Mom and I are making progress on the garden. We will be getting the rest of the cement blocks we need to complete the garden and then we just need dirt. Problem is dirt isn't cheap and good dirt is usually never free...Sooo I went back to work making more dirt again while we work on finishing the garden and hopefully my nephew can hook us up with another scoop or two of manure to help fill it in too. Last year I made quite a lot of compost and it filled in a good bit of the garden, but there is still a lot of garden to go sooo...ya know.
Mom was working in the garden today and got a little extra help. I had to go help her get a buff out of the garden so that she could tend to the potatoes. Last week we added "manure" from my sister's old chicken coop to the red potatoes that had been growing so nicely and they died back so much that our only chance to save them was to take the manure back off of them. Mom thinks she packed the droppings too tightly and the plants couldn't get through...I am thinking that even though the droppings are old they have not been exposed to a lot of water so they may still be "hot". Irregardless, we pulled them off the potatoes and used them in the compost bins instead.
I collected four more buckets, a wash bin and a short tub full of chicken droppings from my sister's old coop today...
...It's not a huge coop, but it's been vacant for about a year now and the droppings are four to six inches thick on the floor. Since I work the compost bins I get the opportunity to get some great stuff to make dirt with if I just go collect it...So I go...
...I put the fourth side back on the first compost bin today and stood the watering/ventilation tube up in the middle. Then I spread out the hay, rabbit droppings, household scraps, egg shells and what not that was already starting to pile up so that I could start my layers...
...I added layers of hay...
...fresh grass clippings...
...and chicken droppings...I watered each layer for about a minute before I added the next layer, alternating "green" and "brown" layers of droppings, hay, grass, hay, droppings, hay, grass, hay...I got the bin about 3/4 of the way full today, but if it's as hot as I think it is it will drop by 1/4 over the next week. If I get the chance, I do plan on continuing to add to that bin and the second one until I have them both full and then it will be time to start turning them...I usually mow inside our fenced yard to use the clippings in the compost bins and I supplement with some other edging around the property. This year I have some old hay to mix in and droppings from an old coop, plus our coop and rabbit cages need to be cleaned soon so they will be composted too. We crush up our egg shells and add them to the compost to help deter bugs...slugs hate them...Egg shells can also be crushed and sprinkled around plants to keep the slugs away. I usually do also add actual dirt to my compost bins and I'm not sure where I am going to get that from this year....hopefully I can get our trailer parked in my nephew's driveway again and it will come back with manure in it like it did about a month ago. I think some good old manure might just do the trick if I can't find any dirt...I guess if all else fails its off to the gully I go...hehehe... :0)
I hope you all had a great day and after some shopping I hope I have a great story to tell about a cake tomorrow!
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