Put some fencing around one of the smaller boxes and shovel the HS into it to a depth of at least three feet so it will heat up again. Tell The Man it is your special carrot bed, and you are planning on growing a variety that might reach 3 feet or longer, so you really need that deep bed. Of course, you will give up on that carrot variety about the time the HS is ready to spread.

Hey, whatever works.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Great creative makeshift compost bin. But by all means, get thyself on craigslist or freecycle and build a simple compost bin from pallets. Worked for EG and I. Then you will have a place to add the much needed other ingredients to make the HM+ the perfect compost.

Sinfonian, "The Man" says no compost pile. Ribbit has to be a master of disguise!

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Can it be your new "lasagna" bed? That's what I have going at the moment.

I must have missed a post somewhere, who is this "Big Brother" that is drawing the line on compost?

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal

No offense, but I tend to agree with John here. I mean, you significantly reduce your garbage. I have a growing family of four, so we eat tons. Between my compost and my recycling bin, we have got down to less than a 20 gallon gan of garbage a week. We will cut that in half when my youngest is out of diapers.

Not to mention, compost is an absolute necessity in gardening. You'd be saving money on making your own without having to buy it by the bag. Unfortunately, HM is not the end all be all of composts. Diversity is key. Mix it with some kitchen scraps and maybe some grass clippings etc. and you'll have some grade A compost there.

Just some food for thought.

Trust me, Sinfonian, I've been fighting the good fight for the compost pile. The man (john, the "big brother" is my husband) is completely opposed to it. I think I may have just made it an unavoidable thing being that I've now got WAY too much HM and some will have to be "stored" (in a compost bin...see where this is going? *grin*) elsewhere until it's needed. Like Granny said, I'll have to mask it, but I'm thinking that after a few months, he won't even notice or care anymore. One made of pallets like you suggest may just show up unannounced one day. There's just not much room left in the yard for it after I've put the beds back there so for now, I'm stuck in the empty boxes. I know HM is not enough on its own and plan on adding some more to it, but it's a start for me!

I sort of understand where Ribbit's hubby is coming from. To the non-gardener (and I guess the non-eco alert), a compost pile is just a big pile of garbage that your loved one wishes to put in your carefully crafted yard. I can understand it would take time to get past that hurdle. He'll get there, but I think giving him a bit of time is worthwhile. I can only say that if my hubby had suddenly announced his deep desire to pile crap in my lawn, I would be seriously angered if he went around me to do it.

Ribbit -- my hubby wasn't too onboard to start with -- now he's even mostly ok that I've set up a worm bin in the bathroom.

Here's how I started -- One large cardboard box as an experiment. Put my food waste out there, covered it with strips of paper. When hubby noticed it, there wasn't any awful smell, it wasn't a permanent structure; it just happened to be a box of decomposing stuff.

I know you are limited in space -- is there another spot where you plan on putting another SFG? That would be a great place to put a box -- maybe a 2' square brown shipping box, cut the bottom out, and layer your HM with some browns. You already know that you will have to move some of your HM to make room in the box for soil.

Alternatively, you sacrifice one of your SFGs for the current season and do pit composting -- burying your food scraps/veggie waste in place. Then next year, (gosh that sounds soooooo long away), you plant in that bed and turn one of the others into compost central. If you go this route, you might want to put chicken wire or something over the top of the bed if you have digging animals in the same space.

Remind us again what hubby's reasoning is....appearance? bugs? critters? just principle?

Oooops, I did not know that rabbit, I was thinking you lived in one of those community coops and had to get permission from a committee.

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal

I like wonderpets idea. I should mention, though, that your beds will settle quite a bit. I would think that you could continue as you are doing until it's time to plant, also.

I am not sure how fast it will compost in a shallow RB/SFG bed. It will probably lose its heat and compost slowly. I would plant a test plant and see how it does before I put all my plants in.

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal

You know, I never pushed the topic of WHY we couldn't have a compost pile. He's let me build and even helped me with the garden and the makeshift seed starter, and hasn't yet balked at the cost or at letting me use the trailer and tarp to get the HS.

It just all keeps coming back to "the line". You must respect the line. He and I can have our own hobbies or projects just so long as they're within reason. Yes, I can have a garden. No, I can't have a compost pile. Yes, he can go motorcycle riding in the mountains on the weekends. No, he can't bring home any stranded, unwashed, scraggly haired, half clothed, peg legged riders he finds along the way.

Some lines make more sense than others, but who's keeping track. :)

As I was typing this, I turned around and point blank asked him why I couldn't have a compost pile. His response: "I'm not peeing on that blasted pile. Stop asking."

I think he missed my point.

Regardless, we've got a makeshift compost pile for now and I've got to do what I can to make the most of it that I can viable. Almost half of it will have to be moved elsewhere (but no, there's not another place with sun to put it). I'd like to keep it in a bin like John or EG's, but he's of the opinion I need to give it to the elderly traditional row gardeners up the street. That wouldn't be such a bad idea either. (side note, but the poor people lost their entire garden last year because they thought they could not water it because of the drought. They didn't know about the vegitable garden provision and I didn't know they didn't know until it was too late.)

I spelled vegetable wrong.

English teacher. Yup. That's me.

Nice.

*sigh*

Ribbit said:

I spelled vegetable wrong.

English teacher. Yup. That's me.

Nice.

*sigh*

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

That's ok....at least you didn't misspell "ribbit" Ha!

EG