Hot composting with chicken bedding and garden waste

[vehve]

Oh, yeah, this thread was supposed to be about composting. Well, I'm happy to report, that as expected, the heat climbed to 40 deg C in there again. Not much to report, the better half claims that there is a slight smell coming from there, but I'm sure she's mistaken. The light stuff has gotten less so again from yesterday. The filling side is now about a quarter of the way full, once I hit almost half I'm going to pour the yeast mix in it to get it brewing and wet it properly. I've been layering a bit of the cooking compost into the accumulating pile to get some nice cultures in there. I think once I stop filling it, I'm going to get it cooked even faster than the first load.

 

[vehve]

Now after getting that compost update out of the way, here's a pic of one of the favorite bathing spots.

 

[lazy gardener]

I'm doing weed manure tea in my garden. Today, every time i went into the garden, i thought i'd stepped in a ripe poo. Kept checking my shoes until i figured out it was the goo in the bucket! Gotta love that anaerobic smell! NOT!!!

 

[Hershy]

I'm doing weed manure tea in my garden.  Today, every time i went into the garden, i thought i'd stepped in a ripe poo.  Kept checking my shoes until i figured out it was the goo in the bucket!  Gotta love that anaerobic smell!  NOT!!!

I've heard of compost tea, but not familiar with weed manure tea?

 

[lazy gardener]

Any weeds that you pull get put into a bucket. Just add water and let them marinate for a few days. You can then pour the resulting, rather smelly liquid at the base of your plants. My method is very unscientific, and I'm sure that folks who do it the right way are appalled at my method!!!

 

[LindaB220]

Any weeds that you pull get put into a bucket. Just add water and let them marinate for a few days. You can then pour the resulting, rather smelly liquid at the base of your plants. My method is very unscientific, and I'm sure that folks who do it the right way are appalled at my method!!!

I'm not appalled at all. This is a nifty little idea. I have some comfrey that is just a little and I pull a few leaves off now and then. I should put it all in a bucket. Why not? We don't NEED an one of those bubble thingies.

 

[Hershy]

Any weeds that you pull get put into a bucket.  Just add water and let them marinate for a few days.  You can then pour the resulting, rather smelly liquid at the base of your plants.  My method is very unscientific, and I'm sure that folks who do it the right way are appalled at my method!!!

I should give that a try. I have a double compost tumbler, I've been letting one side sit and I can see progress, especially in this heat, but it's still slow due to the wood shavings (silly me, I thought the chicken poo would counteract that). My tomatoes are pathetic. But, in my defense, I just moved here in October and didn't amend the existing garden beds when I planted. I've accepted that I'm not getting any bumper crops this year, but have 3 compost piles so far that I'm counting on for next year. I also have plenty of weeds, so that could be a nice, stinky short term fix. My poor hubby didn't grow up with any crazy chicken or garden people (just plain crazy fits though) so I can't overwhelm him with stinkiness lol.

I'm not appalled at all.   This is a nifty little idea.  I have some comfrey that is just a little and I pull a few leaves off now and then.  I should put it all in a bucket.  Why not? We don't NEED an one of those bubble thingies.

Why not? I've also read that comfrey is awesome in compost piles.

 

[vehve]

That kind of brews are great for wetting the compost too, I've heard. I might pull some nettles and try to make some fertilizer out of those. And if you just soak them for a few days, you can apparently exterminate some bugs with the stuff. I really would like to fertilize the lawn a bit, since it's a bit patchy. The dogs have their own routes that wear it down, so I'd like to get those spots packed with nutrients. I should also soften the ground up a bit.

Our first attempt at tomato growing seems to be going well, I have 2 cherry tomato plants that are about a meter long, and 4 totem cherry tomato plants that are about 40cm. Together, they have about 40-50 little tomatoes growing, and they're still in flower too, so maybe a hundred more on the way. I'm calling that a success. Out of the 6 egg plants we planted, only one is alive, and it's been suffering from too much rain so it won't produce anything. Our scallions seem to be ok, but most of the other stuff in the raised beds I'm a bit skeptic about. The Jerusalem artichokes are doing really good though, and I'm hoping the beans will produce something too, even though the chickens seem to have their minds set on eating their leaves.

 

[vehve]

Then some compost talk again. In the morning, it seemed like the compost had started to cool a bit, and it also looked a bit dry, so I went ahead and moistened it a bit again. The temperature hasn't started to climb yet, it's holding at 30 deg C now. The weather has cooled a bit from yesterday though, it had been raining in the night and it's only 20 deg C outside with quite strong winds, so the box might be giving off it's heat quicker too. I snapped a picture of the stuff, and it does look pretty nice, so it might be that it won't heat up that much anymore.

This was in direct sunlight, and the camera does seem to make it a lot lighter than it actually is. You can still see the shape of some particles, but I do think this is starting to look more and more like a good growth platform for some plants.

 

[lazy gardener]

My tomatoes are pathetic. But, in my defense, I just moved here in October and didn't amend the existing garden beds when I planted. I've accepted that I'm not getting any bumper crops this year, but have 3 compost piles so far that I'm counting on for next year. I also have plenty of weeds, so that could be a nice, stinky short term fix. My poor hubby didn't grow up with any crazy chicken or garden people (just plain crazy fits though) so I can't overwhelm him with stinkiness lol.
Why not? I've also read that comfrey is awesome in compost piles.

Miracle grow covers a multitude of soil deficiencies. I'm not too proud to give those plants a dose of the green stuff when warranted. The bottom line is, anything that you grow in your own yard, using your own soil, water and sunshine, has got to be better than anything that you drive to the store and purchase with your hard earned money. You can also give your tomatoes each a tablespoon of epsom salts as a foliar feed, or sprinkled at the base of the plants and watered in. You won't believe how fast they green up for you.

Re: the stinky bucket. You can cover it to keep the stink in. Just beware of the green cloud of stench when you take that cover off! After you dump a bit at the base of a plant, water it in with the hose, and that should dissipate the smell quickly.