Here's my brand-spankin' new composter. Ain't she a dream? I told my son I have compost fever. Tho he thinks I'm a little kooky, he DID build this for me. FYI - we spent about $100 on raw materials and got 3 bins measuring 3 x 3 x 3 feet. No commercially produced composter will give you that much space for 100 bucks.
Here it is in use. The front slats are removable, so you can add them as you fill a bin. I hope to have two bins full of the correct proportion of brown matter (leaves and brown cardboard from toilet paper and paper towel tubes) to green matter (garden and kitchen waste). In warm weather the decomposition process should take about 6 weeks, resulting dark, rich soil. I hope to have two bins filled in the proper manner before winter sets in. This is a great time of year because when you tear out your garden you get a whole bunch of green matter, and of course Mother Nature provides the brown matter in the form of fallen leaves.
The plan for this composter came from Crockett's Victory Garden, by James Underwood Crockett, published by Little, Brown & Co., Boston/Toronto, 1977. Crockett's approach to gardening was geared to maximum production in minimal space - allowing people to grow more of their own food in lean economic times. Very fitting today!
Though Mr. Crockett passed away in 1979, he recorded his wealth of garden knowledge in many books and in a television series that's available on video. I just googled "Crockett's Victory Garden" and found the book is available for anywhere from $5.00 to $292.00. WOW - I knew I liked this book for a reason!
For more information on composting see this (one hour) instructional video:
http://www.cityofmadison.com/streets/compost/howto.cfm
I found it most helpful. Hope you do too! :)
1 comment:
Oh it is beautiful. I love to compost and use it every spring and fall. Black Gold, your plants will love it. Mine is not as nice as yours. Hope yours will be full of great worms.
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