Finished Compost
I promised a few of you that I would write about my experience composting with the ComposTumbler. About a month ago I emptied my tumbler completely, with the intention of filling it all at once, so I knew exactly what I put in, could document it and pass this information on to you. Now for an admission. I am a terrible record keeper. I would like to tell you that I have a bookshelf of garden journals, filled with dates, plant varieties, weather conditions and composting details, but instead I have a cubby crammed with seed catalogues and invoices with notes scribbled here and there. So, here is a recount of my composting experience from memory.
I, like many of you, have trouble finding dry brown material for my compost in the middle of summer. So, after the lawn was mowed I let the cut grass lay until brown and then raked it and put it in five gallon buckets in the shed until I was ready to compost. I then cleaned out my flower beds, filling my Smart cart to its maximum, almost spilling over, capacity with weeds (before they flowered) and other green garden waste. I alternated adding the weeds to the tumbler, first cutting them into 6” pieces, and the brown grass. I put in a good amount of weeds and then added a thin layer of grass, shaking it as I added to avoid clumping, until the Smart cart was empty. I then added 3/4 of a cart full of hay bedding from the chicken coop a little at a time, turning the Tumbler between additions. Because my material seemed very dry, I sprayed the material with water, turned it and sprayed again. I found that my materials squashed down to half the amount in about a day. I felt it needed more mass to get the heat going, so I added more chopped weeds and hay bedding. I turned it every day for a week and left for vacation where it sat for two weeks. When I returned I found that everything had decomposed except the hay. This is where I made a mistake. I decided to continue turning it everyday for another week to get the hay to break down. Instead it turned into hay compost balls. You can also see from the picture it is a little too wet.
Overall, I am pleased with the result of the compost, which is now in my garden feeding my hungry, August overachievers. I am going to continue to experiment with composting with hay. It is a good source of brown material we have on hand and I like the idea of incorporating the poultry manure into the compost. I am now onto a new batch, which will include more kitchen waste as I process all of these beautiful vegetables. I will let you know how it turns out. Good luck with your compost!
Tags: Compost, hay, poultry manure
Thank you for this lovely tour around your garden- enjoyed it so much!
It is good to experiment, and come out better , at least on additional knowledge…. Composting in my little garden is about piling up and turning over periodically…. By the time I want to use it…, it is only half done.., therefore A Layer of Mulch….
Good Luck to you,
~bangchik
Yes, the dry material is precious at this time of year. I hoarded every possible scrap during my spring clean up and used it in my compost throughout the summer – - worked beautifully. But now it’s gone and the leaves aren’t quite ready to fall and I don’t have chicken manure! Panic! Guess I’ll just dig around my small courtyard for little bits of dry things to put with all of my kitchen waste and hope for an early fall!!