Happy Save the Soil Day
Thank you Lori for starting this cause + I hope we do it again next year—-If you don’t know Lori-you need to for she makes me “laugh” in photos and words!+ I am adding a post I wrote this summer about adding “coir” to your soil. I am growing all my seedlings in it this winter + it is AMAZING for growing seedlings-Read my post about “coir” (here)
It is great for the soil!
AND
Check out Karina’ Post at Murtagh’s Meadows...she wrote a lovely post about our “unsung” heroes beneath our feet! she has a lovely blog, please stop over and say hi to her in Paradise:-) I am so glad she wrote about our buddies the worms!
I have a confession to make but please don’t tell anybody because I’m supposed to be one of those über-organic types who saves everything and crafts sweaters out of cat fur. I think, however, if I share this with my blog buddies I’ll probably feel a whole lot better. So here goes–
I hate composting.
There! I said it! Wow, I feel so much better already!!!*
All right, all right, let me step that back slightly: I don’t hate hate composting, I just suck at it. And not *all* composting, just the fancy-schmancy kind that demands combinations of food scraps in complicated proportions and thermometers and spinners and the hauling of wet stuff to and fro.
Oh, *that* kind of composting!
Right. You probably hate it, too. Or maybe you’re intimidated. I mean, I certainly was/still am. In fact, we currently own a lovely Canadian rotating composter whose main job…
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Immunity Gardens 
Have you tried worm composting? It’s pretty effortless. Worms work 24/7 and spend their days eating, sleeping, having sex, and pooping. It’s an enviable lifestyle. I give them kitchen scraps and they give me amazing compost. Mine live in an unfinished room in the basement and never hog the remote or leave Legos on the floor.
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LOL..too funny:-) Great IDEA! I know people that put worms under their kitchen sink (in a rubbermaid) to eat their kitchen scraps( reg wigglers?-I believe). I compost in the winter + I have a huge pile out there which when spring comes and the earth warms up ,I lift it and they are everywhere:-) I trench compost,too-lol. I admire you putting them in your basement+ kids do love worms:-) I build the pile through our winter.Most people think you can’t during our cold winters, but it really works! I keep adding brown, green, scraps( no meat for animals would eat it-lol-+ in the spring/late spring it is all worked down:-)
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LOL What the ducks?
You’re right, I also was really bad at composting. The county gave us all these free composters that didn’t turn. You had to stand on a tall ladder and try and put a stick in them and turn over the stuff. You’s looks better.
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That is Lori’s Compost bin( pretty nice!)=she has a great site called’What the ducks” since she has “ducks” on her city lot:-) She started the ” Bloggers Action Day- Save the Soil” when she contacted me a month ago and said,” Robbie, we should do a blogger action day on save the soil” for I did not know, it was Save our Soils last December= She is a “stitch” you would enjoy her funny photos + captions-they make me laugh:-)
I use to be afraid to compost but as the years roll on, I have learned, just “do it’ and eventually you learn from your mistakes. My motto in life-not afraid to make mistakes:-) I never have the “perfect” mix but some how “they” ( my underground workers) get the job done. Some people make it such a science or get too picky about it all-LOL. I just throw my kitchen scraps( only green ones) out there, old soil from growing trays, green stuff, brown stuff + water + ZAP= it happens. I also “trench compost’ which my father taught me growing up…simple-just bury a pile from the kitchen in a trench + the rest is history-LOL:-) My kinda composting:-)
p.s. second year I have winter composted + it works for me-even in my below winter weather. I turn it in the spring and my underground buddies are working to get the job done. It usually is done by the end of May + I spread. I then find a new one. I am the traveling compost lady:-)
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Oh hey, yes now I see. Yes, Lori’s Compost bin. That looks like a good one. I wasn’t aware it was Save The Soil month either. Seems odd to celebrate that in winter but hey, why not. I like the idea of a trench, that sounds fairly doable in a turned soil garden. We’re on a very small landscaped lot in the centre of the city. I’ve being eyeing up these plantable, pyramid like structures made of wood. I’ve seen them in a few stories and think it’d work for me. Do you know what I mean? Like this:
I’d fancy one on wheels, so I could rotate it for even growing.
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OH MY-that is EYE-CANDY!!! I am such a strange person-that is eye-candy-LOL thank you for sharing-I need one!
There is a local company that sells them on wheels-hold on , I was on a committee where they were putting it at Gilda’s Club-
https://www.facebook.com/rooftopsedums
I like the wood ones best(you picked) for you don’t have to worry about “BPA” plastics—I asked them about that since it was for Gilda’s club.
Found their facebook page-
Oh, I would get those( one you picked but you could use their idea for wheels), they are stunning:-) they must have them on wheels- Maybe you can find someone that is handy with wood + build your own-it is amazing what some people can do with wood + wheels!
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I have fallen into “Island Time” I’m afraid – the mind is cushy, nothing sinks in. It is save the soil day YESTERDAY – wow, missed that boat and such a worthy cause! I spent soil day on the water paddling – I saw some sandy stuff. I saw palm trees fallen with their roots still attached. Roots that are adapted for these sandy soils. I saw mangroves. I read that arbor day is celebrated in January here in Florida because it is the dry season and it encourages deep root growth (better so that tree does not fall over come wind). I have a “lazy” compost – basically a system of three big piles that I sift to and fro. Fresh scraps go into a pile and are layered with brown scraps from another pile – this makes the brown / green ratio go to work. Not complicated. When I need compost, I dig out the bottom of a pile. I never rotate, I never take the temperature (although I would love one of those compost thermometers!) I also spread it around on the veggies beds even if it’s not finished. It decomposes by winter’s end – it’s a winter blanket for the soil. The key is volume to make it hotter 3 x 3. I have BIG piles – lots of volume. I also mulch all the veggies with grass clippings – they decompose fast and feed the soil.
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awww…Kathy-you enjoy!!!Don’t even go near your computer:-) I would stay as far away from my computer, if I were where you are for this time of year.Shoot, have time for all this stuff later:-)
Thank you for great advice about composting to share with others.
I am like you, don’t have a thermometer, but I do “move” mine around for I have very few sunny areas. I also dig below and use it from the back of the yard where I compost my yard waste. It is a great way to find compost. You are right about that!
I am winter composting for the second year + it really works well. I have been using my seedling + microgreens for some dirt , never have to water ( winter)-lol, and have a lot of green + you can always find brown…..it is finished late spring + I just spread it.
I did have a possum visit it last spring, but it was so cold he came out during the day due to the long COLD winter. I don’t have any problems with critters for I keep kitchen scraps that are green. I doubt it heats up, in the witner-but some how when I dig into it, late spring it is composted deep below! Magic:-)
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I add to my compost all winter (if I’m there which I hope to never be again!) because according to our compost expert at the extension you are still adding volume and volume is needed to get heat! So keep composting away Robbie. I am on my computer because I still like to keep up on my blog and I’ve started a fitness program and I will need to start ordering plants for me and my summer job! I cannot wait to be out in my garden! Hope it’s an early, early Spring!
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me-too-SPRING!!!! If I yell loud enough do you think it will decide to arrive:-) Thank you for sharing that with me for I noticed it does compost down rather quickly when the spring sun bakes it. It is done very quickly + I was wondering, if it was in my head:-)LOL
I won’t be biking the river this weekend-for it may snow again. I have seedlings growing + I feel it is around the corner. I covered some things last winter to see if they survived-Parcel winters over, if you cover it with a plastic container–fingers crossed!
You have fun + what a great place to start a fitness program:-) Not stopped by ice-I slipped on the ice last weekend-YIKES. I just went a bit slower-but it felt good to be outside. Today it is in the forties + I am ready to get out and work!
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I don’t hate it, but that’s because I’m a very lazy composter. I have two piles but I don’t turn them, wet them, etc. All I do is throw some of the extra soil I dig from the garden every once in a while. It takes at least a year for a pile to break down, but I don’t mind.
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I am a lazy composter, too:-) I am a trench composter by trade:-)
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