[Upper5Percent]

Re: How BIG is yours

This is why I love MTF because where else would you find a bunch of folks bragging on the size of their compost pile?

Just dumping little onto the pile...

 

[LLigetfa]

Well... it's about that time of year again, where I need to spread my compost. It is done like dinner... well, the old pile that is. I gave it the final turn and pulverized it with the mini-cultivator. I need the space for dumping this years crop of leaves.

So far I spread about a yard or so and it doesn't look like I put much of a dent in the pile. I'd like to build a bin to transfer my done compost to so that I can free up the area and not have to spread it all at once. I was thinking about making it circular or maybe square, shaped like a swastika with four sections so that I could also store stuff like sand, topsoil, and gravel.

I still have my other pile, (the one I dumped to last year) that I've sorely neglected not having turned it even once.

 

[LLigetfa]

The compost pile shown at the start of this thread is long gone now but it is a recurring process with 2 other piles started since. Last year I started a new pile in a different location to give the old one time to complete. In the Fall I picked up a nice mini-cultivator and I used it and my manure fork to turn the old pile this weekend. By the end of Summer it should be about 2 cu yards of black gold. I've yet to turn the new pile I started last Fall.

This year I didn't get around to using up my compost. The original dumpsite is very well composted and I recently roto-tilled it with the big rear tine tiller mostly to knock down the weeds growing on it.

The "new" location I mentioned above is a few years old now and I just turned it with the mini-cultivator and then relocated it a few yards back to make room for last year's and this years material.

This stuff is piling up and for sure I need to get it spread next year. Problem is I have so much of it, I may need to build some sort of shredder/spreader to make quick work of it.

 

[LLigetfa]

Dredging up a 9 year old thread, the location pictured in the first post has now been retired. This Spring, I leveled about 2 yards of mature compost to fill the hollow I created over the years. The weeds have taken it over now and I think I will just give it back to nature and stop mowing it and the path to it. It was just too close to the house and the smell of turpentine wafted over all too often.

I'd like to get out of composting entirely but I still need somewhere to dump. In my second location, I had two piles of which the oldest was well rotted so just spread it around right on the spot. I then turned the last pile moving it over top of the spread area. It is one turning short of being done. After that, I don't know what to do with it. Either I need a way to spread it on the lawn or dump it in some low spots that are just mosquito habitat. Going forward, I may just open up a trail to the back to a ridge where the land drops off and just dump it over the edge.

Anyway, I made room for this Fall's crop of leaves and have this Winter to contemplate what I will do.