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How to Build a Compost Pile
How to build a compost pile Where to put the pile? Now you have a place scoped out where you can get your compost materials for free or really low cost. Now you need to have a place to put it all for the three months or more it will take to make. I like to have a place in the garden near where I will be working, so I do not have to cart it all too far to the beds. It also should be where you can get your truck to so you can offload it easily. In many instances in a backyard garden this is just not possible, and one will have to wheelbarrow it all around the yard. This is a good reason for taking it all slow and a bit at a time so you do not hurt yourself. One truckload every few days and you can have a nice big pile in just a week or two. Find a spot where you will have some room to move around, you will be turning the pile on occasion, and there is nothing worse than being squeezed between a fence, the pile and the house trying to turn several tons of manure with a pitchfork while avoiding the house windows with your fork handle, and trying to duck under the neighbors peach tree to keep it's branches from hanging onto your hair. Make sure you can get water to it to keep it moist. And it would not hurt to share over the fence with your neighbors what you are doing. It might turn out they may have a source for compost bulk materials, or may have a truck you could use for hauling it. Things have come a way since the time I had a neighbor ask me over the fence why I stacked my garbage in a big pile instead of hauling it off. I replied that it was compost and he said "what's that?". What kind of structure? Many people like to use structures to contain compost. These can range from simple and free things such as wooden pallets wired together to form a bin, to expensive containment devices sold in glossy magazines. Certainly Martha Stewart would not approve of a tasteless compilation of wired pallets, or a large cylinder of concrete reinforcing wire to hold compost. But it is your choice, she may be better at entertaining than I am, but I bet I make a lot more compost than she does. In fact I use a large bin about fifteen feet wide, and six feet deep made of concrete blocks on three sides. This will hold about five tons or more of compost that can be easily stacked five feet high. Lots of people advocate the use of multi-compartment bins. These are usually made about four feet square for each section. They will often have three or four sections joined together. The idea is that you will make a new pile at one end. And then when the pile needs turning you will lift it over the partition to the next section turning it and freeing up the old section to start a new pile. This sounds Ok, except that the compost must be lifted. I prefer to have a long area, and then work the compost from one side or the other. I merely need to dig at the pile turning one forkful after another from one end gradually moving the entire pile over a foot or two. This seems to me to be less work, although the compost is not so tightly contained and indeed takes more room. A unique way of making compost is a tumbler, these have become popular in the last decade, and they do seem to make some passable compost. While they are not generally large enough to create the 'critical mass' to encourage the bacteria to make a large amount of heat and destroy weed seeds they are simple and easy to turn. One simply unscrews the lid and puts in the kitchen wastes etc. and then with the lid on you turn the barrel letting it spin on it's axis. A couple turns each day when adding new material and you have a decent way to make compost. I feel this is a good way to use your kitchen wastes without going through the bother of making tons of compost. I suppose how to contain the pile depends on your landscape and sense of aesthetics combined with the quantity of material you need to work with and how much effort you are willing to put in for a given amount of compost. Since I work a lot of compost I use a tractor, and if I did not have one I certainly would not want to have to lift the compost over a barrier to another bin. How big of a pile? This being said I should discuss the matter of what size of pile. One really should try to go for a pile that is a minimum of three feet wide and deep. This will give what we call a critical mass of material and depth. With such a pile the creatures inside can work their processes with less interference from external weather. They will generate their own heat while they decompose the materials. If left this way for a month one could dig into the pile and see that the top six inches would be essentially unchanged from their original properties, yet the materials below would be half decomposed, and already taking on a darker color. This serves to illustrate how the surface of the pile does not decompose well due to drying from the sun and breeze, as well as the fact that the micro-organisms cannot deal with exposure to the elements and sun. For this reason when I have my piles complete I like to wet them through to get it all moist, and then cover them with a tarp. This will help hold moisture, reduce drying from the wind, and hold the heat in. 
Here is a nicely built compost pile, made from wire rolled into a cylinder, and the free ingredients neatly stacked inside. How to stack the ingredients... Many manuals on composting will talk about layering the ingredients as if you were constructing a cake. They speak of starting with a pile of branches to "provide airflow" to the pile, well, I tell you that when you get those branches caught in the tines of your turning fork you are going to be wishing they did not have 1,000 pounds of compost on top of them. If the idea of composting is to turn the pile to provide air you do not need branches getting in the mix messing things up. And you do not need to worry all too much about layering the ingredients in precise 6 and four inch layers as the manuals speak of. This layering is going to be destroyed the first time you turn the pile. At that time the ingredients will truly start mixing. When you have built a half dozen piles you will be able to lay the ingredients out as you get them in without worrying too much about precision. This is not rocket science. People have been composting for hundreds of years in one way or another. So just get those materials together and let them pile up. Moisture in the pile.... "Make the pile as moist as a squeezed out sponge" is the ale we hear from all the manuals and books on composting. Well, to this I can offer no argument. In my experience the pile needs a certain amount of moisture. You do not want to wet it too much as the water that drains away will carry with it much soluble nitrogen and affect the heating ability of the pile. It will also drown the pile and reduce the air in it. When the pile is first made it will not accept water all that well due to the carbon materials being somewhat water repellent. As the pile 'works' for a few weeks it will more readily accept water. I like to wet the pile off and on as I bring in the ingredients and lay them out where the new pile will be. Then each time I turn it I water some unless I expect rain soon. This is also some of the reason I like the tarp over the pile, the tarp will hold moisture and keep the pile from drying as quickly. Condensation on the inside of the tarp will run into the top couple inches of material keeping that moist also and letting the top layers decompose a bit better than if they were exposed to the elements. The tarp is also handy during periods of heavy rain to keep the rainfall from leaching the nitrogen out, or drowning the pile.
Brought to you by www.rivenrock.com/compostpile.htm
Here is a nicely built compost pile, made from wire rolled into a cylinder, and the free ingredients neatly stacked inside. How to stack the ingredients... Many manuals on composting will talk about layering the ingredients as if you were constructing a cake. They speak of starting with a pile of branches to "provide airflow" to the pile, well, I tell you that when you get those branches caught in the tines of your turning fork you are going to be wishing they did not have 1,000 pounds of compost on top of them. If the idea of composting is to turn the pile to provide air you do not need branches getting in the mix messing things up. And you do not need to worry all too much about layering the ingredients in precise 6 and four inch layers as the manuals speak of. This layering is going to be destroyed the first time you turn the pile. At that time the ingredients will truly start mixing. When you have built a half dozen piles you will be able to lay the ingredients out as you get them in without worrying too much about precision. This is not rocket science. People have been composting for hundreds of years in one way or another. So just get those materials together and let them pile up. Moisture in the pile.... "Make the pile as moist as a squeezed out sponge" is the ale we hear from all the manuals and books on composting. Well, to this I can offer no argument. In my experience the pile needs a certain amount of moisture. You do not want to wet it too much as the water that drains away will carry with it much soluble nitrogen and affect the heating ability of the pile. It will also drown the pile and reduce the air in it. When the pile is first made it will not accept water all that well due to the carbon materials being somewhat water repellent. As the pile 'works' for a few weeks it will more readily accept water. I like to wet the pile off and on as I bring in the ingredients and lay them out where the new pile will be. Then each time I turn it I water some unless I expect rain soon. This is also some of the reason I like the tarp over the pile, the tarp will hold moisture and keep the pile from drying as quickly. Condensation on the inside of the tarp will run into the top couple inches of material keeping that moist also and letting the top layers decompose a bit better than if they were exposed to the elements. The tarp is also handy during periods of heavy rain to keep the rainfall from leaching the nitrogen out, or drowning the pile. Brought to you by www.rivenrock.com/compostpile.htm
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