Ever wondered what it looked like beneath that pile of fall leaves? You know, the one you formed with dead leaves and garden waste? The one I told you would provide excellent organic matter for your soil? If you build it, dirt will form?
Yes, that one! Well in Florida it’s time to use our compost or more specifically our dirt again for fall planting. Yep, you guessed it–my compost pile has turned a pile of crumbly brown leaves into the most gorgeous black dirt you ever laid your eyes on and I’m ready to use it. Just look at this treasure!
This photo represents a cross-section of my backyard compost pile. One of my backyard piles. I have two, right next to each other. This one is my “easy” pile. The one I never turn. The one I never water. I let it sit there week after week, month after month until I’m ready to use it. Well, I’m back in the garden planting and I need soil amendment! Where do I go?
I go to this pile of compost. Digging deep into the center, I struck gold. Black gold. Can you see it there towards the bottom? Deep, organic and beautiful black dirt. Oh, but I can hear my beds jumping for joy already! The hardest part about this compost pile? Scooping each shovelful into my wagon and hauling the heaping mass down to the garden. And no, for you Curious George’s out there, I didn’t build this thing. That credit goes to lawn guy, a.k.a. my husband and once a year garden helper. 🙂 They do good work!
My active duty pile is the other smaller pile behind it. This is the one where the kids and I dump the contents of our cute in-house compost jar. From leftovers to stale bread, from eggshells to green weeds, we use this pile for a more well-rounded source of organic matter.
After each deposit made with kitchen scraps we cover it with a layer of brown leaves taken from the prior pile. This way we manage to achieve some semblance of the recommended ration of carbon:nitrogen which is 30:1. Key word: some.
But it works! My vegetables are happy and my soil is ecstatic. Just be sure to rinse your compost jar before returning it to the kitchen. Cuts down on the ick factor. Cause Moms don’t like ick in the kitchen!
Now here–carry this out to the compost pile. We’re growing dirt!
Yummy! Your plants will be very happy. I have used most of my compost up already and am working on more for next spring. Soon I will have LOTS of leaves to add. I just taught an edible compost lesson to my Junior Master Gardener group and the kids loved it!
Junior Master Gardener class? Awesome! And yes, I have found kids really enjoy getting their hands dirty in and around the garden. (Any surprise?)
Thanks for stopping by!
I want to start a compost pile. I thought I had needed to have the barrel, etc….all the proper things. Now I want to see what I need to do just to have the pile to get started. I have a big pot of “stuff”. I do not have a lot of leaves, but I do have lots of grass. How can I best get started on this? Thank you….Joy
Just throw it into a pile and let it heat! Seriously, I like simple and there’s nothing more simple than tossing all of your old leaves into one big pile. You can add grass clippings, kitchen scraps, twigs, etc.–just don’t include anything diseased or weeds with active seed because they can show up later (the weeds and disease). Not good.
But if you form your pile so that it’s about 4ft X 4ft and say about 2ft high–you’re in like Flynn (sorry–I like to rhyme). If you make your pile too high, the inside won’t get the chance to heat up and decompose. Not quickly anyway, and by quick I mean 6 months to a year.
I learned this the hard way by making my first pile too high and nothing happened. Then I read compost piles need to be heated clear through so I gave the instant command: “Spread this pile out!”
Well “instant” happened about two weeks later when my husband was able to get to it. 🙂 But compost does take patience so I think he was testing me…in a good way.
Every year we used to get maggots in the compost. Is that bad? Is there too much wet? I’m confused. this year I think we have no maggots, but we have a composting bin that i think the Clarks have.., and when I open it there are these little crawling worms, not earthworms… And also frogs.
Unfortunately, it seems these unsightly worms (a.k.a. maggots) are part of the composting process. They aid in the breakdown of kitchen scraps but the good news? Once their job is done, they move on. 🙂 So try to ignore them and keep on composting!!!