Why I Oughta...

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

This photo is about a week old, but shows you (basically) the current state of our three-bin compost setup that I made in the easement behind our lot.  Using some fence panels and long stakes, I made three 36" by 36" square 'bins' that I've been using this Summer and now Fall. Here's the original post showing the three-bin composter being setup in May of this year . Also, one note (for the garden diary ):  I've also filled the Compost Tumbler again this fall with a combination of greens and browns. The three bins all have distinct purposes and you can see that kind of taking shape here. Bin one (on the left): making a layered batch. Nitrogen. Then Carbon. Then Nitrogen. Then Carbon. Layers. Earlier this year, I added a bunch of grass and most of our weeds to provide some nitrogen.  I just added a layer of browns to this bin to get that layering going. But, before I add more, I need to add some 'greens'. With Winter here, that me

A few days ago, I posted a photo and the backstory of our new three-bin compost setup that I've created out in the back of our property and talked about how I plan on using the new setup along with my existing compost tumbler .  The biggest issue I've had with the tumbler is that I've learned that composting is a 'batch process'.  I get a great batch of compost out of the tumbler, but I usually don't get it fully done until about June of each year. To document the timing of it this year, I am sharing the photo at the top of this post.  This is what the material in our compost tumbler looks like right now.  You can see it isn't quite "Black Gold", but it is getting there.  The carbon material has almost fully broken down and the material has a loose consistency where you can put your hand in and it doesn't come out muddy but rather the stuff mostly falls right off.  It is rich and almost fluffy at this point.  Good, but NOT great.  The

We've been composting in our yard since 2009 when we bought a Lifetime Compost Tumbler from Costco .    We've been filling it each Fall since (except for the two seasons we lived in Equation Boy/Man's house in Elmhurst) and by late Summer, we have a nice batch of black gold.  In the ten years that I've been composting, I've learned that composting is a 'batch process'.  Meaning....you have to build up a full 'batch', get the right mix of nitrogen and carbon and then wait for it to cook. That 'batch process' I'm talking about is the big part of why our current setup (with a single large tumbler) isn't working hard enough for us.  What we currently do is during the Spring cleanup and all through the early part of the Summer, I collect material and just kind of pile it up next to the tumbler.  Why?  Why not *in* the tumbler?  Because it is still FULL from the previous batch. About June or so, after we've had six or more weeks