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.
-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.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
-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.
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.
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.
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.
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 compost
Edd , thanks for that , never seen one before