A Sampling of Compost Gardening Methods
Here is a quick look at some of the methods we describe in the Complete Compost Gardening Guide. We'll be adding more pictures and ideas, so look for steady expansion in these pages.
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Banner Batches: Excellent quality compost made with available materials and managed carefully in terms of air, moisture, C/N ratio and temperature. Banner Batches produce the black gold craved by gardeners, but so do many other methods that require less labor and little or no special materials. There is much more to Compost Gardening than making fancy Banner Batches, but when the right materials and weather come together, who can resist the thrill of making the best?
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Comforter Composting: Composting method in which compostable materials are spread over the soil in layers, like a comforter. As the ingredients rot, they compact into a thick, rich mulch that smothers grass and weeds beneath it. Peas, beans and other legumes grow well in Comforter Compost, as do squash and tomatoes. In established beds, use the Comforter Compost method when tucking in beds for winter.
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Layered Crater: an underground, plantable Compost Gardening method in which approximately half of the soil removed from a deeply dug bed is replaced with layers of compost materials. After hard digging up front in sites with hard subsoil (or nonexistent topsoil), a Layered Crater will become a deep, fertile bed in one season.
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Catch-And-Release Vermicomposting: Composting that is done mostly by earthworms, some of whom are borrowed to work through winter in indoor bins. Later, they can be released into outdoor heaps or garden soil. Infinitely practical and hugely beneficial to soil and plants, composting with worms is cool, creative fun.
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Grow Heap: A specially designed cold compost heap that contains several layers of soil, making it suitable for growing many types of plants. Winter squash, pumpkins, and other cucumber family crops, as well as tomatoes and potatoes often thrive when grown in slowly decomposing Grow Heaps.
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Hospital Heap:
a compost pile built to receive hard-to-handle ingredients such as disease- or insect-ridden plants or seed-bearing weeds; after it shrinks, the pile is subjected to high temperatures to neutralize these problems. If you don't have easy access to manure, you can heap up a Hospital Heap with grass clippings and rabbit feed (alfalfa pellets) or cheap dry dog food (mostly corn and soybean meals). This heap made of weathered leaves, mildewed squash and seed-bearing weeds is smokin' on about 8 pounds of bargain brand dog food and two mower bags of spring grass clippings.
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Coming soon:
Tracking a Walking Heap as it travels 15 feet, in video!
Graphic coverage of weedy compost being sterilized in a solar cooker
Sex lives of captive earthworms, revealed
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