Composting

Sunday, July 28, 2019

A first primitive essay in a compost heap at the south end of my shed.

An improved idea, using modular panels cobbled together from old timber.

Sawdust and grass clippings are easy to get in Bonavista. Sawdust comes when people rake out the area where last fall they sawed logs for fuel; grass clippings come from young lads who mow lawns for cash.

Dumping a truck load of grass clippings at my place saves a 40 to 60 minute trip out to the tip, and that time can be spent mowing another lawn at $20.

Two modules are full. I am partway through emptying a third. I started these modules in June, and by August I was making use of the partially rotted material.

Two modules. I spent a few pleasant days in the shed with a panel saw sawing scrap timber into standard lengths, then driving 1 ½ “ wood screws in with a claw hammer.

Mid-September and a close look at a short-term compost block. Dried grass sits on top.

Mid-October and I am chewing my way through a two-column modular compost heap.

At this western end the blocks are oldest. In the background is the receiving area where grass clippings and sawdust are barrowed up from the driveway and mixed by piling alternate layers onto the heap.

The heap is emptied from the edge, and this effects more mixing as the material is tossed into an empty module.

Sunday, May 15, 2022

I built my first pit to this design on Foxcote Avenue in the year 2000. Now I have a chance to do better, if only because I now have a large stock of scrap timber.

I take four palings, same length, and cut a one-inch notch at both ends of each paling. If you do this now with four strips of paper you will be able to follow along and see how it works.

A closer view of the notches. These are only roughly worked; if you do not have a chisel, a large flat-blade screwdriver will work as well to punch out most of the wood.

I have used four thin (one-quarter inch) bamboo stakes pushed at most two inches into the lawn by hand. Just enough to stop the ends shifting sideways.

The lower paling (running N-S) has the notch facing towards me; the upper (E-W) has the notch facing to my left. On account of the lower paling, the bamboo cane cannot flex to the north, south, or to the west. On account of the upper paling, the bamboo cane cannot flex to the east, west, or to the south.

It follows that the cane can not shift to the north, east, south or west; that is, the cane is locked in place.

It follows that any paling that is leant against two adjacent canes can neither flex the canes, nor fall out of the structure.

Brilliant.

I could use refrigerator shelves (free at your local rubbish tip) as walls, but they are too large to stack alternately, and so cannot relay on the bamboo cane for support.

A series of regular palings, as seen on the ground, are stacked pair wise running N-S, and then E-W, then N-S and so on. This will leave a convenient air-gap the width of the palings.

You will not need identical palings; any scrap of wood, even tree limbs of roughly equal size, will work well.

I have loaded a barrow of sawdust (from sawing logs for fuel) as the first later, sitting directly atop the lawn.

I bring just four shovels of old soil for the next layer.

Do not use the compost heap as a sink to put soil. The plan is to have the compost heap make soil, not absorb it.

We need the soil for the bacteria and microbe life, so that that life can start to work on the sawdust and grass clippings. I believe that the earthworms ingest small particles of soil for grinding in the gut.

I had a pile of grass clippings that sat through winter. By now they have begun to rot and attract colonies of worms. I skim them plate-like from the heap.

\This barrow load is probably equivalent to two or three barrows of fresh grass-clippings.

And onto the pile they go. Next four more shovels of soil, then sawdust, soil, grass and so on. The current material will settle down and compress to about half this height over the next few weeks.

I have balanced the next pair of N-S palings atop the wall ready for the next load of material.

Immediately below my N-S notched paling is an E-W notched paling. The arrow points to that notch.

This layer of palings is temporary, and will be moved up a few inches at a time to a point about eighteen inches above the ground, then more regular palings, and finally a third set of notched palings at the top of the heap.

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