I need composting help!

[gtaus]

Avoid wood shavings of any kind

That seems to be overly generalized. I can think of many applications for wood chips or wood shaving that would benefit me.

What's wrong with wood shavings? You don't want processed or treated lumber of course but mulched trees work wonders, and the worms love them too. I find it a great aggregate for my composts.

That's what I was thinking, too. I will use wood chips in my compost as a carbon source.

Although I have never chipped up treated lumber to use in my compost, from what I understand, the treated lumber used in the past 30 years is not toxic to plants or people. My lumber yard swears that you can use treated lumber for raised garden beds without any concerns.

OK, showing my 61 years of age here, but I can remember when I was young being told to always wear gloves when handling treated wood, wearing a mask when cutting treated wood, and never, ever burn treated wood because it had to be disposed of as hazardous waste. Would like to know if other people were taught the same things about treated wood back in day.

 

[Ascholten]

Back in the days, Treated wood was treated with arsenic compounds to kill the stuff that would eat it, hence it would be bad for you. Just like rat poisons used to have strychnine in them, not anymore. I still would not trust it though, especially since we get most our stuff from china now, Nothing like high grade Chineesium in your products to give you cancer now is there?

Drink urine, immediately, and only in extreme emergencies, as in your dying of dehydration. Problem is, urine has a lot of other stuff in it too, the bacteria is the least of your worries, if you drink too much it builds up in your kidneys and you check out. the stuff your kidneys are filtering out and putting IN your urine to get rid of, becomes overwhelming for them if you keep putting it back in! Urine is also salty, so it's really no better than drinking salty water,which will kill you as well. If you had a way to filter it / boil the water off the grungies then yes it'd be good, but straight from the tap... not so good.

Aaron

 

[Red-Stars-in-RI]

Agree avoiding wood chips makes no sense. As mulch or mixed into soil they can “rob” nitrogen (it’s really more “borrow”)…but in a compost pile they…absorb excess nitrogen. You want that in your compost, not released in the air!

 

[Ascholten]

On the lumber, a lot of it is pine now too. Pine has Terpenes in it, ie Turpentine, and similar products. This is going to swing the PH of your soil pretty good there. some plants may not like that.

Aaron

 

[gtaus]

I still would not trust it though, especially since we get most our stuff from china now, Nothing like high grade Chineesium in your products to give you cancer now is there?

I live in timber country. So, all our treated lumber is made and processed locally. Actually, we have a huge manufacturing plant only about 20 miles down the road that supplies our local lumber yards. I don't think I've ever seen treated lumber from China where I live. But I take your point.

 

[gtaus]

I have those 2 composting bins to use that you can see in the pic. What can I do with all this?? I need green stuff in it right? What would be good to add? I need all the help and advice I can get!

I kind of feel bad for the OP. Lots of talk about things maybe not so much relevant to the original questions or concerns. So, I will say that if you add "greens" such as grass clippings and kitchen scraps to your leaves, along with some water to get it to the wrung-out sponge state, your compost bins should take off.

 

[BabyGotQuack]

I kind of feel bad for the OP. Lots of talk about things maybe not so much relevant to the original questions or concerns. So, I will say that if you add "greens" such as grass clippings and kitchen scraps to your leaves, along with some water to get it to the wrung-out sponge state, your compost bins should take off.

Thank you! And no worries at all, don’t feel bad. It’s all been interesting to read and I’ve learned a lot of new stuff!

 

[Sally PB]

On the lumber, a lot of it is pine now too. Pine has Terpenes in it, ie Turpentine, and similar products. This is going to swing the PH of your soil pretty good there. some plants may not like that.

Toward acidic or alkaline?

My best friend has really sandy soil. Hers makes my sandy soil garden look black and rich by comparison. They put a load of wood chips on their garden last year, and wow, the top bit of soil looked a lot better by the end of the season.

I have a good pile of oak wood chips from having trees taken down last November. A lot of it is going on my clay soil garden, and some in my chicken run. If I have any left, they'll go on the sandy soil garden.

 

[gtaus]

I have a good pile of oak wood chips from having trees taken down last November. A lot of it is going on my clay soil garden, and some in my chicken run. If I have any left, they'll go on the sandy soil garden.

I live on a lake. My main garden soil was mainly sandy, and nothing grew very well. For years, I dumped in grass clippings and leaves every year, and tilled all that stuff in every spring before planting. Over many years the soil improved, became blacker, and worms started to be found in almost every shovel full. That was a success.

However, I eventually moved on to raised garden beds and the square foot garden method of planting. No more tilling of the garden. That has worked out even better for me. Especially as I get older.

Most recently, I am building taller raised bed gardens (16 inches tall) using the hügelkultur method to fill the bottom 8-10 inches of the beds, and using a good 1:1 mix of quality topsoil and chicken run compost in the top 6-8 inches. That worked great for me last year.

My favorite planter is my elevated sub-irrigated planter which is waist high. It has 4 inch perforated drain pipes filling the bottom, which provides a water reservoir for the planter. There is an overflow hole drilled at 3 inches, which provides a 1 inch air gap between the full water level and the top of the drain pipes. That makes a water reservoir of almost 15 gallons. On top of the drain pipes, I put my mix of top soil, compost, and vermiculite making it into a wicking planter system. You need that air gap so the roots of the plants don't drown in the water. The planter mix will wick up water as required.

At the far right (picture above), you can see the fill tube with a swimming noodle (slice) I cut to use as a water level indicator. When the noodle is flush with the fill tube, it's time to refill. Even I can't mess up with that watering system!

In a normal summer, I only have to refill the planter maybe once or twice a month. Last year we had a severe drought with no rainfall from June till late October, and then I had to refill my planter almost twice a week in that drought. But you can see home many bean plants I can grow in that planter and why it takes up all that water. When everybody's gardens were drying up and dying last year, my sub-irrigated planter had a bumper crop of fresh green beans!

I have become more passionate over the last few years with gardening, now that I have my chicken run compost system pumping out all that great compost for my garden beds. I don't think I could afford all my garden beds if I had to buy compost at the big box stores.

Although I am still in good health, the older I get, the less I like to bend over to work in the garden. Which explains my evolution from planting in the ground, to planting in raised beds (6 inches tall), to building taller raised beds (16 inches high), and my elevated sub-irrigated beds (36 inches high). To be sure, the poor quality of my sandy ground soil had something to do with all of this. But the increased height of my new garden beds allows me much more comfort without needing to bend over all the time. Maybe some of you of a certain age know what I mean.

 

[sandburRanch]

Research this -- How long does it take wood to make dirt ? Have you ever worked in a garden or flower bed with wood chips . I wouldn't put a wood chip in my worst enemy's compost , garden soil or flower bed . Home centers can use it for a filler but i ain't buying it .


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