Greg - thank you SO much for all those links and the great post above it! I had considered gardening as part of school and know it would benefit us all to get outside purposefully each day, it's just hard. William is finally at an age where he's beginning not to need a long nap every day now, which frees us up a lot. Also...the weather = ugh! It's a hassle just getting ME outside to the coop each day, let alone all the kids.
I think what I'll do to start is torch the whole area, spread poop over all of it this whole spring/summer, and plant part of it in the fall for a winter garden. Or maybe we could do a really small area together just to start out this summer. We will finish school completely mid May, perhaps the rest of the month can be spent preparing a garden together. One bummer: we need a longer hose. It doesn't quite reach the garden.
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Jess, why do you put it in the trash? (here it would be illegal, but it's also a big waste of landfill space and fertilizer! If you don't want it, I'm sure you could easily find a gardener to take it off your hands. We pay a ton for trash removal, I would hate to pay to have all of that hauled off with the trash)
I have no inclination to compost it so I use the green waste trash bin. I just don't have time! My kids are the priority and I don't have the know-how or time to get the garden started, so we can't use it anyway. Question though...could I put all that poop and shavings in one corner of the garden and just spread it out? I currently have a completely wasted space of a 20'x20' raised bed surrounded by stone and all it grows are wildflowers and weeds. I don't WANT to compost, simply don't care. I know those are blasphemous words around these parts and maybe if I had more strength or help to get my yard/garden sorted out I'd want it, but I do need to get rid of it. We're even thinking of torching all the weeds in the garden so they don't grow up again in the spring. It's just a mess. I'll take a pic and post it.
You don't have to do a darn thing except dump it somewhere. Nature (and the chickens) will do the rest
There are a number of ways to make compost. The ones that are more work are faster. The passive (less work) ways are slower, but sooner or later everything breaks down. Given the nature of our mineral soils, I hate to see good organic matter wasted.
I think what I'll do to start is torch the whole area, spread poop over all of it this whole spring/summer, and plant part of it in the fall for a winter garden. Or maybe we could do a really small area together just to start out this summer. We will finish school completely mid May, perhaps the rest of the month can be spent preparing a garden together. One bummer: we need a longer hose. It doesn't quite reach the garden.
