DIY - Grow

Compost Overhaul

July 7, 2013

Compost is one of those magical things that I read about (and pin about) and participate in all the time, but there’s a part of me that doesn’t fully believe that it will do it’s job.  Do you ever feel like that?  I mean, really…You set up a spot, toss some worms in there and fill it with kitchen waste, all the while believing that, as if by magic, all the waste is going to become beautiful, nutrient rich soil that will feed current veggies and lay the groundwork for future veggies.  Magic, right?

Well, despite the fact that we set up our compost pile a couple of years ago, up until this weekend we were feeling a little frustrated by it all.  It seemed as though nothing was happening despite our continuous additions.  So, we decided that the only way to figure out what was going on in there, was to tear it all up and investigate!  Fortunately, we couldn’t have been more wrong about our assumptions…we were just looking at it all wrong.

We started off by pulling off a few of the straw bales that were the boundaries of our pile and threw them into the chicken run.  The chickens were beside themselves with excitement…they pecked, searched, ate yummy worms and bugs, played “Queen of the Straw Bale” and chatted about it all throughout the entire day.  

Once most of the original bales were moved, we bumped out one side of the pile by placing a new bale of straw a few feet out from where the original boundary was…now it bumps right up next to the chick brooder where as before there was a ~three foot gap between the two…basically a catch all for pots and tools and…well…shit 😉

Then, we started digging through the heap by removing the top layers and throwing them into the newly created (and empty) spot .  Once was got a couple of feet down, we saw what we had been hoping for…worms (lots of them), bugs (lots of those, too) and beautiful, rich actual compost!!!

We also found this beauty!  Apparently, one of the sweet potatoes we’d thrown in there sprouted!  I have never had any luck doing this indoors, so I was beside myself with excitement!  These guys quickly went into one of raised beds and I have my fingers crossed that it’s not too late for some more magic to happen in the form of actual sweet potatoes forming!!!

But, back to my point…compost!  As we moved everything over, we began shoveling compost into large trash cans and big tupperware type bins to save for later use.  Let me tell you, discovering all this soil felt like a huge blessing!  And it was all right there all along, we just had to shuffle the top layers (and change how we compost forward) to find it!

One thing that is most definitely not a blessing?  Mice!  Ugh!  Where there are chickens and compost, there will be mice, and apparently there were several of them living in our compost pile.  Gross!!!  So, we got to work disturbing all their little hiding places and hopefully scaring the shit out them.  Not likely, but hopefully.  Stinkin’ mice!

See that little guy?  Right in the middle of the shot?
Yep, him.  I hate him.  He grosses me out!!!
Tool Lady thought they were going to climb up her legs
so she spent a lot of time standing on my leg 😉

I recently read that mint repels mice, so we decided it was worth a shot and transplanted some of our potted mint into their favorite corner.  We then went out and purchased a few more mint plants to put in around the perimeter of the compost pile.  Now, we know mint can take over everything, but the spots we put it in won’t ever be viable places for anything else to grow.  So, if it takes off, awesome.  If it helps to get rid of a few mice in the process, perfect!

All that was left to do was put it all back together.  Our compost is now three straw bales wide and one bale deep.  The left hand side of the pile is devoted to older material (mostly broken down) and the majority of our worms, while the right hand side is devoted to newer materials.  The idea is to add all the new kitchen scraps to the right hand side so that, when the worms run out of food on the left side, they’ll move over and begin breaking down the right side which will make the soil easily harvest-able…as opposed to the bottom to top method we were using before.
We have also added a drip line to our pile!  Last spring, after our super dry winter, we realized that our pile was not getting enough moisture, so we added a little piece of drip to it.  Now though, it has a whole line devoted to it with it’s own on/off switch that we can easily utilize depending on how wet or dry the pile seems to be.

Now, this whole overhaul took us a couple of days, start to finish, but we couldn’t be happier with our harvested compost or our new pile!  There’s nothing better than realizing that our hard work really is paying off!

xoxo,
M

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12 Comments on “Compost Overhaul”

  1. Hi, I was looking for some gardening ideas and I saw your pin about the 1/8 acre farm. I searched your site for compost and found this post. I recently started a mini-compost bin and was worried about mice. Do you put meat and food scraps in your compost bin? Any updates on how your updated compost pile made it through the winter? You have some great information on your blog. I’m glad I ran into it. Thanks 🙂 Maria

    1. Hi Maria! So glad you found me! We haven’t dug into the compost pile yet this spring, but will in the next week or so in order to amend our beds before doing our big planting! Stay tuned 🙂

  2. Like Nancy we made our 2 bin compost system from old pallets. We fail miserably at regularly turning them, but still we know it is working even if a little slower than if we were so diligent. Thanks for sharing!

    Please join us again Thursday at:
    The HomeAcre Hop

    ~Ann

    1. Yep, it’s the up-keep that’ll get you every time, isn’t it? Ah well…it’s still doing it’s job, even if you’re mostly ignoring it…such magic!

  3. Great post on your compost, we made our compost bins out of pallets and just turned everything over recently. Like you we found some beautiful black compost. Love the idea of using straw bales. Thanks for sharing on the Home Acre Hop!

    1. Yay for black compost! We have debated about using pallets, but straw bales have worked pretty well so far 🙂

  4. I need to get my compost overhauled too. Thanks for sharing your tips on Tuesday Greens!

  5. It’s a beautiful moment when you see that black-gold magic, is it not? We have a tumbling composter and although I shunned the purchase for years, I couldn’t be more happy with it now. Compost has turned our raised beds built in the middle of a cow pasture into beautiful rich productive soil. Love it! Thanks for sharing. (Visiting from Frugal Days Sustainable Ways)

    ~Taylor-Made Ranch~
    Wolfe City, Texas

    1. Ooohhh…nice to hear that you love your tumbler! Everyone has their preferences and I love to hear when something really works!!! Thanks for popping over!

  6. Black gold! How lucky you are. I need to start a 2nd bin for mine. The problem with my composter is it is really to big. Everything from last year was broken down and then the hubbs dumped a bunch of stuff on it. The good thing I like about mine is it sits on a pallet and I need to figure out a way to collect the compost tea.

    If we ever move our monstrosity it will be beautiful soil under there 🙂

    1. Sounds like we were similar boats! Yep, move all that new stuff off and you’ll be sitting pretty! I love that yours sits on a pallet! The compost tea is like magic and is a benefit we miss out on having ours set up the way we do.

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