Need to learn "composting made easy"

[FarmerDenise]

One place I lived at I dug ditches, slowly. I would dig maybe a three foot ditch about a foot or so deep and fill it with compost. Then I would dig another ditch next to it, putting the dirt on top of the compost in the prior ditch. That was before I had outside animals.

Now we just spread the chicken house stuff on the garden in the fall and a couple of times in the winter. Come spring we get the garden tilled by someone with a tractor. We have nearly an acre, but I think only 1/2 acre is planted.
We use the rabbit poo on garden patches that get used year round. The bulk of the garden only gets used in the summer. We also let the chickens in the field in the winter, so they halp to spread out all the hay and eat the weed seeds as well as any bugs etc.

Depending on how big you garden is, you might be able to place your poo directly on the soil. Even chicken poo. We sometimes plant as soon as 4 weeks later. We do water it in and turn it under. Then we top dress with rabbit poo.

We use old carpeting for weed control. You should see how nice the soil looks when we lift the carpet, and the chickens love it.

 

[savingdogs]

FD, I do that trench method you have been doing....and after 4 weeks you are able to plant? You are in Pac NW climate as well, correct?

These are some great ideas. I don't think I have much option but to let my compost piles sit near the animal pens, if not, it would be right in front of my house, I have kind of a long narrow entrance. Being on a steep hill does have disadvantages we had not thought about before we bought here.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

FD, I do that trench method you have been doing....and after 4 weeks you are able to plant? You are in Pac NW climate as well, correct?

These are some great ideas. I don't think I have much option but to let my compost piles sit near the animal pens, if not, it would be right in front of my house, I have kind of a long narrow entrance. Being on a steep hill does have disadvantages we had not thought about before we bought here.

I bet you could use dead fall trees, manure and other materials to create huglebeet terraces on your hillside.

 

[savingdogs]

FD, I do that trench method you have been doing....and after 4 weeks you are able to plant? You are in Pac NW climate as well, correct?

These are some great ideas. I don't think I have much option but to let my compost piles sit near the animal pens, if not, it would be right in front of my house, I have kind of a long narrow entrance. Being on a steep hill does have disadvantages we had not thought about before we bought here.

I bet you could use dead fall trees, manure and other materials to create huglebeet terraces on your hillside.

What are huglebeet terraces? I am working to create level spots in the landscaping whenever possible with whatever possible. Also, some of my sloping property is heavily forested, and the prior owner put the house on the flat spot of the lot. So around the house is the most flat useable area. I was going to take over the lawn area this year since our teenagers never use the lawn and we would find it more useful to have a garden near the kitchen. And this will leave only a small part of our property with lawn, which is what I would like. I hate mowing and the men here seem to think it looks "fine" when it is five or six inches tall.

We are fencing off a huge section this year of the least sloping forest for a goat pasture and hope to thin the trees heavily in that section and then plant some pasture type plants. We do have a very thick leaf cover and natural mulch from all over the property we could bring in to the garden site as much of the land is left totally alone, except it was logged 18 years ago, somewhat clear cut, with only a few of the native hemlock left standing. However, most grew back from their stumps and red alder filled in. I wish sometimes that a few of you folks could look at my property because Hubby and I really have no experience working the land. We know this property is not prime farm land or it would not have been cheap, but we would like to carve out enough spaces for the projects we have in mind. The soil seems rich but the last two years I didn't really have enough sun to grow any great crops. That is why I decided to move the garden into the center of the lawn, but that is pretty far from my compost piles. We tucked the animals pens behind the house, and it slopes off steeply behind them.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzRzJRiUylg and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp_IObIkInQ

 

[Ohioann]

We are fencing off a huge section this year of the least sloping forest for a goat pasture and hope to thin the trees heavily in that section and then plant some pasture type plants.

You may not need to worry about thinning trees in the section where you pen goats. They have a habit of eating the bark, thus girding and killing the trees. No more leafy canopy and lots of firewood in a couple years. Goats are also great at poison ivy eradication.
Doesn't seem to bother them but be careful grooming or milking them because the oil WILL transfer to you!

 

[savingdogs]

We don't have poison ivy, but did want the goats to help us clear out that area for growing other things. We are ready to harvest those trees for the woodburning stove over the next year or two. We have red alder everywhere! It is really a weed tree but dries quick and burns well. Right now the area is so thick with underbrush it is difficult to get in there so the goats are part of the plan.

I had also been planning on using their poo for the garden but have just found it to be a lot of work to get the poo from where I don't want it to where I do want it!

 

[kcsunshine]

Too bad you can't teach those goats to poo in one spot. Rabbits are nice that way. That would be a great project for OFG - creating goat potties.

 

[savingdogs]

Well I'm finding no problem really using the rabbit poo. For one, it isn't so bad working with it, it just doesn't stink like chicken or duck poo.