Quote:
Originally Posted by wdfifteen
You'll probably need two of these. If you just keep throwing stuff in one you'll end up with a some finished compost and some fresh garbage all mixed together. You put stuff in one, until it's half to 3/4 full and let it cook. Switch to filling the other one. Hopefully the first one will be done by the time the 2nd one is ready to cook.
Check moisture levels and turn once a week to make it cook faster.
|
Our "second one" is the pile on the ground behind the barrel. When the barrel gets a good supply of compost, it gets dumped on the ground, and leaves are mixed in. The angle of the brick wall and the stockade fence with the bushes is a perfect free, no labor leaf trap. We rake up the leaves deposited by the wind and put them in the back trash can in the background. The bottom of that barrel is cut out, so it just hold the leaves, and starts them composting, to be mixed in with the pile on the ground. Like Seahawk, my wife is also a Master Gardener, and it is all her system. She does not grow human food, just flowers for the bees, and butterflies. It gets freaky with all the butterflies fluttering around. Knowing 100% butterflies are totally harmless, having a few dozen of them flying around you head is unnerving. She had one bush literally buzzing with hundreds of honey bees on it. It sounded like an overloaded transformer buzzing away.
I am just the unpaid labor source for the compost and yard work. I can pretty much keep up with the law clippings in the barrel.
It is a rich source of earthworms. When our dachshund killed a young bunny rabbit, I just shallow buried it on the compost pile. A few weeks later there was no trace of it, and no dead animal stink at the time. Just earthworm poop.