But my compost enclosure was. Too bad I have almost already filled it and I have many, many leaves to go.
Too bad also that I just wrote a long, detailed post about this which somehow got lost between when I wrote it and tried to publish it.
To cut to the chase, thank you Commenter for your help. I will write more about this tomorrow but I have to go to sleep now. I'm sad my original post got lost because it was pretty good.
Commenter, you talked about watering the compost pile down to compact it, which makes sense. However, I live in a semi-arid climate where we spend most of our summers on water rationing, so I don't feel good about doing that. It is supposed to rain on Tuesday, so hopefully that will help. In the meantime I have been tamping the pile down with my metal garbage can, which seems to be working okay.
Tomorrow if I am feeling ambitious I will take pictures of my beautiful creation to post. But then you will all see that it is not really beautiful and actually really amateurish and kind of sucky. But it is mine and I built it and it is holding leaves quite well. So I am proud and I will show you.
Oy vey. My original post was much better than this. I think I need to take my sake-drunk ass off to bed now. For a bit more of my day see My Daughter on Genotropin for the tale of how I botched changing the cartridge on her growth hormone injections and so had to make and eat many, many chocolate chip cookies and now feel kind of sick and yuccky.
Must rake a million more leaves tomorrow...
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2 comments:
Well done! I look forward to seeing the photos.
Don't worry about how it looks - handsome is as handsome does - no real life compost container ever looked exactly like the perfectly square/round creations you see in gardening books or on websites.
Watering the heap is for speeding up the decomposition rather than for compacting it. If you are water-rationed, don't worry. The heap will still compost down, but it may take a bit longer. Experiment with putting chicken wire or old carpet over it to keep it from blowing all over the place. If you use carpet, try to take it off when rain is forecast, then put it back.
The main thing is to stay cool. Leaves have rotted for millions of years before we tried to help them, so the end result will be lovely leaf mould almost whatever you do. And if you are in a dry climate, there is nothing better for retaining moisture in your soil.
Good luck!
Yes - I agree with Commenter about watering it. Wet leaves compost faster. Wet everything composts faster, although you don't want it to get TOO soggy because that cools it down, and you need it to heat up.
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