Why I Oughta...

That appears to be a wrap on composting this growing season.  I have all three spots filled - the tumbler (with partially-processed mixed compost from the bottom of the mixed bin), the mixed bin on the right below (with a blended batch of greens/browns and *some* passive aeration pipes installed) and a (mostly) carbon storage bin on the left.   You can see the two bins in the photo below and how they're filled right up to the top of the railing with the belief that we'll see a little settling and compaction this Winter: The last time I checked in on these bins was in early November when I had rounded up a bunch of leaves and filled both of these bins in a 'heaping' fashion .  In the month since, I've seen a bunch of settling in the left bin and was able to re-fill it up.  And some compaction from the bin on the right with the large mound in the middle compressing down.  I used my mower to collect the leaves in the carbon storage bin this year and as such, I also col

Earlier this week I posted a couple of updates on our compost project.  First, I shared photos of the black gold compost that came out of our tumbler .  I spread that material on the front beds as an amendment and a way to try to improve the conditions up there.  Then, I posted some photos of what the pair of bins looked like pre-turning and walked through how I emptied them to get down to the 'most done' material (at the bottom of the mixed bin - under the passive aeration pipes) in an attempt to fill the tumbler and get the balance of the material ready for re-pilin'ing.  At that point, I had two full-to-the-top bins.  The one on the right, properly mixed.  The one on the left...not so much.  It was filled with Fall leaves and whatever I picked up this season including all the thatch from my backyard lawn renovation project. My plan was to open up the front panel of the bins to allow me to empty the bins to allow for proper mixing, then put the front panel back in place

The last time that I showed the state of our two compost bins in the far back of our yard was back in early November when I had just topped the bins with their final collection of grass and leaves.  You can see that post here .  Below, you can see the current (this week) state of the bins after a Winter of snow and compaction.   On the left is a browns-only bin.  And on the right is a mixed bin with some passive aeration pipes inserted in a couple of spots. Not a TON of compaction, is there?  The temperatures are really working against any active decomposition during the Winter, so gravity is what is mostly at play.  The bin on the right had some compaction - and was aided by that log on top.  One of the things I'll get to this Spring is doing a full-turn on both bins and working in more of the browns from the right to get a 'cooking' bin set up for success this Summer.   I suppose, I should include in my 2022 to-do list an item on compost.  I think the right goal is to pu

Over the weekend, I posted a couple of photos that showed the latest turn in our two-bin and one tumbler compost setup in our backyard .  Since last Summer, I had one bin (the one on the right as you face it) in 'cooking' mode.  That one has some pvc pipes installed for passive aeration and was (mostly) the right mix of greens and browns.  The second bin (on the left) has been my storage, inactive bin.  I almost everything in there that I had collected since last Fall.  That means, once the bin on the right was full of the final grass and leaves combo from early Fall, I started to put in everything on the left. In the post from a few days ago , I showed how I had emptied out the active bin and took the (mostly) finished compost and moved it to my tumbler for a final few months of cooking.  My plan is use that compost come Spring time and will use the rest of the Summer and Fall to get it finished.  I also took the rest of the (not quite finished) material from the active bin (t

The last time I posted about our compost bins was back in mid-July when I measured the temperature right at/below the 'cooking' zone .  Since then, we've had the hottest weather of the year and that means that we had some 'action' in our bins.  Below, you can see in the photo what our two-bin setup looks like right now.  On the right, an empty bin.  On the right, a (mostly) full bin.   Compare these with what the same thing looked like in May of this year when both bins were (mostly) full:  This photo above is from May of 2021. Where did all that material go?  Well...the good news is that the bottom of the bin on the right looked like this below: Lovely stuff.  Black gold?  Almost. But, no smell.  No mud.  Just kinda feels great in your hand.   Where did this stuff go?  Into our compost tumbler - to be finished for next Spring.  My plan now is to run a three-bin setup that uses two large storage bins and our tumbler for finishing.   Below, you can see in the photo w

Last May I built out our three-bin compost set-up .  One active bin. One carbon storage. One nitrogen storage.  That was a year ago - and the bins were.... empty . I did a check-in on the bins in December and showed all the leaves that I had picked up from our yard, but the bins weren't that full.   Once the weather turned, I started to fill the bins with yard waste and started to see enough volume to fill the active bin.  I knew that I wanted to get a good batch 'cooking' this Spring, so I decided to install a passive aeration system a few weeks back .  When I did this pvc pipe project, I opened up the bin, cleared all of them out and started from scratch - both to get the right combination together, but also to 'turn' the stuff that was at the bottom as there was a lot of anaerobic decomposition going on down in the bottom. While I had the bins empty, I clipped some of the fence panels to allow for the pvc pipes to 'pass through' the front.  I di

Number 6 (#6) on my 2020 To-Do list in the garden this year was to add some passive aeration mechanism in our compost bin setup in the backyard.   I have a three-bin setup (one active bin, one carbon storage bin, one nitrogen storage bin) and a 50 gallon tumbler.  Last Fall, the active bin (on the left) was about half-full and I was storing the excess leaves in the carbon storage bin (middle) . Earlier this year, I posted some discussion about various passive compost aeration techniques - including one design with vertically installed pvc pipes and another with horizontally inserted perforated pipes.    After poking around on the Web, I decided to go with 10' sections of 2" perforated PVC pipe inserted horizontally in the pile.  My bins are 3' x 3', so I cut down 6 40" sections.   Then, I grabbed my garden fork and started to dig out the active bin of compost to get the volume low enough to install the pipes at a level that would make them work well

A slight pause from the [ tree dreaming ] posts to quickly revisit my three-bin compost setup.  Winter means idle time for me in the garden, so I've been thinking about projects to work on this Summer and that includes my compost pile setup.  I have two compost setups:  first....a large 80 gallon tumbler.  And then a 3-bin fence setup.  The tumbler is in our yard and I filled it with quite a bit of browns this Fall and included some greens (grass clippings).  With Winter here, the composting is very slow, so I've been bringing some kitchen scraps out there including vegetables, coffee grounds, egg shells to try to add some nitrogen. The three-bin setup is one that I haven't touched since the Fall after I piled on leaves. I set it up in Spring and started to add some material. I revisited the bin on December 1st when I had filled the left bin and the middle bin with Fall leaves (carbons).  A couple of weeks later, I posted about how I haven't been good about '

Via Dummies.com - Adding a pipe to aid in air flow of a compost pile.  This is not my photo - original here .  With Winter setting in hard, my mind continues to be on the yard and garden and things that I would like to do in 2020.  In my 2019 Yard and Garden To-Do List Scorecard, I included some items in the bottom of the post that are a starting point for my 2020 list.  This post is to remind myself of another item that should be on that list:  adding a pvc pipe to aid in aeration of our compost pile.  From this Dummies.com post - comes this idea of adding a piece of PVC pipe with holes bore into it to add air flow (and even water flow to keep the pile wet) to a compost pile.  That image at the top of this post isn't my image - it is from that very Dummies.com post .   The last time I looked at my compost pile (we have a 3 bin system) was when I had thrown in about half of our Fall leaves and began to use the second bin for storage of carbon (leaves).  To speed up th

Last weekend, I was out cleaning up the yard when my neighbor to the south offered his lawn tractor and aerator for my yard.  I had not have had my lawn aerated since we moved in and it is something that I've been wanting to do.  The tractor fit through my back gate and with the help of my neighbor, we hooked up the aerator - which is a tow-behind variety.  With some help, we put the three big bricks on the back and then lowered down the rig to begin to plug some holes. I had to be pretty careful because I didn't want to puncture the wires for my automower, so I stayed away from the perimeter and also tried to avoid the guidewire down the middle of the yard. As for the system, it put in a uniform set of holes across the yard.  Check out the pattern below: And here's a few of the plugs that it pulled and threw around: I wasn't able to do the ENTIRE lawn, but I did most of it.  The hill/incline right near the patio, the very edge and the parts near the ho