Holy cow, Steve ...... got rocks?

If that *soil* was around here, you'd have sold the mineral rights and be sitting somewhere with a cool breeze, tall drink, and on the cell phone to your broker, because that would be a gravel pit.

Are you talking kitchen scraps, Steve, or when the first bin in the compost row is finished?

Dan

This is my "small rocks" garden, David. The garden soil in the other garden can be seen behind those early tomatoes in the 1st tomato thread.

Well, I've done both Dan. But this was "everything available" and nearly all of it was fresh and green! I threw a lot of weeds and roots from harvested lettuce in the trench dug today. The outside leaves of the cabbage went underground . . . good to get it gone!

Steve

Something I want to point out to you . . .

It isn't the best photo with that little camera but notice the limited amount of flea beetle damage to something like this, grown in late summer.

I would have sprayed this bok choy twice to keep flea beetles off if this was spring-sown.

S'

I have way fewer flea beetles this year. Much more other things, but the flea beetles are a non-issue. Few on my trap crops too.

Dan

That looks so good that I just went on line and ordered bok choy seed. And some other while I was there. that's the way it usually works.
Kenny

Photo's with my cellphone, about a week ago:

Here is the 2009 potato bed compost-in-place after 12 months. It grew bok choy late that year, then onions and lettuce this season.

Other than what appear to be melon seeds . . . I can't find anything identifiable in the ground! Well, identifiable in terms of what went in that soil in August of 'o9! My rocks seem a little diluted and there are those worms!

Here is what I tossed in and, basically, what it got in 'o9 -- compostables!

It is a real mix of plant material. About my only compost rule is "no meat and nothing cooked."

Here is what I put on top (It is too late for sowing seed):

This bok choy was thinned and transplanted from the bed shown in the 1st picture on this thread. These are from the last seed sown in that bed.

I like to do this annually but it requires a great deal of compostables and a good deal of digging. I can do this in my smaller garden, however, and have for several years.

Steve

You know I keep putting off getting my rear out there and doing some last minute winter sowing. I have so much to be done and, hopefully I can spend some more time doing it soon.
Thanks for the pics Steve, that middle one kinda looks like the hogs lunch.

Belinda

Hi Belinda Lee!

I appreciate you could buzzzing by!

(Do ladybugs buzz? ;o)

S'

Depends on where your from and what you feed them.

Its funny your talking about direct composting since that is what I am doing this winter. I am finally getting some of my other beds done, and rather than waiting for the compost to be ready, I am composting in place, less work, less time.

B

In my world, ladybugs should buzz . . .

It looks like I will not put together a compost pile this year. It has been a task to keep up with composting-in-place but I've done something like this, forever.

Decades ago, I learned the value of soil in compost. It really works well to cap the pile at the end of the season with a layer of soil several inches thick. It also helps decomposition to put in a layer just before the weather gets real warm in July. A few bags of chicken manure helps gets things going at that time, too.

In a dry climate, the compost decomposes best when it has direct contact with the ground. Digging down 8", or so, and then starting the pile in that pit resulted in good quality compost in the bottom of the pile at the end of the process. The surface layer may be kind of rough but that bottom layer was always really good stuff!

I want to have the compost somewhere the sprinkler can keep it moist. It followed that putting it into the garden made sense. But, I had permanent paths. That left the beds for composting.

And, I had read a book back in the '70's by Peter Chan called "Better Vegetable Gardens the Chinese Way." (I've ordered that book so I can be sure that I remember correctly.) My take-away from reading that book all those many years ago was that burying plant material and kitchen wastes and covering with the soil where the plants will grow, makes good sense.

Really, I've always been half-way there with my compost piles, anyway. Somewhere along the line, I stopped putting everything in the piles and started digging out beds, putting compostables in there, and refilling. A good fertilizer goes in the surface soil before planting but, that's all there was to it.

Steve

You know, I once lived in the Arizona desert. That is one of those places that it seems you can put anything out in the sun and within 6 months its sand. No nutrients, no organic matter, just sand. I once put a unopened bag of organic mulch on a table there as an experiment, in a year, the bag had decomposed and the "mulch" did not look much like mulch, just sand.

Anyway, right in the middle of this desert there was a much older (around 75ish) lady that I met while going garage sale-ing. Her yard was lush and fabulous!! While she was showing me around, she was eating a banana. When she was done, she just picked a spot and buried it right in the garden. She told me that is how she had been doing it for years and that is what produced her garden.

I think some of the old ways should really be brought back. I'll keep penicillin though!

Since I build my raised beds in cinder blocks, when I build a new bed, I use several layers of feed bags on the bottom (paper from the livestock feed), top it with manure (usually rabbit) then compostables, leaves, horse and then chicken manure. Usually by spring it is pretty well ready to plant. Summer scraps go to the hogs, sometimes the goats. It all works pretty well.

When I get done with classes, I will have to check out that book, one I have not read yet!

B

I decided to start 1 bed this way just a few weeks ago after deciding that I rather seed perennials for next spring so i was excited to see that it works! LOL! I figured that if I started burying crap in there it will eventually break down & compost into the ground over the fall/winter. I do have a question though is do you keep the area covered? how do you prevent weed seeds from settling in? My plan is to till and spray with RU before planting in the bed. Any better suggestions?

Preventing weed seed settling in before spring planting, Alice?

Well, I can't. And, no I don't cover the bed.

My plan for controlling weeds is built primarily around just keeping things moving -- in and out of the ground. I'm not the happiest weeder. Currently, all the dang lawn grass that is in many of my paths gets scraped up and tossed into these beds as they are refilled. It is apparent to me that the lawn grass shows up because the seed comes in on my shoes. Tilling will happen soon in areas of the garden where I am not re-working the beds.

Composting thru the winter months doesn't really happen. The 5 months of the growing season is quite a bit different below ground from the 7 months of frost.

When I have dug down in the spring, I have found that not only is much of the material still easily identifiable, much of it is still green!

I suppose that this indicates kind of a good thing. Green chlorophyll is made up of nitrogen, amongst a few other things. That nitrogen changes to a gas and is lost into the air if the compostables are just exposed to the atmosphere.

S'

Weeds are just plants without a purpose, yet. Mine get pulled (eventually) and fed to chickens, goats or pigs. I have to admit I'm not very diligent about it either. I'm still pulling the summers weeds from the lower than low priority areas and feeding then to the goats. The chickens only want the really fresh, young ones and the pigs are feeding us now. I never cover beds either unless I am trying to kill something (two years of the bindweed being covered by a very heavy tarp, no more bindweed)

Have a nice winter guys and dream of spring

B