For easy gardening composting I’ve turned people on to using a large garbage can with a ton of air holes on the sides. Flip upside down and cut a hole in the bottom and add from there. Once filled, you can lift the can to free the pile up. Mix it as you reload the can, repeat or leave in place til finished. It’s like a sand castle mold, and keeps it easy and light lifting for elderly or physically limited people.
I tried this method as well. All I did was add things as I had them and once the garbage can was full I left it alone, watering occasionally because I'm in a dry area. Just a few months later I wanted to start another pile so I dumped it upside down and was so happy and surprised it smelled so earthy and so wonderful! The only thing left was a few sticks that weren't small enough that I had put in the bottom to help with drainage.
I have never had success making compost. Now with my back pain I can't do all that turning, so I just throw everything in a pile, and maybe move it around once in awhile, but mostly it just sits there and rots. After several years I begin another pile. In time, I start planting where the old pile was. The soil is usually much better there than anywhere else around the yard. :)
Dude that's the most notes I've ever taken in a RUclips video. WOW that's a ton of helpful info. Thank you! (My notes below with some added worm stuff, because I like them too.) Simple Composting Guide: Start composting by making a pile of your kitchen waste and yard trimmings. Choose a place that drains well so water doesn't pool under your pile. If the area doesn't drain well, put down a layer of woodchips first. You'll need a pitchfork to turn your compost pile and a long thermometer to check its temperature. Try to turn your pile a few times each year to help it break down. Your compost pile needs a mix of carbon-rich stuff (brown things like wood chips and dried leaves) and nitrogen-rich stuff (green things like fresh grass clippings, vegetable scraps, and animal waste - but not too much animal fat because it breaks down slowly). Try to keep a 30:1 ratio of carbon to nitrogen, but don't worry too much about it. If the pile smells bad, add more carbon. If it's too dry, add water. If it's not getting hot, add more nitrogen or water. When you add new nitrogen-rich stuff, cover it with dry carbon-rich stuff. If you've done it right, your pile won't smell bad. If your pile isn't getting hot enough, add more nitrogen-rich stuff. Your compost pile needs to be about 3-4 feet high to work well. At this height, you can turn it effectively, and it will heat up properly. Smaller piles might not get hot enough. Composting is slower in winter than in the warmer seasons of spring, summer, and fall. Keep checking the pile's temperature. If it gets above 137 degrees, turn it. Make sure your pile is moist - if you can squeeze a drop of water out of a handful of compost, it's moist enough. If it's dry, add water, but avoid using city water because it has chlorine in it. After you add water, cover the pile with a tarp that lets air through and keep checking the temperature. Aim for over 131 degrees. If it's not heating up, add more nitrogen. If it gets hotter than 165 degrees, spread the pile out, add water, or make it taller. Putting wet, green stuff in the middle of the pile can help it heat up. Rules for Certified Compost Managers: In the first fifteen days, you need to turn the compost pile five times and keep the temperature between 131 and 170 degrees. This is to meet the rules of the NOP Regulations and Food Safety Modernization Act. Adding Worm Bins: Besides regular composting, you can also use worm bins, which is called vermicomposting. In this method, earthworms eat the organic waste and make nutrient-rich worm poop, which is great for your garden. You can keep worm bins inside or outside, depending on the weather, and they're great for composting kitchen scraps. Don't add citrus, onions, and meat or dairy products because they can hurt the worms. Keep the bin in a dark, airy place and keep it as moist and warm as a regular compost pile. Every 2-3 months, collect the worm poop and use it to enrich your garden soil.
As an older lady I have found a way to compost that does not tax me. I have three five foot high/wide/long compost bays. The middle bay has removable slats to allow access to the two outer bays so that I cab pull the bottom compost into the middle. I leave my compost for a couple of years because I put my chicken waist into the outer piles, as well as grass clippings, and household non-meat food waste. I don't turn, but I do layer and I have wonderful compost with lots of worms and good microbes.
I throw all food, straw, and wood chips in my chicken run. My ladies will scratch and dig up all the yummy bits and break it down over time. Then once a year I add the new compost to the top of my garden beds about a month before I plant!
I manage two 8' x 8' square composting beds in a residential garden where I am a guest gardener. I layer in horse manure & bedding(wood shavings), shredded leaves, grass clippings, shredded paper, kitchen scraps, chopped garden waste, and a bit of finished compost, then periodically turn the pile by tilling it with my small Mantis(20lb) tiller. This mixes all the organic materials and introduces more air. I then use a shovel and rake to mound the pile as high as possible to create the largest mass. It starts heating up right away and I check it with a long stemmed thermometer. After a week, I level the pile out a bit and start the layering process all over again. I may put more work into my compost making than some would care to do, but I love the process and the finished product. It doesn't take long for my piles to mature as I am adding material that is reduced in size to begin with. In the fall when we clear out the raised beds and have lots of whole plants to compost, rather than endure the labor of chopping them up, I just create a large deep hole in the middle of the piles, throw the plants in, then cover with compost. Here in zone 6b Michigan, those plants will decompose nicely through the late fall, winter, and early spring of the coming year and the compost piles will be ready for use by early to mid May. Have been composting this way for years and it works for me. My thanks and appreciation go out to Mother Nature and all the hard work her bacteria, fungi, and macro organisms put in to give me compost. :)
I used to have a large two chamber composter that laid on its side on a metal frame I turned it every few days to keep it aerated. I used it for kitchen waste. My landscaper takes everything else (grass, fliwers, branches) to municipal composting. But I've gotten older (and lazier) and now use a Lomi countertop composter ($600). I love it, but have moved to my garage because of the grinding noise it makes (for hours) and the odor. It really works and turns everything into a coarse, dried "meal" that I accumulate in a 5-gallon bucket (with a lid). When it gets full, i simply scatter the dried product on my lawn, where it vanishes into the grass. It's amazing.
I'm currently reading through my "Complete Book of Composting" by J.I. Rodale once again. It's close to 1000 pages. It's great hearing young farmers using the basic composting techniques that have been around for decades. Thanks for the hands-on video showing us the steps to making successful compost. 😊
I live in an apartment so no compost pile for me. I use a worm bag. It takes care of most of my green food scraps and a good amount of card board too. And worms are just fun!
Agreed! Worms are the best 🪱 They also really really love wood chips if you have access to them and will breakdown surprisingly large chunks (within reason)
I’m utilizing the last scrap of yard available; the unused dog area right outside our kitchen door. We live on a .10 acre urban farm 😉. Started this spring. No smells yet….. I’m not stressing or measuring. If it works “yeah”, if not, I’ll put more effort into it next year. So far looking good. Thank you so much I’m learning a lot!!!
Thanks! I love composting, worm composting and making leaf mold! Thanks for the great content. Glad I found your channel! Perhaps you can talk about leaf mold if you haven’t!
I finally went all in, do Bokashi, have a worm bin (3 actually), compost piles and leaf mold. There is virtually no waste in my house and I get fantastic soil building matetial. In winter in New Hampshire Bokashi is great. I have a five gallon bucket and when it's full I mix it in a big tote of compost and soil that I keep down cellar. Neither the bokashi bucket nor the tote bin ever smell or attract bugs. It's nice to actively make good soil when the ground is frozen solid and come Spring have great materials to start with. I just screened a five gallon bucket full of Worm castings and will have five more come spring. Ten gallons of fresh worm castings should really get everything off to a great start come spring.
Jesse, I super duper appreciate all that you have taught me. I am new to organic/regenerative practices and would be lost without the No I’ll team. Also, your dad jokes get me every time.😁
Not sure how the music ended up being so perfect for compost, twas excellent! Also thanks for making this I have recently started watching your videos and I really appreciate the production quality and the flow.
Me too! BTW anyone know how I could compost the soy mash left over from soymylk/tofu making? I've heard it's no good to put in the pile but somehow I think it should work - however it's not really a carbon or nitrogen- anyone have experience with this?
@@trish3580 Why do they say not to use it? I put all sorts of stuff in my compost that a lot of "experts" say not to (orange peels, dog feces, my neighbors' dead chickens, etc), but I never have a problem. I follow the system from the Humanure Handbook, and currently my pile is 94F which I started on January 1st of this year.
For a few years now I've been doing the compost in place method, and I'm a pretty big fan. I'll clean out a section of the garden that's spent, fluff the soil, dig a hole, put my collected kitchen waste in it, cover it up and leave that area fallow for a few weeks to months. I rotate around my garden and eventually everything gets fed about once a year to every other year. I also collect fire ash(potassium), egg shells (calcium) and a little Epsom salt (magnesium) to sprinkle over the area as well. Keep the area watered to help the compost break down. Give it a little flip with a shovel every few weeks to check the progress. Plant the area when it is all broke down.
I made a long pile (3 feet wide/10 feet long, stacked stalks in a line) right across my garden starting with huge okra, sunflower, and bolted giant mustard stalks, then covered with thick green grass clippings and let it rot all summer. PillBugs ate a lot of it and converted it to nutrients. I`ve added green grass clippings all summer and plan to add all my garden stalks and debris to it this fall with mowed over leaves, thick green grass clippings, rotted forest limbs and leaf mold, then I`m covering it with at least 10 gallons of sandy/silty soil from a nearby dried up creek wash in the woods. Next spring I`m spreading it in my garden. My garden is full of very large worms.
Another super duper video! I need to watch more videos on composting on a larger scale. Surely your farm uses more compost than what you generate yourself. I’m not wanting to have to buy any if I can avoid it.
Thanks! So we are no longer buying in (much) compost at all but that also means we have reduced our dependence on the deep compost mulch system. there is just too much risk for contamination from broad leaf herbicides in our area. So we are making enough compost to fertilize our gardens but not really mulch it all. For that we would need a tractor (or something with a bucket/front end loader like a Dingo or skid steer) + a whole lot of nitrogen and carbon.
I used to build my compost year around and had to tarp it in the most extreme of the rainy season so it wouldn't go anaerobic. 4 years ago I ended up with a serious injury to my rib cage and even though I kept trying found I couldn't turn a pile anymore. So now I let the worms do it for me. Not kidding. I used to use large totes until I found myself feeding into 32 totes. Now I use flow through systems. Last year I was tossing 3 households worth of kitchen scraps into my bins. I ended up with too many egg shells which kind of jammed the system. I cleared it but I loved making my compost/worm tea within 10 minutes. input water at the top and receive tea at the bottom. Sooooo easy and effective. The only thing you really have to worry about with the worms is the temps. You don't want to heat the pile up or you'll kill your little helpers. When I get too many worms for the bins I usually let them loose in my gardens around September so they can find where they want to over winter. All my raised beds have a 6 inch round by 4 ft tall black pvc pipe in the center of the beds to continue to feed scraps directly to the source making it even easier to get fertilizer and aeration to my beds with as little work as possible on my part. Happy composting everyone!
Can you share a bit more about the flow-thru system? I need something low-cost and can't physically do the work of turning a pile anymore. Don't have tons of waste but hopefully I'd have enough?
Excellent video, Jesse. This is exactly the common-sense instructions and advice I've been looking for, to make a compost pile about the size you demonstrated. Well done and thank you!
I’m about to inherit an established farm. It hasn’t been used as such for several years though. I am going to attempt to get it back on the rise. Using this channel to gather as much info as I can to help myself through the beginning stages quickly. Hopefully I’ll be able to master the farm 😅
Great stuff. I'm running my "mostly" finished compost through a Vermicompost wedge system I saw Zach Brookes using. Beautiful material in under 4 months. Nose and squeeze test are my two tools. Cheers
Great work Jessie! We follow you from France, if you're ever on tour give us a shout. You have become one of my go-to/mainstays over the last couple of years. High fives all round!
Finally a simple composting video that I can handle (which I can handle being a European in a Kenyan village with no power, running water and stores where one can buy all th fancy things in buckets and containers to add) hanks 🙏
I highly recommend that if you’re going to be composting, make a 3 walled bin and stick a pipe in the middle that has a bunch of holes in it. And if you can source from a horse corral, your greens and browns are already mixed almost perfectly. I add straw and goat manure as well to mine.
I debated talking about walls for this video, but I have no issue with them. Pro: they create a more balanced heat distribution. Con: you have to move them around and work around them. We don't use them, but nothing wrong with walls 👍
The only problem I have with these inputs is the chemicals the horses, cows, goats and rabbits are ingesting from their foods. It's worse than most think. and passing into their stools. It can really make a mess of your food growing areas. Since I grow my food for health I need to keep it clean of the chems a much as possible.
@@j.reneewhite915 I suppose that could be a problem, but I get my horse manure from a veterinary research university and they feed their animals good stuff. I don’t know 100% if it’s totally organic, but the compost on I make has my crops looking good. I also find tons of mycelium, worms, and beetle larvae in my compost, which I think is a good sign.
Getting it from a organic grass fed / pasture raised farm would be perfectly safe. We have lots of folks that get “black gold” from us. And some that just want raw from the money end of the cattle. 😉
@@j.reneewhite915 if the manure is coming from creditable sources or from your own animals you should be able to obtain the information or already know what they are ingesting. We use non GMO Amish milled grains for our animals when needed.
My father was an avid gardener and allotment owner. He used to have 5 6ft x6ftx6ft areas for compost. Fill one with whatever you have then when full go to next carry on. Until all full and I mean full. If done properly it will take 5 years. His plats and food was the best every one wanted to know how he did it.
I love this info thank you🎉 I made my compost in a container bp safe and i put holes on the bottom and the side and bought organic soil to start it off then added my food scrape and earth worms and it is such amazing black gold ❤
I used to sweat over compost. Now, I get wood chips as I can, lawn clippings when I can, all our garden waste, and all our table waste, and throw it in a pile in the chicken pen. Pile it back up occasionally, and top the garden off with it when not much else is going on in mid winter.
Man, I have that U2 album I cannot get deleted off my phone! Never listened to their music so I don't even know how I ended up with it! Glad I am not the only one!
for those of us with a bad back, fork or shovel will be easier with a long handle, I also use a 'brake' something to brake the shovel/fork over like a 2ft high tressel, or in my case the bottom half of the front side of a pallet bin composting bay make it so much eaiser on my glassback
Wow! Another super great video. There's only one thing you didn't cover (or did I miss it?). The smaller the chunks, the quicker they compost. Chopping, chipping, grinding.... all of this can make composting take weeks instead if months. The down side is it's tougher to get oxygen into a pile of smaller pieces, so sometimes a mix of sizes makes a pile breathe better. But Man! Great video. Remember that compost seems like more of an art than a pure science.
Add on I'm in Michigan zone 5 b. April 1st snow in the shadows. Ready for spring warmth! My pile is gonna need a jump start, like a good turning. Thanks!
Getting ready to build my house. Then I’ll be starting the garden. Finishing “The Living Soil Handbook”. That’s a keeper. I appreciate the way you present your info. This video is a prime example and makes a great accompaniment after reading the book. Wish me luck. I’m progressing from patio/bucket gardening to a homestead, so I will be reading the ink off your book.
I have been putting all my meat trimmings from my chicken pork and beef from my food truck and it make the pile heat up really fast and for a long time, it’s pretty amazing
Hey Jessie, just wanted to say I love the videos you've been putting out recently. My partner and I recently moved into our first house with a bit over an acre of usable farmland, and once the snow melts (probably in late May, I live 65°N) I'm gonna try my hand at market gardening. Your book has been invaluable and these recent videos have been amazing. I'm actually originally from Shelbyville, KY. Whenever I go visit my parents next, I'll try to find you at your local market. Cheers!
Super awesome to hear the content and book has been helpful! Very cool to hear. As for the market, that's totally fine but I always try to encourage people to please come later in the day if at all possible 🙏. That way I can make sure our customers are getting my full attention! 🤘
You all may already know this , but Starbucks will give you used coffee grounds that you can add to your compost, for extra nitrogen etc. might be helpful to someone.
Cold lacto-fermented composting (the improved Water Witte method) is a better method. It does not have the 2 adverse effects of hot composting (which is not practiced by nature): 1. The resulting compost is less than half the weight of the original pile. It's a sorry loss of carbon due to the decomposition activity of aerobic microorganisms, which unfortunately emits a lot of CO2, a greenhouse gas. So it's a polluting method. Besides the loss of carbon is a waste for the fertility of our soil. 2. The resulting compost contains few microorganisms because of the high temperature, so is of little use to soil fertility. Cold lacto-fermented composting uses anaerobic microorganisms and the result is compost with virtually no carbon loss (so it's non-polluting) and, since it's made cold, it contains an enormous diversity of microorganisms useful for soil fertility. Everybody should practice the cold lacto-fermented composting because it does not require to turn the pile, it is less work. However, it takes a little bit more time to obtain a well decomposed compost ready to put in the garden but it is worth it.
@@denisdufresne5338had an 80 ft dying oak chipped up and left in a 10 ft high pile. Im in central florida so microbes are everywhere waiting for the service bell to ring. After sitting undisturbed through the summer and fall I have now broken the pile into three piles in the area i want condition. I am not adding kitchen scrapes, just anything i trim from the ornamental garden. Im not 100% sure but from the smell i believe leaf mold is what is breaking down the pile. Worms and earwigs are appearing in the piles now. A very warming moment was yesterday when the migrating birds began working that area of the yard which before now was essentially dry florida sand void of life and hydrophobic.
Bokashi composting is working really well for my kitchen system. I do a lot of food storage/freeze drying/canning so have lots of scraps. It turns into black gold when buried. Kind of fascinating.
I watched an old video of a man with a small yard in an HOA area that forbid composting or veggie patches in the front yard. So he made a nice wide /thick wood chip pathway and he would freeze his scraps and keep his throw away papers and cardboard boxes and then he'd do all his yardwork. Make a 2 ft round hole about 3 ft deep in the pathway. layer all his scraps, paper, cardboard and yard debris. He'd pack it down tight and fill the top up with chip until packed enough to walk on again. He said that he would dig a new hole every month. By the time he finished burying the 12th pile it was time to dig up the first pile and use the compost in his garden with no one the wiser. He said it never stunk and he put enough wood chip on top that it didn't attract pests.
Your book is awesome. I’m 69 years young, and I’m adding these principles to my backyard suburban-stead. One question is that “moron smell mitigation?’
90% of my nitrogen is rabbit puffs in one of mine.waste hay from feeding for the browns or pine pellets from a stand alone temp cage. I do it about 50/50 but their coco puffs are from hay so I suppose that's why it works. It takes a lil longer to compost but it's less hassle than my normal pile so far but still experimenting a lil. I'm in Ky as well! About 10 miles just before the RRG. Glad I came across the page!
I'm overwhelmed, I've never set foot in a proper garden and I've just inherited one that clearly was dearly loved and maintained. It's growing like crazy and I have no clue what to do 😂 all I know is it's overgrown and whatever I remove I'll need to put somewhere. Hoping this video will help me do something useful with the weeds (when I learn what they are)
@@gypsygem9395 thank you, I'm (driving my other half mad) rebuilding stone walls, and getting my head around the mowing (took a whole day, there's a lot of grass😂) And I have an app to tell me what plants are. I'm loving it. Even in the wind and rain I'm outside.
Small but important addition: Don't build your compost pile up against any wooden (or otherwise flammable) structure. On hot summer days, compost can get hot enough for spontaneous combustion; & every summer there are a few people who burn their shed- or house- through using it for one side of their compost bin.
This is a great reminder. I was unaware this could happen until a family in my town nearly lost their home after a pile of mulch located against the garage spontaneously combust.
I saw a video where a young man was composting 3 ft up the really nice wooden fence. His pile was about 40 ft long and he was showing it off because he was really proud of his hard work. I was pretty sure he didn't pay for that fence and I was really hoping it wasn't his neighbors fence because it's destroying a perfectly good fence. It would cost a lot less to have an entire dump truck load of finished compost delivered than to replace that fence. 🙃
We had a big pile of horse manure mixed with wooddust/chips. The pile was about 2 meters tall and 6m2. At some point in a hot summer i noticed it smoking quite alot. It was actually burning and smoldering. Took me about a day to extinguish it. Some of it was straight up ash afterwards...
i do need to make sure i use my compost that i make. I have also read that you should insulate the compost to get it up to temp so that the seeds are destroyed
(this comment was meant for your composting video, but all these are great so I guess it's fine with me ha but compost in particular I gave up on til your vid)
your book rocks, I highly recommend buying it... as a 3rd year horticulture student ( did not borrow it, the price is a quarter, at most, of it's value )
Even though I live in a congested big city apartment building without enough space to grow a scallion (emphasis: a scallion, not some scallions), I've been watching your videos for, like, EVER!! The light bulb just came on and I subscribed so I went from being "meh" to being "AWESOME"!! I'm clearly running on an original Thomas Edison 1880 carbon filament light bulb special, but better late than never, lol...
If you have multiple piles or your thermometer is in the shed and you're out near the pile, a 4ft stick of rebar poked in each pile will easily tell you if your pile is hot or not.
@bastionwolf just poke a stick of rebar in each pile. Later, pull it out and feel if it's hot. You won't know the exact temperature, but you're gonna know if it's cooking or not.
@@scottbaruth9041you could also use an infrared thermometer on it as you pull it out. If you wanted a more exact reading. But that’s a great idea. Thank you.
I love when the tree guys ask if they can come dump. It has really helped my formally cotton land hard packed clay become workable. Plus free chicken run flooring that makes for super hot compost as soon as its piled.
I have a huge compost, and today I saw the first snake of the season. I hate to disturb them, but this year the three year old pile has to be used. It's pure gold for sure.
Starting with woodchips on the ground to help aerate it is a good idea, I've started doing this as I'm on clay soil and the bottom of the pile can become anaerobic. Also just having a pile might well be the best option in most cases instead of building boxes, it makes it much easier to turn especially if your boxes are smaller.
For easy gardening composting I’ve turned people on to using a large garbage can with a ton of air holes on the sides. Flip upside down and cut a hole in the bottom and add from there. Once filled, you can lift the can to free the pile up. Mix it as you reload the can, repeat or leave in place til finished. It’s like a sand castle mold, and keeps it easy and light lifting for elderly or physically limited people.
I tried this method as well. All I did was add things as I had them and once the garbage can was full I left it alone, watering occasionally because I'm in a dry area. Just a few months later I wanted to start another pile so I dumped it upside down and was so happy and surprised it smelled so earthy and so wonderful! The only thing left was a few sticks that weren't small enough that I had put in the bottom to help with drainage.
Do you have a pic for us to see what can looks like?
@@angp8558 nah, sorry. Just an upside down can with the bottom cut out (which becomes the top hole you fill through), fill the sides with air holes.
Wow so happy I caught this message! Thankyou!
NCNow: thank you so much for this advice especially for the last few words, light lifting can also get kids to have their project, yes?
I have never had success making compost. Now with my back pain I can't do all that turning, so I just throw everything in a pile, and maybe move it around once in awhile, but mostly it just sits there and rots. After several years I begin another pile. In time, I start planting where the old pile was. The soil is usually much better there than anywhere else around the yard. :)
Dude that's the most notes I've ever taken in a RUclips video. WOW that's a ton of helpful info. Thank you! (My notes below with some added worm stuff, because I like them too.)
Simple Composting Guide:
Start composting by making a pile of your kitchen waste and yard trimmings. Choose a place that drains well so water doesn't pool under your pile. If the area doesn't drain well, put down a layer of woodchips first.
You'll need a pitchfork to turn your compost pile and a long thermometer to check its temperature. Try to turn your pile a few times each year to help it break down.
Your compost pile needs a mix of carbon-rich stuff (brown things like wood chips and dried leaves) and nitrogen-rich stuff (green things like fresh grass clippings, vegetable scraps, and animal waste - but not too much animal fat because it breaks down slowly). Try to keep a 30:1 ratio of carbon to nitrogen, but don't worry too much about it. If the pile smells bad, add more carbon. If it's too dry, add water. If it's not getting hot, add more nitrogen or water.
When you add new nitrogen-rich stuff, cover it with dry carbon-rich stuff. If you've done it right, your pile won't smell bad. If your pile isn't getting hot enough, add more nitrogen-rich stuff.
Your compost pile needs to be about 3-4 feet high to work well. At this height, you can turn it effectively, and it will heat up properly. Smaller piles might not get hot enough.
Composting is slower in winter than in the warmer seasons of spring, summer, and fall. Keep checking the pile's temperature. If it gets above 137 degrees, turn it. Make sure your pile is moist - if you can squeeze a drop of water out of a handful of compost, it's moist enough. If it's dry, add water, but avoid using city water because it has chlorine in it.
After you add water, cover the pile with a tarp that lets air through and keep checking the temperature. Aim for over 131 degrees. If it's not heating up, add more nitrogen. If it gets hotter than 165 degrees, spread the pile out, add water, or make it taller. Putting wet, green stuff in the middle of the pile can help it heat up.
Rules for Certified Compost Managers:
In the first fifteen days, you need to turn the compost pile five times and keep the temperature between 131 and 170 degrees. This is to meet the rules of the NOP Regulations and Food Safety Modernization Act.
Adding Worm Bins:
Besides regular composting, you can also use worm bins, which is called vermicomposting. In this method, earthworms eat the organic waste and make nutrient-rich worm poop, which is great for your garden. You can keep worm bins inside or outside, depending on the weather, and they're great for composting kitchen scraps. Don't add citrus, onions, and meat or dairy products because they can hurt the worms. Keep the bin in a dark, airy place and keep it as moist and warm as a regular compost pile. Every 2-3 months, collect the worm poop and use it to enrich your garden soil.
As an older lady I have found a way to compost that does not tax me. I have three five foot high/wide/long compost bays. The middle bay has removable slats to allow access to the two outer bays so that I cab pull the bottom compost into the middle. I leave my compost for a couple of years because I put my chicken waist into the outer piles, as well as grass clippings, and household non-meat food waste. I don't turn, but I do layer and I have wonderful compost with lots of worms and good microbes.
I didn't understand this.
Thank you for clear instructions.
I throw all food, straw, and wood chips in my chicken run. My ladies will scratch and dig up all the yummy bits and break it down over time. Then once a year I add the new compost to the top of my garden beds about a month before I plant!
I manage two 8' x 8' square composting beds in a residential garden where I am a guest gardener. I layer in horse manure & bedding(wood shavings), shredded leaves, grass clippings, shredded paper, kitchen scraps, chopped garden waste, and a bit of finished compost, then periodically turn the pile by tilling it with my small Mantis(20lb) tiller. This mixes all the organic materials and introduces more air. I then use a shovel and rake to mound the pile as high as possible to create the largest mass. It starts heating up right away and I check it with a long stemmed thermometer. After a week, I level the pile out a bit and start the layering process all over again. I may put more work into my compost making than some would care to do, but I love the process and the finished product. It doesn't take long for my piles to mature as I am adding material that is reduced in size to begin with. In the fall when we clear out the raised beds and have lots of whole plants to compost, rather than endure the labor of chopping them up, I just create a large deep hole in the middle of the piles, throw the plants in, then cover with compost. Here in zone 6b Michigan, those plants will decompose nicely through the late fall, winter, and early spring of the coming year and the compost piles will be ready for use by early to mid May. Have been composting this way for years and it works for me. My thanks and appreciation go out to Mother Nature and all the hard work her bacteria, fungi, and macro organisms put in to give me compost. :)
I used to have a large two chamber composter that laid on its side on a metal frame I turned it every few days to keep it aerated. I used it for kitchen waste. My landscaper takes everything else (grass, fliwers, branches) to municipal composting. But I've gotten older (and lazier) and now use a Lomi countertop composter ($600). I love it, but have moved to my garage because of the grinding noise it makes (for hours) and the odor. It really works and turns everything into a coarse, dried "meal" that I accumulate in a 5-gallon bucket (with a lid). When it gets full, i simply scatter the dried product on my lawn, where it vanishes into the grass. It's amazing.
I'm currently reading through my "Complete Book of Composting" by J.I. Rodale once again. It's close to 1000 pages. It's great hearing young farmers using the basic composting techniques that have been around for decades. Thanks for the hands-on video showing us the steps to making successful compost. 😊
They have been around for millennia not decades, over 6000 years ago composting was a thing
@@shangrilaladedaACKCHULLY
@@crispusattucks4007 what?
@@shangrilaladeda you need me repeat it rather than you just reread it? Ok…
ACKCHULLY
@@crispusattucks4007 I don’t know what that means
Thanks! Your videos have been a great source of knowledge and inspiration while I try and start my farm journey. Thanks
amazing, thank you!
Thank you for caring about us
I live in an apartment so no compost pile for me. I use a worm bag. It takes care of most of my green food scraps and a good amount of card board too. And worms are just fun!
Agreed! Worms are the best 🪱 They also really really love wood chips if you have access to them and will breakdown surprisingly large chunks (within reason)
From experience I will add don't start your pile under trees. They will pull the moisture out as fast as you add it in. Great over view! Thanks!
I’m utilizing the last scrap of yard available; the unused dog area right outside our kitchen door. We live on a .10 acre urban farm 😉. Started this spring. No smells yet….. I’m not stressing or measuring. If it works “yeah”, if not, I’ll put more effort into it next year. So far looking good.
Thank you so much I’m learning a lot!!!
Thanks! I love composting, worm composting and making leaf mold! Thanks for the great content. Glad I found your channel! Perhaps you can talk about leaf mold if you haven’t!
I finally went all in, do Bokashi, have a worm bin (3 actually), compost piles and leaf mold. There is virtually no waste in my house and I get fantastic soil building matetial. In winter in New Hampshire Bokashi is great. I have a five gallon bucket and when it's full I mix it in a big tote of compost and soil that I keep down cellar. Neither the bokashi bucket nor the tote bin ever smell or attract bugs. It's nice to actively make good soil when the ground is frozen solid and come Spring have great materials to start with. I just screened a five gallon bucket full of Worm castings and will have five more come spring. Ten gallons of fresh worm castings should really get everything off to a great start come spring.
They are probably called Dad jokes because they are clean and clever. Nice teaching there, fun learning here.
I do appreciate the videos and No To Growers book.
You could also build up some branches under your pile in damp areas.
Great info, I have 2 Geobins that I use for my 1200 Sq ft. Easy to move, clean, store etc. and good for small scale
Jesse, I super duper appreciate all that you have taught me. I am new to organic/regenerative practices and would be lost without the No I’ll team. Also, your dad jokes get me every time.😁
Not sure how the music ended up being so perfect for compost, twas excellent! Also thanks for making this I have recently started watching your videos and I really appreciate the production quality and the flow.
The information you shared in this video is truly helpful for garden enthusiasts like me. I’m excited to implement these tips
Thanks for the vegan farmer shout out!! Makes me feel so alive!
Me too!
BTW anyone know how I could compost the soy mash left over from soymylk/tofu making? I've heard it's no good to put in the pile but somehow I think it should work - however it's not really a carbon or nitrogen- anyone have experience with this?
@@trish3580 Why do they say not to use it? I put all sorts of stuff in my compost that a lot of "experts" say not to (orange peels, dog feces, my neighbors' dead chickens, etc), but I never have a problem. I follow the system from the Humanure Handbook, and currently my pile is 94F which I started on January 1st of this year.
Love the content AND the music. Keep them coming!! Thanks for sharing!!
Cheers to another year of No tilling. Thanks for the lesson!
Holding your fork like a paddle and rowing the pile from one spot to another is easier on your back ❤
For a few years now I've been doing the compost in place method, and I'm a pretty big fan.
I'll clean out a section of the garden that's spent, fluff the soil, dig a hole, put my collected kitchen waste in it, cover it up and leave that area fallow for a few weeks to months. I rotate around my garden and eventually everything gets fed about once a year to every other year.
I also collect fire ash(potassium), egg shells (calcium) and a little Epsom salt (magnesium) to sprinkle over the area as well.
Keep the area watered to help the compost break down. Give it a little flip with a shovel every few weeks to check the progress. Plant the area when it is all broke down.
I made a long pile (3 feet wide/10 feet long, stacked stalks in a line) right across my garden starting with huge okra, sunflower, and bolted giant mustard stalks, then covered with thick green grass clippings and let it rot all summer. PillBugs ate a lot of it and converted it to nutrients. I`ve added green grass clippings all summer and plan to add all my garden stalks and debris to it this fall with mowed over leaves, thick green grass clippings, rotted forest limbs and leaf mold, then I`m covering it with at least 10 gallons of sandy/silty soil from a nearby dried up creek wash in the woods. Next spring I`m spreading it in my garden. My garden is full of very large worms.
Another super duper video! I need to watch more videos on composting on a larger scale. Surely your farm uses more compost than what you generate yourself. I’m not wanting to have to buy any if I can avoid it.
Thanks! So we are no longer buying in (much) compost at all but that also means we have reduced our dependence on the deep compost mulch system. there is just too much risk for contamination from broad leaf herbicides in our area. So we are making enough compost to fertilize our gardens but not really mulch it all. For that we would need a tractor (or something with a bucket/front end loader like a Dingo or skid steer) + a whole lot of nitrogen and carbon.
I used to build my compost year around and had to tarp it in the most extreme of the rainy season so it wouldn't go anaerobic. 4 years ago I ended up with a serious injury to my rib cage and even though I kept trying found I couldn't turn a pile anymore. So now I let the worms do it for me. Not kidding. I used to use large totes until I found myself feeding into 32 totes. Now I use flow through systems. Last year I was tossing 3 households worth of kitchen scraps into my bins. I ended up with too many egg shells which kind of jammed the system. I cleared it but I loved making my compost/worm tea within 10 minutes. input water at the top and receive tea at the bottom. Sooooo easy and effective. The only thing you really have to worry about with the worms is the temps. You don't want to heat the pile up or you'll kill your little helpers. When I get too many worms for the bins I usually let them loose in my gardens around September so they can find where they want to over winter. All my raised beds have a 6 inch round by 4 ft tall black pvc pipe in the center of the beds to continue to feed scraps directly to the source making it even easier to get fertilizer and aeration to my beds with as little work as possible on my part. Happy composting everyone!
Can you share a bit more about the flow-thru system? I need something low-cost and can't physically do the work of turning a pile anymore. Don't have tons of waste but hopefully I'd have enough?
Excellent video, Jesse. This is exactly the common-sense instructions and advice I've been looking for, to make a compost pile about the size you demonstrated. Well done and thank you!
I’m about to inherit an established farm. It hasn’t been used as such for several years though. I am going to attempt to get it back on the rise. Using this channel to gather as much info as I can to help myself through the beginning stages quickly. Hopefully I’ll be able to master the farm 😅
That`s great! You can make a lot of money if there`s a local Farmer`s Market.
you a cool guy with nice informative video's
thanks alot
Thanks friend. I’m going to rewatch this and learn more about compost. My compost sucks!!!!!!!!
Great stuff. I'm running my "mostly" finished compost through a Vermicompost wedge system I saw Zach Brookes using. Beautiful material in under 4 months.
Nose and squeeze test are my two tools.
Cheers
Hey this sounds intriguing. I hope there is enough info above that I can look up what you are talking about.
@@j.reneewhite915 Jesse tours and videos his facility. Good stuff!!
This is amazing. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.
I'm so grateful for your efforts. These videos are more than informative,they are enjoyable and uplifting. Thank you so much!
We love you farmer Jesse.
I Love it that it's all translated to Spanish! Thank you... shared with relatives & friends.
We are being blessed with 2 rainy days here in IA. Having fun binge watching your and other's gardening videos. I'm glad I found you.
I love your channel and love this video! Thank you!
Thanks for the info and the tone of your video.
Thank YOU for the support! 🙌
Great work Jessie! We follow you from France, if you're ever on tour give us a shout. You have become one of my go-to/mainstays over the last couple of years. High fives all round!
jess you guys are amazing man thank you for sharing your life with us all !!!!!! your a dam good man !
Greatful to have encountered you're insight! Mahalo.
Love ❤the living soil hand book!!
Finally a simple composting video that I can handle (which I can handle being a European in a Kenyan village with no power, running water and stores where one can buy all th fancy things in buckets and containers to add) hanks 🙏
I highly recommend that if you’re going to be composting, make a 3 walled bin and stick a pipe in the middle that has a bunch of holes in it. And if you can source from a horse corral, your greens and browns are already mixed almost perfectly. I add straw and goat manure as well to mine.
I debated talking about walls for this video, but I have no issue with them. Pro: they create a more balanced heat distribution. Con: you have to move them around and work around them. We don't use them, but nothing wrong with walls 👍
The only problem I have with these inputs is the chemicals the horses, cows, goats and rabbits are ingesting from their foods. It's worse than most think. and passing into their stools. It can really make a mess of your food growing areas. Since I grow my food for health I need to keep it clean of the chems a much as possible.
@@j.reneewhite915 I suppose that could be a problem, but I get my horse manure from a veterinary research university and they feed their animals good stuff. I don’t know 100% if it’s totally organic, but the compost on I make has my crops looking good. I also find tons of mycelium, worms, and beetle larvae in my compost, which I think is a good sign.
Getting it from a organic grass fed / pasture raised farm would be perfectly safe. We have lots of folks that get “black gold” from us. And some that just want raw from the money end of the cattle. 😉
@@j.reneewhite915 if the manure is coming from creditable sources or from your own animals you should be able to obtain the information or already know what they are ingesting. We use non GMO Amish milled grains for our animals when needed.
My father was an avid gardener and allotment owner. He used to have 5 6ft x6ftx6ft areas for compost. Fill one with whatever you have then when full go to next carry on. Until all full and I mean full. If done properly it will take 5 years. His plats and food was the best every one wanted to know how he did it.
I love this info thank you🎉
I made my compost in a container bp safe and i put holes on the bottom and the side and bought organic soil to start it off then added my food scrape and earth worms and it is such amazing black gold ❤
I make flatish wind rows and turn/mix it up with a rototiller works like a charm
This is great indepth information about composting 👍👏✌️
Esto es un gran video y la calabaza, en adición a ser bastante grande, estuvo hermosa. ¡Qué variedad más linda!
[4:50] The background music fits perfectly! It enhances the overall vibe.
Great sharing watching here phillipines
I really appreciate the knowledge you drop on these videos. Thanks.
I used to sweat over compost. Now, I get wood chips as I can, lawn clippings when I can, all our garden waste, and all our table waste, and throw it in a pile in the chicken pen. Pile it back up occasionally, and top the garden off with it when not much else is going on in mid winter.
Man, I have that U2 album I cannot get deleted off my phone! Never listened to their music so I don't even know how I ended up with it! Glad I am not the only one!
for those of us with a bad back, fork or shovel will be easier with a long handle, I also use a 'brake' something to brake the shovel/fork over like a 2ft high tressel, or in my case the bottom half of the front side of a pallet bin composting bay make it so much eaiser on my glassback
Wow! Another super great video. There's only one thing you didn't cover (or did I miss it?). The smaller the chunks, the quicker they compost. Chopping, chipping, grinding.... all of this can make composting take weeks instead if months. The down side is it's tougher to get oxygen into a pile of smaller pieces, so sometimes a mix of sizes makes a pile breathe better. But Man! Great video. Remember that compost seems like more of an art than a pure science.
Darn your a good speaker and educator! Been home composting for a few years now. Getting it turned is getting to be a challenge!
Add on I'm in Michigan zone 5 b. April 1st snow in the shadows. Ready for spring warmth! My pile is gonna need a jump start, like a good turning. Thanks!
This is helpful. I will use this knowledge.
Getting ready to build my house. Then I’ll be starting the garden. Finishing “The Living Soil Handbook”. That’s a keeper. I appreciate the way you present your info. This video is a prime example and makes a great accompaniment after reading the book. Wish me luck. I’m progressing from patio/bucket gardening to a homestead, so I will be reading the ink off your book.
I did everything what you say he never compost
I have been putting all my meat trimmings from my chicken pork and beef from my food truck and it make the pile heat up really fast and for a long time, it’s pretty amazing
It’s like compost is so easy but so complicated but you made it simple. TY
Hey Jessie, just wanted to say I love the videos you've been putting out recently. My partner and I recently moved into our first house with a bit over an acre of usable farmland, and once the snow melts (probably in late May, I live 65°N) I'm gonna try my hand at market gardening. Your book has been invaluable and these recent videos have been amazing. I'm actually originally from Shelbyville, KY. Whenever I go visit my parents next, I'll try to find you at your local market. Cheers!
Super awesome to hear the content and book has been helpful! Very cool to hear. As for the market, that's totally fine but I always try to encourage people to please come later in the day if at all possible 🙏. That way I can make sure our customers are getting my full attention! 🤘
Partner sounds very homosexual..... just say husband or wife like normal people capable of reproduction and carrying on their bloodlines
amazing amount of info, thanks......You answered many of my beginner's questions. my wife and I started our raised gardens so we eagerly forge ahead.
Great informative video. I’m am also in Kentucky.
You all may already know this , but Starbucks will give you used coffee grounds that you can add to your compost, for extra nitrogen etc. might be helpful to someone.
😅😮😢😮Ty 🎉
I do this to keep the compost pile warm. Very easy.
Probably good for the smell too.
Cold lacto-fermented composting (the improved Water Witte method) is a better method. It does not have the 2 adverse effects of hot composting (which is not practiced by nature):
1. The resulting compost is less than half the weight of the original pile. It's a sorry loss of carbon due to the decomposition activity of aerobic microorganisms, which unfortunately emits a lot of CO2, a greenhouse gas. So it's a polluting method. Besides the loss of carbon is a waste for the fertility of our soil.
2. The resulting compost contains few microorganisms because of the high temperature, so is of little use to soil fertility.
Cold lacto-fermented composting uses anaerobic microorganisms and the result is compost with virtually no carbon loss (so it's non-polluting) and, since it's made cold, it contains an enormous diversity of microorganisms useful for soil fertility. Everybody should practice the cold lacto-fermented composting because it does not require to turn the pile, it is less work. However, it takes a little bit more time to obtain a well decomposed compost ready to put in the garden but it is worth it.
@@denisdufresne5338had an 80 ft dying oak chipped up and left in a 10 ft high pile. Im in central florida so microbes are everywhere waiting for the service bell to ring. After sitting undisturbed through the summer and fall I have now broken the pile into three piles in the area i want condition. I am not adding kitchen scrapes, just anything i trim from the ornamental garden. Im not 100% sure but from the smell i believe leaf mold is what is breaking down the pile. Worms and earwigs are appearing in the piles now.
A very warming moment was yesterday when the migrating birds began working that area of the yard which before now was essentially dry florida sand void of life and hydrophobic.
Ok the jam 🎵 is awesome 😂. ❤ y’all, Kristy in Missouri also zone 6b 😃🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Thank You so much.
From Honduras
Loving the microbial cameos !
another great video thanks for sharing:) Have a wonderful week.
Thanks!
Thank YOU! 🙌
Xin chào bạn, cảm ơn bạn chia sẽ kinh nghiệm, chúc bạn nhiều sức khỏe thành công trong công việc 👍👍👍
Thank you for sharing🙂
So glad you said that the compost will stink after the first 1-3 turns. I’ve never heard anyone say that and I would have been freaking out
Bruno Galiasso virou compostador. Parabéns 👏🏽🤣
Bokashi composting is working really well for my kitchen system. I do a lot of food storage/freeze drying/canning so have lots of scraps. It turns into black gold when buried. Kind of fascinating.
I watched an old video of a man with a small yard in an HOA area that forbid composting or veggie patches in the front yard. So he made a nice wide /thick wood chip pathway and he would freeze his scraps and keep his throw away papers and cardboard boxes and then he'd do all his yardwork. Make a 2 ft round hole about 3 ft deep in the pathway. layer all his scraps, paper, cardboard and yard debris. He'd pack it down tight and fill the top up with chip until packed enough to walk on again. He said that he would dig a new hole every month. By the time he finished burying the 12th pile it was time to dig up the first pile and use the compost in his garden with no one the wiser. He said it never stunk and he put enough wood chip on top that it didn't attract pests.
Thanks
Thank YOU! 🙌
Your book is awesome. I’m 69 years young, and I’m adding these principles to my backyard suburban-stead. One question is that “moron smell mitigation?’
Great video, this will help restore soil fertility. Thereby resulting to better crop yield both for large Ang small scale farming.
90% of my nitrogen is rabbit puffs in one of mine.waste hay from feeding for the browns or pine pellets from a stand alone temp cage. I do it about 50/50 but their coco puffs are from hay so I suppose that's why it works. It takes a lil longer to compost but it's less hassle than my normal pile so far but still experimenting a lil.
I'm in Ky as well! About 10 miles just before the RRG. Glad I came across the page!
I'm overwhelmed, I've never set foot in a proper garden and I've just inherited one that clearly was dearly loved and maintained. It's growing like crazy and I have no clue what to do 😂 all I know is it's overgrown and whatever I remove I'll need to put somewhere. Hoping this video will help me do something useful with the weeds (when I learn what they are)
Wow, how fabulous! Enjoy your learning journey and your garden!
@@gypsygem9395 thank you, I'm (driving my other half mad) rebuilding stone walls, and getting my head around the mowing (took a whole day, there's a lot of grass😂) And I have an app to tell me what plants are. I'm loving it. Even in the wind and rain I'm outside.
Small but important addition: Don't build your compost pile up against any wooden (or otherwise flammable) structure. On hot summer days, compost can get hot enough for spontaneous combustion; & every summer there are a few people who burn their shed- or house- through using it for one side of their compost bin.
This is a great reminder. I was unaware this could happen until a family in my town nearly lost their home after a pile of mulch located against the garage spontaneously combust.
I saw a video where a young man was composting 3 ft up the really nice wooden fence. His pile was about 40 ft long and he was showing it off because he was really proud of his hard work. I was pretty sure he didn't pay for that fence and I was really hoping it wasn't his neighbors fence because it's destroying a perfectly good fence. It would cost a lot less to have an entire dump truck load of finished compost delivered than to replace that fence. 🙃
We had a big pile of horse manure mixed with wooddust/chips. The pile was about 2 meters tall and 6m2. At some point in a hot summer i noticed it smoking quite alot. It was actually burning and smoldering. Took me about a day to extinguish it. Some of it was straight up ash afterwards...
I saw someone composting inside wood pallets, could I do the same or no?
@@Aburuqayyah225 if you don't put the pallets next to some wooden structure. At least that would be a precaution I would take
i do need to make sure i use my compost that i make. I have also read that you should insulate the compost to get it up to temp so that the seeds are destroyed
you sir are a god 🥹ℹ️🫶🏻 thanks for keeping it simple!
(this comment was meant for your composting video, but all these are great so I guess it's fine with me ha but compost in particular I gave up on til your vid)
Awe , thank you! Really really appreciate the support!
your book rocks, I highly recommend buying it... as a 3rd year horticulture student ( did not borrow it, the price is a quarter, at most, of it's value )
The worms here are so abundant! When I move compost to a bed I'm also moving a colony of worms .
That’s awesome!! I’m jealous. The worms are starting to make a comeback in my garden. Still not as many as I’d like but it’s getting better.
Even though I live in a congested big city apartment building without enough space to grow a scallion (emphasis: a scallion, not some scallions), I've been watching your videos for, like, EVER!! The light bulb just came on and I subscribed so I went from being "meh" to being "AWESOME"!! I'm clearly running on an original Thomas Edison 1880 carbon filament light bulb special, but better late than never, lol...
If you have multiple piles or your thermometer is in the shed and you're out near the pile, a 4ft stick of rebar poked in each pile will easily tell you if your pile is hot or not.
How?
@bastionwolf just poke a stick of rebar in each pile. Later, pull it out and feel if it's hot. You won't know the exact temperature, but you're gonna know if it's cooking or not.
@@scottbaruth9041you could also use an infrared thermometer on it as you pull it out. If you wanted a more exact reading. But that’s a great idea. Thank you.
Shared on my fb page as an encouragement to others😊
Great video. I needed this right now. About to get serious about this whole composting situation!
Great information and as always! Appreciate it! ❤
Jus laid 5 yards of mulch the other day...its an investment for the future
I love when the tree guys ask if they can come dump. It has really helped my formally cotton land hard packed clay become workable. Plus free chicken run flooring that makes for super hot compost as soon as its piled.
Another fantastic video. Thank you!
I love the t-post pounder holding the tarp down. That is its normal job around here as well.
I have a huge compost, and today I saw the first snake of the season. I hate to disturb them, but this year the three year old pile has to be used. It's pure gold for sure.
Starting with woodchips on the ground to help aerate it is a good idea, I've started doing this as I'm on clay soil and the bottom of the pile can become anaerobic. Also just having a pile might well be the best option in most cases instead of building boxes, it makes it much easier to turn especially if your boxes are smaller.
Yessss Jesse, thanks so much for this video! 💚🌱💚
I love your videos! Thank you so much!
I still have that U2 album on my phone 😂 OMG, you cracked me up with that quip 🤣