Those who have followed this blog at one time or another, or at least toured around the site, will likely know that I get a kick out of setting up winter composting systems every year to see if I can keep them fully active throughout the winter. I’ve jokingly referred to this annual challenge as my “Winter Composting Extravaganza”.
I wrote about my Extravaganza here for one of the four winters I’ve been doing this (and of course, set up my Winter Composting page at that time as well). The following year I moved things over to Red Worm Composting, and that’s where it’s remained.
Last year, I set up a huge straw-bale worm bed over at my dad’s place (with his assistance). It worked very well, and we ended up having no real problem keeping it active all winter. The main issue however, was the fact that it was at HIS house, not mine. This made the project into a rather time-consuming endeavor, and as a result I didn’t do as much with it as I would have liked.
This year I decided that it only made sense to host the Extravaganza in my backyard once again – this time testing out a different strategy from any of the previous years. I set up a big windrow bed, using lots of straw for insulation (along with a black tarp over top). I was guardedly optimistic about my chances of success. After all, the system didn’t hold near the volume of my straw-bale bed, and it was located in a totally unprotected location (i.e. not directly behind the house, or in a sheltered backyard, as my other two systems have been).
Over the holidays, my worries seemed to transform themselves into a self-fulfilling prophecy, and I watched as the temperature in the bed dipped down very close to the freezing mark (in fact, there were plenty of zones that were totally frozen. In my defense, this DID happen to be a busy time for me, so I definitely didn’t give the system the attention it deserved!
I decided enough was enough in the new year, and worked hard to get the bed back in good shape. I added lots of new food material (food waste, hay, leaves, manure. coffee grounds) and some additional insulation (straw + a blanket). I even ran a string of rope lights through the middle to see if a little artificial warmth would help to get things going.
Well, as you might guess, everything turned out just fine, and as it stands, I would have to say that this has been my most successful system to date! Temperatures in the core of the pile have been above 20 C (68 F) for the better part of a month now. I have been monitoring the temps from inside my house using a remote weather station device (with the weather probe sealed in a ziplock bag and buried in the pile).
We just had a big snow storm yesterday, and as you can see, the snow is melting off the top of the bed.
I’m happy to report that the Red Worm population is also doing very well. I dug around in the pile a few days ago and found nice masses of worms munching away on the wastes down below. I am actually planning to start harvesting worms for customers fairly soon.
Anyway, if you are interested in reading more about this year’s Extravaganza, be sure to check out the posts over at Red Worm Composting. Here they are (in chronological order):
I’m UK based (Cambridgeshire) and new to vermiculture. Last summer I purchased 2lbs Dendrobaeana worms (European Nightcrawlers – Dendrobaena veneta / Eisenia hortensis) from Kathy at Witneyveg.blogspot.com. I’d already built two containers for my garden compost from four by one timber, treated and jointed using simple halving joints (allows me to reduce the height to enable turning the compost).
Initially I split the worms between the two compost heaps and hoped for the best. I cover the top with some old carpet (not foam backed!) which helps keep moisture in and the birds out. I just left them to it initially, let them acclimatise. Since I fill the bins alternately throughout the summer (grass cuttings, weeds, dead flowers, shredded hedge clippings etc) I’m afraid it wasn’t nicely rotted food they were getting. I set up a kitchen waste container, a plastic ‘bucket’ that holds a couple of pounds of waste, and we fill it with leftover (raw) foodstuff, mainly vegetables. This is fed to the worms, probably once per fortnight? I alternate between the bins, or split it between them.
In using the compost I tend to fill one and leave the other till it’s mature. Once I’ve used the mature one on the garden (I leave about six inches in the bottom for the worms) I swap over and start to fill the near empty one, leaving the fuller one to mature. I should turn the bins over every few weeks… but like others, I’m a bit lazy. I guess I do it about twice or three times a year. OK, I’m a lot lazy, but I do get my compost! My worms are there though I’ve no idea on quantity. I’ve tried shredded paper and cardboard, which they seem to love, coming up to the surface to munch on it! Other than that they have the place to themselves and seem to manage.
Winter bothered me at first, but it’s now February and I can still find worms fairly easily, even in the (what was) near empty bin with barely six inches of ‘food’ for the worms. So I guess the temperature didn’t drop to low values for too long, although this winter has been harsh by UK standards.
More recently, my wife bought six chickens (don’t ask) which we duly set up in the garden. We tend to let them loose in the garden after noon, but so far the carpet has kept them out of the compost bins! One of the benefits of the chickens this winter is that they scratch up the leaves from our boundary fence (Hawthorne hedge) which keeps them moist and over time has created a great layer of mixed grass and leaves, which I’m frantically trying to rake up and feed to the compost heap… worms (not sure which benefits the most!). Either way I’m grateful to the chicks for the service! Now if only they would rake up my lawn, get the dead grass out of it? Ah well. Another problem they posed was what to do with their droppings collected in the hen house each week. A mix of straw(for the laying boxes) and chicken muck. I have read it’s a bit acid (alkaline?) to go directly on the garden and I was tentative about putting it in the compost heap, so I’ve split it between a new part of the garden I’m digging over… the chickens are better at turning over loose soil than I, and the compost heap. No damage so far, the worms seem not to have reacted negatively.
In summary, my compost quality has improved, the chickens have increased the volume and the worms are still there as we approach spring!
Dave Pawson is a software engineer, nearly retired, with gardening pretentions
but little skills! He maintains a couple of web based standards FAQs. His homepage is: http://www.dpawson.co.uk
Let me answer that question with another question. Why not? I started my first raised bed garden out of desperation. I live on the Mogollon rim in Northeaster Arizona. Translate: Mogollon rim to rock cliff. When I first moved here, I painstakingly sifted a tiny bit of dirt from rock and planted in containers. The pine forest soil is so poor, that even with ample fertilizer, my plants were stunted. I had heard of square foot gardening, and decided to give it a try. After the first rasied bed season, I asked myself, “Why didn’t I do this before?”.
1) Lessen or Eliminate Bending and Kneeling
Creating a raised bed garden gives you, the gardener, ultimate control. You control the height of the bed. So, if you have trouble bending over or working on your knees, make the bed a comfortable height for yourself. However, it’s my personal belief that a raised bed doesn’t “need” to be any taller than 18 inches.
2) Weeds Be Gone
Your backyard soil has probably decades of weed seeds just waiting for the right conditions to sprout. This is especially true if you live in the arid southwest as I do. Add water, and you’ve got weeds up the whazoo.
By filling a raised bed with everything but your native soil (or maybe just a little), weeds are a thing of the past. This was an unexpected but very pleasant surprise with my first raised bed garden. No weeds.
Any weeds that do happen to sprout are easily plucked from the soft, airy soil. The soil mix I use is basically coir (peat substitute), compost, and vermiculite. Then I add other stuff I have around that’s handy, maybe some sifted soil, pine bark mulch, horse manure, or charcoal.
3) High Density Planting Uses Less Space
Thanks to the wonderful soil mix used in raised beds, you can get more yield from a smaller space. This benefit is two fold. One, the plants can be closer in physical proximity because of the readily available moisture and nutrients. Two, the plants will produce more because of readily available soil and nutrients.
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There’s so much more to be said about the benefits of raised bed gardens, but I’ll save it for future posts. For more information on creating a soil mix, see my article: “Soil Mix for Raised Bed Gardens”
What’s your favorite part of raised bed gardening?
Anyone who has monitored this website for any length of time will obviously realize that I haven’t had much luck with adding content on any sort of a regular basis (I have a pretty full schedule, and have put a lot more emphasis on continuing to develop the Red Worm Composting site), which is unfortunate since I DO feel there is a lot of potential here!
I’ve toyed with a number of different ideas, and have decided to see if I can get some guest bloggers involved. I love learning about the cool projects people are involved in (relating to composting, gardening, urban agriculture etc), and would enjoy providing people with the opportunity to share that info here. Apart from spreading the word about what you are doing (or are interested in), there will also be the added advantage of receiving a link back to one or two of your own websites (helpful for traffic and overall search engine rankings). Those who contribute regularly will also receive a link in the sidebar, their own private login, and even their own author profile page.
The requirements (and the info in this post in general) will likely change over time as I get a feel for the type of content people are wanting to submit, but here are some basic guidelines to get us started:
Articles should be 400 words or more, and relate to ANY of the following topics: organic gardening, urban/country farming, composting, vermicomposting, bokashi, homesteading, self-sufficiency, backyard chickens/rabbits etc, aquaponics (not an exhaustive list but should give you some idea)
Images will certainly be appreciated but are not mandatory. Full width pics should be 500px, while insets should be 250px. Please add any watermarks (copyright, website URL etc) yourself if you want them included
I recommend sending me an email before submitting anything – at least for your first article. Just to make sure we are on the same page.
As mentioned, I LOVE learning about the cool projects/experiments etc that other people are involved in – so don’t be shy about tooting your own horn!
You are welcome to include two links to your own sites/pages either solely in the signature section or a combination of the signature and the body of the text. You are welcome to link to other people’s sites in the body of the article as well (within reason). Embedding your own YouTube video (something I encourage) does not count as a link to one of your pages.
Affiliate links are not allowed in submitted articles
I reserve the right to make small edits (and/or exclude certain photos etc), such as typos etc, without contacting the author – if significant changes are recommended, I will certainly discuss this further with you.
I also reserve the right to reject outright any content submitted if I don’t feel is in line with the overall mission of the Compost Guy site
OK – now that I’ve made myself sound like some sort of fascist dictator (haha), let me assure everyone that I am a very easy going, friendly guy, and am really just looking “real” people who want to share their message (again, assuming it has something to do with the topics mentioned above) with others!
If you have any questions/comments or would like to tell me off please send me an email!
I came across this cool video while I was doing some searching for my new ‘Compost Bin Plans‘ site (and have included this video there as well). It is more the concept itself, rather than the technical building details of the system built in the video, that I find really interesting. You certainly wouldn’t need to buy expensive decorative blocks in order to create something just as functional. Basic concrete construction blocks would certainly do the trick. If you are going to use blocks like this it is probably not a bad idea to do it PROPERLY as outlined in the video (with a sand foundation etc), especially if you live in a cold region where winter ground heaving might occur.
That being said, I’m sure you could get away with simple stacking the blocks – you could always go back and make adjustments if ends up a little off-kilter. One thing about the regular building blocks to keep in mind – they obviously won’t look nearly as nice as those used in the video, so you may not want to simply build it in the middle of your lawn.
Speaking of which, if you happen to have any hills on your property, building a system like this right into the side of a hill would be a great way to create more of an ‘all-season’ composter, since the earth will be great for insulation. If you took it a step further, simply using straw bales instead of concrete blocks would help to provide even more insulation value. The only downside of this approach is that the bales will need to be replaced every couple of years, or perhaps even more frequently if you live in a fairly warm, wet location.
I know I am biased here, but adding composting worms to a system like this would also be really cool. Just make sure you wait until temperatures in the system are low enough (assuming you add a bunch of materials at once when setting it up).
Hi Folks! Sorry I’ve let the site go silent for so long (yes, a recurring problem – haha). I think the important thing is that I don’t completely give up on it – nor will I likely ever do so (I’m kinda stubborn that way). As per usual, I’ve been spending most of my time over at Red Worm Composting - so I certainly haven’t fallen off the planet or anything.
Aside from being tired of staring at ‘Monet’s Pallette’, and apologizing yet again for a lapse in posts, I also wanted to take the opportunity to tell you about a fairly new project of mine. Don’t worry – it’s much more of a static resource site than this one was intended to be, so people won’t end up disappointed when new blog posts aren’t added.
Let me start by saying that it is VERY MUCH a work-in-progress, so please don’t judge ‘the book by its cover’.
As the name of this post implies, it is called ‘Compost Bin Plans‘, and also as the name implies it is all about DIY composting equipment (and then some). One of the things I’ve noticed since writing about composting online is that there are a LOT of people really interested in creating their own composting bins/beds and related ’stuff’ (harvesters, tumblers etc etc). What’s great is that there are also lots of good resources instructing you HOW to make a lot of great systems.
My aim is to basically provide a central resource for tracking down this information. Another major (now longer term) goal is to actually make available various DIY composter plans as well – I was all set to team up with a talented builder/designer this fall, but things ended up having to be put on the back-burner due to commitments on his end. As I have likely written here (and have certain written elsewhere), I myself am “all thumbs”, with very little in the way of building/designing skill – you might even go so far as to say that I ‘couldn’t build my way out of a paper bag’!
Ok, so I’m being a little hard on myself! After all, I DID manage to build my own decent backyard worm bed (see ‘Building a Compost Bin – Part I‘ for a picture of it) – and in fact, I think it is that accomplishment (I truly shocked myself) that has also helped to make me want to create this site. I want to encourage/inspire all those folks who think they “can’t building anything” and make them realize that they CAN!
Due to my passion for vermicomposting, I am of course going to be including plenty of ‘how tos’ for making vermicomposting systems and equipment (worm harvesters etc) as well. I also will be dedicating a full section to ‘Compost Tumbler Plans‘, and ‘Composting Toilet Plans‘ since both of these are very expensive pieces of equipment when purchased from a manufacturer (not that I’m saying that buying one is “bad” – just want people to realize that you can indeed make all of these things). You’ll notice that these other pages have not been developed yet – but I’m definitely hoping to do so very soon. Again, the entire site is going to be growing and changing a LOT over the next few months.
Compost tumblers in particular seem to have become hugely popular in recent years, and with that popularity seems to have come an army of ‘Do-It-Yourselfers’ who don’t feel like shelling out hundreds of dollars for one of these systems. Just on YouTube alone there are lots of cool ideas and ‘how tos’ for making one of these systems at home.
By the way – if you have cool/helpful plans that you want to share, or you know of some quality DIY composter (etc) plans, please don’t hesitate to let me know so I can add them to the site. Also, if there is some particular system or piece of equipment that you would really like to build yourself but can’t find instructions to do so, please email me as well, and I’ll see if I can track something down.
Just so you know, aside from developing the Compost Bin Plans site further over the next few months, I also have plans to get things moving along here as well. My search for interesting DIY plans has certainly reminded me of just how many cool websites and resources there are out there focused on the topic of composting – so I’ll likely be spending more time writing about some of these here.
Not too long ago I wrote about my sunflower ‘privacy fence’, and how I was somewhat disappointed with the end result.
Well, I guess I wrote too soon – the best was still to come! As mentioned, the seed mix I used for the garden is called ‘Monet’s Pallete’ since it contains a nice selection of different varieties (and colors). While some nice flowers had emerged by the time I wrote the blog post, during the past week the sunflower patch really seems to have come to life! The plants themselves have continued to grow as well, so apart from the great aesthetic appeal, they are even becoming more of a fence than expected.
Anyway, here are some photos of the various flowers that have been emerging. My favorite variety has to be the second one down. I took that shot just before the sun went down, so the flower almost seems to be glowing – pretty wild!
When I came across the giant bugs pictured above, I was really excited. Not only did I think I’d found beneficial assassin bugs in my garden – but they were MATING! Well, my excitement waned considerably after doing some Google searches (relating to the cucumber beetles pictured below), and I happened upon the image of something referred to as a ’squash bug’.
Did I mention I’m still a little wet behind the ears with this organic gardening stuff?
When I came across this hemipteran pair doing the deed, I also happened to notice a set of large insect eggs nearby. A quick search for “squash bug eggs” today basically eliminated any doubt in my mind re: the identity of these pests (assassin bug eggs look nothing like this). Oh well! Live and learn.
I am actually still very happy to have found the squash bugs and their eggs, since I’m trying to compile a decent photo collection of beneficial and pest insects. It has been the only squash bug sighting so far this year, so I’m not all that worried about them.
Cucumber beetles on the other hand, seem to be quite abundant in the garden this year. I’ve found them on all my cucurbits – although only my actual cucumber plants seem to be suffering at all (and relatively little, at that). As you can see in the images below, my zucchinis and pumpkins seem to be doing just fine.
There is actually some academic evidence to indicate that vermicompost can help plants to fend off insect pests – so that might help to explain why I’m not really seeing any serious issues (the zucchinis and pumpkins are both bordered by my main vermicomposting trench). There is little doubt that the overall boost in plant growth provided by worm poop would also help to keep the plants healthy in general.
One of the things that has always bothered me about my property – ever since moving here four years ago – has been the lack of privacy. I live on a corner lot, and while there technically is a fence in the backyard, most of it is 4 feet high.
I’ve toyed with the idea of upgrading the current fence to something more substantial, but have continued to resist the temptation, largely due to the costs and potential hassles involved.
Rather than simply tolerating the extreme exposure again this summer, I decided to try something a little different – I set out to grow my own privacy fence!
My back fence-line (or lack thereof) in particular has bothered me the most since this is actually the only stretch of the 4 foot fence that directly borders one of my neighbor’s yards. This particular neighbor spends a fair amount of time in their yard, and sets up a swimming pool for the summer months, so I didn’t imagine that they’d mind having a little more privacy as well. Aside from that, they seem to have a somewhat different opinion on how a backyard should look (manicured, fertilized lawn), so I don’t imagine they would mind NOT having to look at my unruly (”all natural”) mess of vegetation for part of the year either.
The main task when planning a natural fence is of course deciding what type of plant(s) to grow. Some of the main considerations include: 1) maximum height, 2) growth speed, and 3) aesthetic appeal. While it was obviously very important to select a plant that would attain a height greater than that of the current fence, I also felt that it was fairly important for the plants to be reasonably attractive (no point creating yet another eyesore for my neighbor to look at!).
The first plant that came to mind was Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus). I can clearly remember how enormous these plants grew in my dad’s garden back when I was a kid. I also seemed to recall something about the roots being edible. Add to that the fact that Jerusalem Artichoke is also a perennial, and it’s no wonder I thought I had hit upon the ‘ultimate’ natural fence plant. What ended up changing my mind however, was the fact that this plant is apparently very invasive and tough to manage once it becomes established (something I learned from someone with more experience growing them). The last thing I wanted to do was create a future headache for myself (and potentially even my neighbor).
I thought about various types of shrubs (preferably ones with some sort of edible fruit/nut) as an option. I liked the idea of creating something permanent, but alas my impatience got the better of me and I decided I didn’t want to wait multiple growing seasons for my ‘fence’ to mature.
As such, I settled on sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) – more specifically, ‘pollen-free’ sunflowers – as my plant of choice for the natural fence-line. Rather than simply choosing a particular type – as tempted as I was to grow the monstrous ‘Kong’ variety – I opted for a seed mix known as ‘Monet’s Pallete’. I hoped this would provide me with enough height to make it worthwhile, and enough aesthetic appeal to catch peoples’ attention.
Overall, I have been a wee bit disappointed with the results thus far – but really happy I decided to try it out nevertheless. I suspect that the combination of planting the sunflower seedlings a little late, along with the cool, somewhat dreary weather we’ve been having this year, has resulted in the plants being a little shorter (and generally less impressive) than expected by now – here at the beginning of August. A number of the plants have grown above the 4 foot mark, but I certainly don’t have a nice 6 foot ‘hedge’ of beautiful sunflowers, the way I had envisioned.
Regardless, the combination of my tall sandbox corn patch and this stand of sunflowers makes for much more soothing atmosphere when I am puttering around at the back of the yard. I’m keeping in mind that ‘you gotta start SOMEWHERE‘, and feel really optimistic that next year’s ‘fence’ will be a lot more impressive!
Last year I wrote about a new raised bed garden I created from a sandbox that wasn’t getting much use in our yard. Of course, I wasn’t about to settle for making a run-of the-mill raised bed – mine needed to be a little different! At the time, I was starting to experiment with vermicomposting trenches (which you can learn all about on my Red Worm Composting site – check out the “Hot Topics” page), so I thought it might be fun to try running one of these trenches through the middle of the garden.
The crop plants I settled on for the original sandbox garden were giant pumpkins and potatoes. I figured the pumpkins would really benefit from the the water- and nutrient-rich food waste that was being added to the trench (and subsequently processed by a herd of Red Wiggler Worms), and that the potatoes might do well in the loose, sandy soil of the bed.
Despite the fact that the pumpkins didn’t get planted until mid-July, they still ended up doing quite well, We didn’t get a truly ‘giant’ pumpkin, but I was nevertheless very impressed with the sizable specimen that was ready in time for Halloween.
The potatoes, on the other hand, were a bit of a disappointment. Looking back, I can’t help but chuckle though, since I now realize how little I knew about growing spuds. As such, I don’t feel so bad about the poor show in that department (and have come back with potato guns a’ blazin this year to see if I can grow a better crop).
Speaking of which, while I certainly didn’t intend to grow any potatoes in the sandbox garden this year (I have other beds set aside for them), as it turns out, some leftover tubers have been making their presence know by growing into very healthy looking plants. I decided to just ‘go with the flow’ and see how well they end up doing among the other plants growing there.
My main intended crop this year is actually sweet corn. I thought the corn would appreciate the sandy, fertile soil – I should mention that the garden basically served as an overwintering bed for a sizable population of composting worms, so there was plenty of vermicompost left behind when I cleaned up the garden (transferring many of the worms to my main vermi-trenches) this spring. I also predicted that, if all went well, the corn garden would make for a pretty impressive show as part of my surburban mini-farm.
Sweet corn, pole beans, and renegade potato plants growing in this year’s ’self-fertilizing’ garden
My dad (a retired professor of Anthropology) told me how native people used to grow climbing beans close to corn so as to provide the demanding corn plants with more nitrogen, while also providing the beans with natural supports (the corn stalks). I thought this sounded like a really cool idea, and ended up planting two rows of yellow pole beans between my four rows of corn.
The vermicomposting trench in the sandbox garden is pretty low-key this year. I don’t have access to the same (massive) supply of food waste as I did last year, and have switched to using mainly aged horse manure and grass clippings.
I’ve been pretty impressed with how well the plants have been growing thus far. It has been a really cool summer so the corn is definitely behind schedule, but we live in a very serious corn-growing region so I’m frequently reminded of the fact that my corn plants are actually quite similar in size to those growing in local fields – yet are not receiving any chemical fertilizers. They ARE receiving a little something extra however, but I’ll save that topic for another post.
I can’t wait to see how the pole beans do! I must admit that the plants were all in pretty rough shape by the time they finally made it into the ground, but they seem to have bounced back very nicely and are growing up the cornstalks as predicted.
Pole bean runner winds its way up a corn plant
I was a little worried about the big potato plants impacting (literally – haha) the growth of the corn, but everyone seems to be getting along famously!
Anyway – I will be sure to provide one or two more updates on the sandbox garden as the summer progresses!
