Composting
We have been composting for several years now. Due to trees in our yard we have had the problem of tree roots getting into our compost pile. We recent moved one of the compost piles and I wanted to show you what we did to solve our problem with tree roots.
These tree roots can really mess up a good compost pile
The roots turn into a fine web of roots
After getting the soil fairly level we placed newspaper over the soil just to cover the roots to encourage them to go elsewhere.
Then we put down thick plastic
We placed stepping stones down to use as a semi solid bottom.
This is just a temporary holding spot until we make a better place but we had to start somewhere. This area of our yard is behind a work shop. This could stay like this but we want to spruce it so the yard won't be muddy and so it will look nice. There is nothing wrong to just leave it like this. Hey it is just dirt!
This is several months later and much improved compost area. We recently moved the rain barrels too and were still working on the drain pipes. Will update that as well when finished.
There are three bins in this location. As we are learning about making dirt we have found that we need many bins to make enough dirt to fill containers.
This bin that is empty is ready for the fall leaves. The first one with the bulap bags laying on top is used soil that we have added composting worms and we are feeding that bin to help improve the used soil.
These scraps are going out to be composted. The scraps on the left, the banana peels, coffee grounds, etc are going in the active compost bin. The scraps on the right, broccoli carrot peelings are going out to the bunnies.
The bunnys enjoy their vegetables and....
They give us bunny poop that also gets composted in the worm bin and the other composting bins by the composting worms along with the other composting critters.
Bunny Poop is a great manure for the garden. If you are going to keep bunnies please give them plenty of play space, fresh hay, fresh food and good healthy pellets from your co-op and lots of fresh water. They like to drink water from a pan and for extra water have a hanging spout waterer so they can lick the water just in case they dump their water over. Check on the bunnies often and give them a lot of attention. Consider the temperature, they cannot take very high heat. We keep a small airconditioner to use in their cage when it is very hot weather.
I take the carrot scraps out and feed them to the bunnies and I put the potato peelings into the active compost bin. What I mean by active is we have bins that are full and we are letting them just sit and just compost. Then we have active bins that we are still adding things, turning, adding, turning until it is full. This includes food scraps, grass clippings, leaves, lint from the dryer if I use it and more.
I put egg shells in a 275 degree oven for about 10 to 15 minutes. Don't go too hot for too long or you will cause a real stink in the house. Then I crumble them and put them in a blender until they look like cornmeal and toss it into the compost bin.
This is the worm bin. We keep it in the bunny house. We keep a small light hanging above the bin that comes on at night so the worms will stay settled. We keep cardboard on top of the bin to help keep moisture in and the cardboard keeps the bin darker and another food source for the worms. I also put a layer of shredded paper from my shredder if it does not have a lot of colored ink. The worms will eat that as well.
The worms make great castings to use use out in the garden. So the worm poop feeds the worms and the worm poop feeds the plants. I seperate the worms from the castings about three times a year and start the worms over with a small amount of soaked peat moss. It is a process that I really don't like to do but if you want a good organic food it takes hard work.
I have another page on this website just on the worm bin and how we started out all wrong and lost our first worms then settled into this bin that we have had now for several years. We would have outgrown this bin by now but I have put worms out in the larger bins.
