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hot composting

weds. 11 am-tools and materials

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weds 1215 pm

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 weds 1 pm

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 anyone else heaping this year?

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  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,888

    a friend has bought a ride  on mower and has offered me her old petrol mower. I'm going to use it for just this purpose so I don't blunt the blades on the mower I use for mowing grass.

    Devon.
  • davids10davids10 Posts: 894
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     -8C last night with frozen condensate all around the edge of the tarp covering the heap. covered heap with several feet of leaves-mostly poplar and oak- before cold hit. heap core is 155F and leaves under top of tarp at 100F. slight vinegar smell so some fermentation is happening. will turn it to increase oxygenation. woo-hoo the heap is hot.

  • davids10davids10 Posts: 894

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    stirred up the heap as temp. had begun to drop a bit. dumped 10 bags of slightly moistened ash leaves on top. leaves would be finished in a week or 10 days IF i stopped adding to the heap. HOWEVER, a friend is bringing over his poplar leaves which were gathered with lawnmower so a nice mix of chopped leaves and grass-compost heaven. 

  • davids10davids10 Posts: 894

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     by volume the heap is now overwhelmingly leaves. by weight it is probably closer to 50/50 garden and leaf. the lignin and minerals in the leaves are a great soil amendment. the heat and steam from the 150F core makes leaf breakdown quite rapid. rain, snow and ice forecast for next weekend so not many more additions. 

  • davids10davids10 Posts: 894

    why composting is always interesting.- topped the heap with a few feet of leaves, moistened but not mixed. in 24 hrs the leaves have reached a temp of 160f. the underlying heap remains at 150f. fyi the leaves were bashed about a bit but not shredded. verdun, the beauty of your garden refutes any possibility of laziness.image

  • WOW! That is just fabulous image
  • GWRSGWRS Posts: 8,478

    Don't do much composting at the Allottment because of rats , lots of people keep chickens which seems to attract them

    However I have got a big plastic compost bin which I put stuff in , will be getting some more shortly and put them on steel mesh to stop the rats 

    So going to start making some 

    I have a question how does Dave check the tempeture ? Looks mighty fine compostimage

  • GWRSGWRS Posts: 8,478

    Edd , thanks for that , never seen one before image

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