| Welcome to our dirty, rotten neighborhood! |
Just like a nice compost pile, this site is forever in the process of becoming.
Please check back for photos, news, and a stream of nifty new ways to compost in your garden! Not just ways to use compost in your garden (we have those, too), but new ways to compost and grow veggies, herbs and flowers, all at the same time.
Do you have cool composting methods to share? Please tell us about them! We'll do our best to spread the word. Thanks for stopping by!
Barbara Pleasant and Deb Martin
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By Barbara
June 11, 2009
Biochar vs. Layered Crater
A few months ago I wrote about biochar for Mother Earth News, which scientists all over the world believe may be a boon to agriculture and environmental restoration. I wondered: would biochar made in a trench in the garden benefit vegetables?
Last fall, I began my experiment by establishing two new beds:
>The Biochar bed was dug 14 inches deep, then piled 4 feet high with hard-to-compost materials including brambles, invasive weeds and shrub prunings. I burned the stuff about halfway, then snuffed the fire with moist soil. A second burn was done 6 weeks later. In spring, as I filled in the last few inches of the trench with reasonably good soil, I mixed in a standard application of a balanced organic fertilizer.
>The Layered Crater bed was dug 14 inches deep, then filled in with alternate layers of garden compost, soil, old mulch, more soil, and so forth, along with the same amount of organic fertilizer used in the biochar bed.
Two seedlings each of ‘Delicata’ and ‘Early Butternut’ squash were set out in each bed on May 20. Since then, we have had unusually abundant rain.
As of June 11, the plants in the Layered Crater are noticeably larger than the ones in the Biochar bed. Stay tuned! Updates to come, along with details on the next Biochar experiment – studding buckets of curing compost with chunks of charcoal from the wood stove.
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Above, two species of winter squash appear to be growing well in a Layered Crater.
Below, the same squash are falling behind in the biochar bed.
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| April 9, 2009
We are proud to announce that The Complete Compost Gardening Guide has received a Silver Award of Achievement in the 2009 Garden Writers Association Media Awards program. Out of 307 entries in the book/writing category, we made the top 3!
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| Earth Machines, in triplicate! |
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| By Barbara
February 10, 2009
You composters are so inventive! Credit for this great new idea – composting under the shelter of hedges – goes to Bill B of Baton Rouge, Louisiana:
"I store extra grass and leaves under the hedges until the material can fit in the compost bin. The stuff partially composts there, and it protects the bare ground from spring weeds and run-off."
Hedge composting makes perfect sense, and I guess that's what I'm doing with the mound of sawdust that's mellowing down by the raspberries. But when I think of all the people out there who could mow their clippings right into a mound under their hedge, and then use them in their compost later --- the saved labor this method could rack up is mindboggling.
Like most experienced composters, Bill keeps several compost maneuvers going at a time, including four Earth Machines. Last week in my garden I counted up 7 composting projects, and there will be more when I finish layering up some Comforter Composts for spring planting. How many Compost Gardening projects do you have going so far? Today is a great day to start one!
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| Plant-killing Herbicide Persists in Manure |
July 2, 2008
By Barbara
Composters, beware! A herbicide sold under the trade names of Forefront® and Milestone® has ruined hundreds of gardens in Great Britain, and it can happen here, too. Used mostly to control perennial weeds in pastures, the herbicide can survive being digested by horses – and then being piled up for months as compost. Especially sensitive plants such as lettuce, beans and tomatoes refuse to grow and wither when planted in soil that contains very small amounts of residue. These herbicides do not injure grasses, so they are often used in fields where manure-producing animals graze.
Registered with the EPA in 2005, Forefront® and Milestone® are chemically similar to Confront®, the herbicide that survived commercial composting and went on to contaminate gardens in Washington eight years ago. These products are widely available at farm supply stores across the country. Anyone can buy them.
Be selective if you decided to import manure for composting projects. Manure from animals that have fed in pastures that have been treated with these pesticides should be considered unsuitable for garden use.
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COMPOST GARDENER'S DIGEST
Norman, Oklahoma, June 5, 2008
Who says mulch-quality compost isn't hot stuff? A dozen firefighters had to douse the flames when brisk winds fueled the flames of a spontaneously ignited fire in Norman's city compost pile. Workers said they often see little fires break out in the compost, but they can usually put them out by covering them up.
Washington County, Maryland
Writing in the Herald-Mail, lifestyle reporter Julie Greene checks in with local composters and then brings the story together with a quick video.
What do bikes and compost have in common? Check this video on pedal-powered compost to see how some enterprising folks from Montreal have brought the two together.
Composting lots of coffee grounds? In Lane County, Oregon, extension researchers are finding that coffee grounds can heat up compost better than manure. These folks are carefully tracking the effects of aerated compost tea on roses, too, and we're not surprised that the results so far show no reduction in disease for roses sprayed every two weeks over a two year period.
If you have basic carpentry skills and tools to match, you can build you own Double-Decker Drum Composter based on this nicely-illustrated how-to from instructables.com.
It could be argued that everything they do on Capitol Hill is a little off subject, but Josephine Hearn's From Capitol Hill to the Compost Pile is fun reading!
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