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SUBJECT:
Compost.
Q:
Hi Mel
- I am an employee of the County Extension and live
in Nebraska. I have a question for you about the use of compost
in your mixture for beds.
In conversations with the City officials in charge
of the lawn waste
composting project, they have informed me that some herbicide
residues are present in the compost which will cause some
plant damage if used more than their recommended rate of 1"
compost per 6" of soil. Now in your "Mel's Mixture"
it seems that the herbicide in the compost would have an effect
due to the large amount used, much more than the 1" recommended.
So my question is; will composted cow manure (over 2 years,
not fresh) work in place of the city compost? Also, the city
compost is at pH of 7.9. Does lime need to be added? Thanks
in advance.
A:
Thanks
for your letter
and I can see some of the confusion, but it is very simply
this: You’re trying to think of lawn waste compost as what
we call "a good backyard compost made from many
different ingredients." Lawn waste compost
is not the same. It is merely just one ingredient
in the compost and, remember, we suggest that you limit each
ingredient to only 10% - at the most 20% of the total volume.
So, if you have six inches of Mel’s Mix and compost is one-third,
that would only be two inches and if lawn waste compost was
only ten percent of the compost, that would be 2/10 of an
inch in the total six inches. Your county recommendation is
not more than one inch, so we are 1/2 of that.
So, do
you see the difference when you thought it was much
more than one inch when actually it is only 1/2 of that?
Besides
that, I’m not too keen on lawn waste from a municipal project.
I would be more excited about your composted cow manure and
I would not even use that as 100%. That is not good compost,
either, all by itself. It is just one ingredient. So, put
on your thinking cap, read some more of our letters and FAQ’s
as soon as we get them up and think of all the different things
you can put into a compost pile. Cow manure is even better
than horse manure, so I would add 20% of that and I would
want some of it fresh in the compost pile.
As for your last question
:
If the city compost is 7.9 pH, the last thing you would add
is lime because lime raises the pH. You usually add lime to
a very acid soil. Whenever we’ve tested our homemade compost
from many ingredients, it comes
out pretty neutral between 6.5 and 7 pH. This is a good buffer
for the peat moss and it means that we really don’t have to
test for pH anymore if we have a good homemade compost.
What do you do in the
meantime
until you get your own compost operation going? Well, you
use a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I would
certainly go heavier on the cow manure compost than on the
lawn compost.
I hope that
answers your questions and clears up those points
so you can get going on your garden. Spring is here and good
luck this year. Yours truly,
Mel B.
**************************************************************************************
Q:
My question is: concerning compost I
have started my own but
not near enough. So
I read that you said to buy it but to look out for other
things in it. So
is cow manure considered good choice for compost? Or
is there something else I need to look for? I also
cannot find the coarse vermiculite But I was just concerned
about what type of compost exactly to get. Thanks a
lot!
A:
Hi Lora. The
best compost is
one made from the most ingredients, cow manure is just
2 ingredients. What the cow ate and what they were bedded
in. It’s a good start but if you want good rich compost
you need other ingredients. I know it's hard at the
start until you get your own going but you need to buy other
types of compost with other different ingredients. As
for the coarse vermiculite in large 4 cu. ft. bags, use your
telephone and the yellow pages to save a lot of time.
Hope that helps get you off to a good start.
============================================================================
Q:
Hi
Mel, I read a short article on square foot gardening
in the magazine Homestead . At the end of the article
your website was listed to obtain more information. I found
your method of gardening to be interesting; it makes a lot
of sense and could be useful here in the state of Indian. You
wrote briefly about using compost and making your own. Could
you e-mail me more information on making my own compost, or
is that tucked in somewhere on your website? Thank you, Jacki
Here is another
question: I know nothing about making compost. Is
that info in the book I ordered (the original square foot
gardening book)? Is there a fast way to get started? Is yard
waste okay, or will that potentially produce grass, weeds,
trees, etc?
A:
All the info you need about
making compost is in the book Ann. After all, did you
read all the testimonies that said " it's the only book
you need, it has everything in it. " You can
start by reading the paragraph in the free hand out on the
“ what is SFG” page . Did you see that?
For quick results, you need to chop up everything
in small pieces and then turn the pile often. More work
= quick results. But you don't have to do any work if
you are willing to wait for nature to do her thing.
Yes yard wastes are good but the more different ingredients
you add ,the richer the final product will be. Read
the FAQs as we put new ones up as well as new Mel's Columns. Don't
worry or take your gardening too serious, it should be all
fun and there is always next year. Hope that
helps and good luck with your garden. Keep in touch
and tell all your friends and family about your garden.
Best wishes, Mel B.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here
is even more Questions
and
Answers
on
Compost!
Q:
Hi Mel,
Don't know how to copy and paste so I will just send
my question via e-mail. I want to start some new square
foot gardens. My former ones are full of perennial weeds
and are a disaster. I have a huge pile of composted
horse manure-at least three years old. Can I use this
for the compost portion of the soil mix?? I am very tired
of fighting weeds. I don't want to introduce weed seeds
but I don't have much regular compost. Also, do you
recommend the fertilizers be added as stated in your book
like ashes, blood meal, etc? Thank you Becky
A:
Dear Becky:
Well, I've finally met someone that is new
to computers too, like myself. I've just learned how
to copy and paste and I've found it to be quite easy once
you get over the fear of losing something. What I learned
was first, by taking your cursor and holding down the left
button on your mouse, you highlight whatever you want to copy,
whether it be a word, a whole sentence or a whole page.
You just move your mouse until that all highlights or blackens
in. Then you let go of the button and you go to "Ctrl"
on your keyboard, hold it down and push once the "c"
key. That's it. What has happened now is that
the computer has stored in its memory whatever you have highlighted.
You can click on that page anywhere and it will release the
highlight, but it doesn't affect what is stored in the memory.
Next , you go to wherever
you want to put it - in another letter, mail
or file or wherever you are going to be - then click one left
click on the mouse to make the cursor appear wherever you
want it to be. Then (and here is the magic part), you
hold down the "Ctrl" key and push once the "v"
key and suddenly by magic, whatever you wanted to copy is
now pasted to that point where you put your cursor.
Whatever you copied also remains in its original place.
If you want to remove it from the original place, push the
"x" key instead of the "c" key; “x” will
not copy! Try doing just a few tests or trials, so you
get over the fear of losing something valuable. I know
how that feels.
Let's next talk about your garden
question. Yes, let's get rid of those perennial
weeds. When you switch to Square Foot Gardening and
start with Mel's Mix you won't have any ever again.
I'm going to include in this letter several paragraphs that
we've written to other people that talk about compost and
locating boxes and different things like that. Perhaps
not all will pertain to your question, but I think it will
all be helpful. Your huge composted pile of horse manure
is great, but it is not a substitute for a compost portion
of the Mel's Mix. What we are looking for in the Mel's
Mix is a compost that has been made from many
different ingredients.
Horse manure is only one ingredient. So, I'm also going
to include a few paragraphs on people that have to go buy
some compost to start with until they can get their own pile
ready and then they will be adding a trowel full at a time each
time they harvest a square foot. Remember Basic Rule
No. 10.
It will perhaps also be necessary
to add a little fertilizer at the start
because you don't have a real good compost yet and, depending
on whether you want organic or non organic, I'm sure a nursery
could help you out there. I would look for a general-purpose
fertilizer, like a 5-10-5 and that is just to start with.
Once you build your own compost pile and start collecting
many different ingredients, you are going to have a very rich
material to add to your garden and you won't need fertilizer
thereafter.
Here
are the paragraphs :
To get started
call some of your nurseries and garden supply centers like
Walmart and Home Depot. Ask them what kind of compost they
have and how good is it. You don't want the real cheap ones.
Actually you want the most expensive ones because they will
have the best ingredients. That will get you started and then
you can begin adding your own to each square as you replant
(see Basic Rule No. 10) when your pile is ready. Sometimes
you just have to go down there and feel it and smell it and
you will know the right one to start with. Tell the clerk
that you're starting a square foot garden and you need a real
good compost.
I've just simplified composting ,
like all of the other things with SFG. First I would have
you go to the " Free
Garden Tips
" and read those two paragraphs about
composting. The other thing is to set up 2 or 3 bins so you
can move the material from one to the other.
Keep in mind ,
the more different ingredients you have,
the better your finished compost will be. Try not to have
more than 10% or 20% of one thing in the pile. Forget about
the layering system, just keep mixing everything together.
The smaller the pieces to start and the more often you turn
the pile from one bin to another, the faster it will all decompose
and give you a finished product.
The best example
that I've ever come across was a municipal composting operation
in El Salvador. It had many wonderful ingredients, (but they
didn't chop them up) then piled them in wind rows about 2
ft. tall and 4 ft. wide which were then covered with black
plastic. Of course you know what happened - they didn't get
decomposition with air, called aerobic, but they experienced
rotting without air, called anaerobic. The solution for them
was a series of bins built out of recycled pallets, which
we were able to obtain free. We built 7 bins all together
and had them turn over a bin, a day. You can picture those
bins almost labeled Monday - Sunday. The end result was they
had a beautiful compost in 3 weeks instead of 3 months
In summary ,
I would say to someone, " Don't
take composting too seriously, it's not an exact science.
" Just find as many of the qualifying ingredients
that you can, chop them up in as small of pieces as you can
and mix them as often as you can. In deciding all of those
things, it's a matter of how much time and energy you want
to put into it. Remember that mother nature will do all the
work all by herself, you just have to be patient and wait
up to a year. So basically, the labor and energy you put into
it merely speeds up the operation. That should get you started.
Hope
that answers all your questions , but if not, please feel
free to get back to us with any other. Welcome to Square
Foot Gardening. I know you are going to love it.
Yours truly, Mel
B.
********************************************************************
Q:
I was
reading on the website
about a person who had a 12 inch raised bed but was only planning
to fill it with 6 inches of Mel's mix. He asked you
how he should fill it. Your answer was to use 6
inches of hay on the bottom and to put the 6 inches of Mel's
mix on top. My hubby thinks this is nuts because when
we turn our garden over next year it will have hay all in
it. I say that the hay will break down into compost
by next year. Also with us living in zone 7 and having
dry heat will the hay help to conserve water in our bed or
make it drain very quickly?? Any ideas or thoughts on
this?? Can you tell me why you suggest using hay
instead of having just 6 inches on top of original soil
in our 12 inch deep bed? We live super frugal on one
income and I can not afford to fill our new garden with 12
inches of your Mel's mix this year but I am planning to make
my own compost to add to it for next year :)
Thank
you Mel for taking the time to answer my questions.
It has made a huge difference in the planning of my very first
garden.
Teresa
A:
JUST
A LITTLE WESTERN HUMOR in the subject there Teresa, well
that was quick for you to read that answer to someone else
and apply it to your situation. So let's see what it's all
about. The hay trick worked for me
at CNN because I had to have my garden surface and plants
up as high as possible so the cameras could capture everything.
I also like my garden soil at the top of the box.
If you only need 6" of Mel's
mix but have a 12" box, you either have the
garden down 6" in the box, or you fill the bottom 6"
with some useful but inexpensive material OR of course
you could cut the boxes in half to have two 6" deep boxes.
If you don't mind a sunken garden 6" down in your box,
then there is nothing to do.
Lets talk about composting.
We put spoiled hay in our compost pile and it decomposes very
nicely. Remember to follow all the rules of composting
the SFG way. (see the free hand out on the what is page)
Now here is something for your husband to think about so he
may better understand the SFG method. I
think you said he was concerned that next year "when
we turn the garden over the hay will be mixed in the good
soil.” Please not in SFG, WE NEVER HAVE TO TURN OUR
GARDEN OVER EVERY SPRING, NEVER EVER AGAIN .
That is an unnecessary toil of old fashioned inefficient single
row gardening mentality. Remember rule # 10, we
just add some new compost after harvest of each sq and replant
that sq. Never again will you have to do ANY HARD
WORK.
Yes, the hay will decompose
and the garden level will drop gradually but you are going
to be adding compost 3 or 4 times a year. It all happens
gradually so you never notice and all that time the hay is
gradually decomposing into a nice rich base of compost.
It will also help moisture retention in the garden especially
in your hot dry part of the country. I'm going
to include a few paragraphs I've sent to others about composting.
Not all will pertain to your situation but may help.
Good luck with the garden and tell your husband to just give
this a try. He might be pleasantly surprised and have more
time for chasing you around the garden but don't trip
over those boxes.
Hope that answers all
your questions , but if not, please feel free to get back
to us with any other. Welcome to Square Foot Gardening.
I know you are going to love it.
Best Wishes , Mel B.
******************************************************************
Q:
Since our soil is totally, extremely, terribly
alkaline, I hesitate to use
the ashes called for in your fertilizer formula in your book.
Could you please suggest a substitute?
Thanks
- Susan
A:
Hi Susan, No problem, just leave
them out, someone
from Texas wrote me 2 days ago and asked if they should add
lime because their soil was such a high pH. Can you
imagine that? Have you read our latest improvements
where we use a really good homemade Compost which eliminates
the need of fertilizer. Good luck in your garden.
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