Ok folks, I know about Deep Litter and how magical it can be. My question is of course special/unique and cannot be answered by reading any of the current Deep Litter discussions since I am such a special/unique person. Hahaha. Right. Aren't we all? Anyway....
We have been spreading fresh "Tree Service/Arborist" mulch around our yard for the past few years as a replacement for grass. Lay it on thick and it will pretty much stop weeds. It just dawned on me that I might be able to use this as Deep Litter......yeah.....it has taken me this long to think of this idea....
My question is if people have experience with, or opinions on using wood mulch with such a variety of particle size as a Deep Litter. This stuff varies from the size of pine needles (I mean....some of it is literally pine needles or cedar fronds/greens) all the way up to chunks of wood that might be an inch or two long by a half inch wide by a quarter inch thick. Think about what would come out of a giant industrial wood chipper when a variety of trees that have their entire trunks, branches, leaves, all of that chipped together. What concerns me a little is that this is not your standard "tons of Autumn fallen leaves, grass clippings, etc....". It is 99% woody products with some needles or other greenery mixed in.
Even though I assume this to be mostly considered "brown/carbon" when thinking in terms of the "brown/green" "carbon/nitrogen" equations needed for good composting, our experience is the piles begin to heat up really quick from microbial action just by sitting there. Dig in and it will be steamy, especially after a rain. The microbes really go to work fast after the chipping happens. Isn't nature great? I figure that if we can assume that it is still mostly considered brown/carbon, then the high nitrogen bird poop will act like a good balance to eventually compost this stuff into fertile soil. I mean.....one of the main concerns about using "Tree Service/Arborist" type mulch in a garden or yard is that it sucks all the nitrogen out of the soil as part of the decomposition process, then eventually releases it back years later once fully decomposed. If I put this mulch where it will have poop all over it (and mixed in it from the birds digging around), wouldn't that be amazing? Ok, I am rambling now....
My main goal is to reduce smell. So what I am really asking after all that verbal diarrhea is if people thing this would work.
Photo below of the pile. No closeups unfortunately.
We have been spreading fresh "Tree Service/Arborist" mulch around our yard for the past few years as a replacement for grass. Lay it on thick and it will pretty much stop weeds. It just dawned on me that I might be able to use this as Deep Litter......yeah.....it has taken me this long to think of this idea....
My question is if people have experience with, or opinions on using wood mulch with such a variety of particle size as a Deep Litter. This stuff varies from the size of pine needles (I mean....some of it is literally pine needles or cedar fronds/greens) all the way up to chunks of wood that might be an inch or two long by a half inch wide by a quarter inch thick. Think about what would come out of a giant industrial wood chipper when a variety of trees that have their entire trunks, branches, leaves, all of that chipped together. What concerns me a little is that this is not your standard "tons of Autumn fallen leaves, grass clippings, etc....". It is 99% woody products with some needles or other greenery mixed in.
Even though I assume this to be mostly considered "brown/carbon" when thinking in terms of the "brown/green" "carbon/nitrogen" equations needed for good composting, our experience is the piles begin to heat up really quick from microbial action just by sitting there. Dig in and it will be steamy, especially after a rain. The microbes really go to work fast after the chipping happens. Isn't nature great? I figure that if we can assume that it is still mostly considered brown/carbon, then the high nitrogen bird poop will act like a good balance to eventually compost this stuff into fertile soil. I mean.....one of the main concerns about using "Tree Service/Arborist" type mulch in a garden or yard is that it sucks all the nitrogen out of the soil as part of the decomposition process, then eventually releases it back years later once fully decomposed. If I put this mulch where it will have poop all over it (and mixed in it from the birds digging around), wouldn't that be amazing? Ok, I am rambling now....
My main goal is to reduce smell. So what I am really asking after all that verbal diarrhea is if people thing this would work.
Photo below of the pile. No closeups unfortunately.
