Composting Is An Important Element Of Our Garden

Composter in the Garden

I am sure most people have seen these composters. Maybe you even have one in your yard or garden. They work good and should be used by everyone. It comes in handy to have it near your garden. Then you do not have to haul the dirt from it so far to your garden. Mine is right in the middle of our raised beds in our yard. It doesn't turn or do anything special. Just sits there. A lot of work is going on inside!

Up close, its not so pretty!

Since we have horses, we compost their manure. If you have some kind of livestock, composting their waste makes sense. Even if you only have chickens or rabbits. Every little bit helps. I also add raw food waste, like when you peel a fruit or vegetable or have some go bad. Don't throw them out! Put them in your composter. I even empty coffee grounds in mine.

Adding bedding hay and manure

Cleaning the horses' barn gives us a lot of manure. A lot more than what this little composter will hold! We only add it to that when it needs it. Most of it will go into our bigger compost pile out back. This composter has a little drawer at the bottom to take the composted dirt out of. Pretty simple design and easy to use.

The Big Composting Area

I have told on this blog before, but will tell it again in case someone new has arrived here. We have three basic piles. One for the new compost that we are adding today. That will just sit and compost. Then we have another pile that is from last year and the year before. That pile is not composted enough to use. Then the last pile is the one that has been composting for three years or more. That is the one we will be using this year.

Rich, Black Dirt full of  Worms!

Two years ago we had a massive summer squash plant growing in this compost pile. I could not believe how many squash I got from it, or the size of some of them. It did not look like any certain type, kind of a cross between a zucchini and the yellow squash. I canned them up and we have a huge supply that we are still eating from. Of course, it was kind of hard to get to the compost piles due to that plant. The other plant that grows in massive amounts in this compost pile is jewel weed. Jewel weed is a valuable medicinal plant to have around, especially if you get into poison ivy. Fortunately, I have never needed it!

Final Result!

Copyright © 2013 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2013  Kathleen G. Lupole