to use it? will that 'slow' it down?
I have 2 large plastic trash cans that I compost in. I have a batch that has been baking in the south here in VS for about 2 moths and it is fairly broken down. I'm going to use this in a raised bed vegetable garden that I just built. I was kinda late in making the bed so I don't really plan to get much out of it this year. It needs some more soil to fill it and I want to use this compost to cut some good organic soil from lowes so it doesn't cost me so much to fill it.
should I add the soil now in the trash bin and mix it up? Or should I let the compost work more on its own? If I cut it with soil would it be more useful as a 'seed' for the other trash bin composter (which is in its first month)?
composting is just fun. this is my third batch. with this heat my lawn is not even growing but I'm eating so many veggies I have alot of greens. browns are tough to come by. right now its old boxes, dead magnolia leaves, and paper shopping bags.
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rainbowgardener
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Compost works better as a soil amendment. So yes mix compost into your soil when filling your bed. Different people's compost comes out differently, depending on ingredients, how much it is fluffed and turned, etc.
Since I don't turn mine very much it tends to be kind of heavy and dense, would not work very well in a raised bed by itself, hold too much moisture and harden up.
Since I don't turn mine very much it tends to be kind of heavy and dense, would not work very well in a raised bed by itself, hold too much moisture and harden up.
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toxcrusadr
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At this time of year, at least in my garden, it's too hot to plant anything. I would put that compost directly into the bed with your bagged soil, dig or till it, mulch it a bit and let it sit till the weather cools off a tad. Then plant some fall crops in it. If the compost isn't completely 'done' it will finish in place, and that process very helpful for growing plants because it will boost the microbe count and worm activity in the soil.
I don't see any real advantage to mixing soil into the compost but not putting it into the garden now.
As far as inoculating a new batch, I usually have a few chunks of stuff that didn't break down completely, and those go into the new batch. If not that, a scoop of it distributed throughout will do fine. Most of your ingredients are already covered with microbes, and if you have the bin on the ground they will come up from the soil too.
I don't see any real advantage to mixing soil into the compost but not putting it into the garden now.
As far as inoculating a new batch, I usually have a few chunks of stuff that didn't break down completely, and those go into the new batch. If not that, a scoop of it distributed throughout will do fine. Most of your ingredients are already covered with microbes, and if you have the bin on the ground they will come up from the soil too.
I have a seperate compost pile for rough stuff; briars, woody stalks, broccoli, tomato vines, etc. I put them in an empty raised bed. 4X8 feet. In the spring, I pull out the sticks and anything else that is going to get stuck in my tiller and put them in the a new new raised bed on the bottom. I then go out and buy the best dirt I can find and mix it with the compost. Two years in a row, we had to move the bed to make room for something else so The compost was dumped on the garden. Next spring, I will have my raised bed!