Post by woodyz on Apr 13, 2020 13:12:33 GMT -7
I have gallon jugs of water sitting around everywhere, anywhere there are plants. I think the water ought to be the same temp as the air when it is used.
But recently someone asked me why my gallon jugs of water I used for my plants was brown tinted.
Compost tea of course
www.diynatural.com/compost-tea/
I use up the gallon pretty quick so I don't worry about it getting old and I don't make any in the winter when my compost is not cooking, after I make the water I just dump the "grounds" back onto the compost heap.
I don't add anything but I may use the water we boiled potatoes or other veggies, even noodles or beans in. NOTE: Let the water set a few days then shake it up.
My compost heap is about about 3' high, 5' wide and about 15' long. About nine months out of the year I take my coffee/tea grounds and egg shells down to the compost heap about once a week, dig a trench at one end across the heap and dump them and a five gallon bucket of comfey cuttings with about 10 gallons of the dead/dry oak leaves collected in our bottom. The comfey cutting degrade into the soil quickly and seem to degrade the egg shells and leaves quicker too.
I dig the next trench, throw the soil on top of the dump and keep going till I get to the end of the heap, about 15 feet, then I go back add a layer about 6" of hay and about 6" of dirt from the side and turn over it all and water it good. I do that for the nine months or so the compost heap is cooking. If it cools down I will add some alfalfa hay or alfalfa pellets into the mix, but once its cooking I don't do much to it.
It will shrink down by the fall and when it stops cooking I move it to where I took dirt out next to it all year, I put hay and leaves in the trench first and cover it with hay for the winter.
Generally by the time I am ready to start a new years heap it's already cooking or a little alfalfa gets it going. I don't do much of a garden any more but I do keep my compost heap"s" going.
It's a lot of trips up the hill but I have been thinking about taking the soil/compost from my main two raised beds, one cement block and one wood and a flower bed, about a hundred five gallon buckets worth down the hill to re-compost and replacing it with fresh compost.
I have re-freshed all three by adding buckets to the original fill, made from a pickup bed, but never replaced it. I don't have a truck any more so if I do it will be by bucket or I may get a friend to use their truck, but I would have to supervise to make sure the loads went to and came from the "right" places.
But it will take a 4 wheel drive on a good day to carry the load out from our bottom. Most are afraid of getting stuck down there, but if they stay in the right places they won't, it's had gravel put down about five years ago.
But recently someone asked me why my gallon jugs of water I used for my plants was brown tinted.
Compost tea of course
www.diynatural.com/compost-tea/
I use up the gallon pretty quick so I don't worry about it getting old and I don't make any in the winter when my compost is not cooking, after I make the water I just dump the "grounds" back onto the compost heap.
I don't add anything but I may use the water we boiled potatoes or other veggies, even noodles or beans in. NOTE: Let the water set a few days then shake it up.
My compost heap is about about 3' high, 5' wide and about 15' long. About nine months out of the year I take my coffee/tea grounds and egg shells down to the compost heap about once a week, dig a trench at one end across the heap and dump them and a five gallon bucket of comfey cuttings with about 10 gallons of the dead/dry oak leaves collected in our bottom. The comfey cutting degrade into the soil quickly and seem to degrade the egg shells and leaves quicker too.
I dig the next trench, throw the soil on top of the dump and keep going till I get to the end of the heap, about 15 feet, then I go back add a layer about 6" of hay and about 6" of dirt from the side and turn over it all and water it good. I do that for the nine months or so the compost heap is cooking. If it cools down I will add some alfalfa hay or alfalfa pellets into the mix, but once its cooking I don't do much to it.
It will shrink down by the fall and when it stops cooking I move it to where I took dirt out next to it all year, I put hay and leaves in the trench first and cover it with hay for the winter.
Generally by the time I am ready to start a new years heap it's already cooking or a little alfalfa gets it going. I don't do much of a garden any more but I do keep my compost heap"s" going.
It's a lot of trips up the hill but I have been thinking about taking the soil/compost from my main two raised beds, one cement block and one wood and a flower bed, about a hundred five gallon buckets worth down the hill to re-compost and replacing it with fresh compost.
I have re-freshed all three by adding buckets to the original fill, made from a pickup bed, but never replaced it. I don't have a truck any more so if I do it will be by bucket or I may get a friend to use their truck, but I would have to supervise to make sure the loads went to and came from the "right" places.
But it will take a 4 wheel drive on a good day to carry the load out from our bottom. Most are afraid of getting stuck down there, but if they stay in the right places they won't, it's had gravel put down about five years ago.