Cover crop cutting

Clover. Lots of clover.

The crimson clover cover crop sown late in the fall is doing great in some beds, and not so good on others (the far beds in the photo). Our winter came very late this year, and I held off on clearing out the beds and getting the cover crop sown for as long as possible so I could keep picking off my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and beans. Turns out I waited too long. I got half of the garden beds planted early enough, but I was too late in getting the other half the cover crop in, so it was frozen out after a few months. Not a huge deal, but I didn't like the beds sitting bare while winter and spring rains pounded down on them with no protection from erosion, compaction, and leaching away of nutrients. Learned my lesson.

I started cutting it by hand (slowly) with my little Japanese hand-held scythe, but soon enough brought out the weed-whacker, which made shorter work of it. Raked it all up and put it on the compost pile. Hopefully the roots remaining in the soil will break down over the next couple weeks as the bed starts to dry out, and I'll be able to turn over the top 6" of each bed, add compost and fertilizer and plant!

It didn't create as much organic matter as I thought it would; mixed with horse manure this will break down and probably only provide enough compost for maybe an inch over two 25' beds. So next year I need to get it planted earlier in all the beds, or possibly sow a large area of crimson clover in a section of the pasture just for composting material...I think chickens will eat it too, so it can be turned into eggs!

March madness

Seed starting that is. The last few weeks I've been starting lots of plants for the garden this year. So to get up to speed:

I've started all my first round of brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, kale, cauliflower), lettuce, some leeks and onions, 9 varieties of tomato, 3 kinds of pepper, tomatillos, and eggplant. Outside, I sowed some spinach and arugula in my cold frame. The soil is getting closer every week to being workable, so in a few weeks I should be able to officially break ground and start planting seriously outside. I can't wait!


I built a new light rack for my seedlings this year. Really simple, just a 1x2 frame holding two 2-tube T-8 fixtures. I made it to so there was room for four standard size nursery flats under it, and so it fit on the laundry room counter.

In other news, I finally found some good manure! Craigslist ad lead to a very large pile of horse poo - a one time $5 loading fee and I was told I could come back as many times as I wanted. The manure is very good; no wood chips, just a little hay bedding mixed in, and it has been sitting since last summer, so it is fairly well composted. I took the oppurtunity to break down my compost pile and rebuild the unfinished portion with the addition of manure. Last year my pile did not heat up as well as I hoped, so this should help.


I'm getting another pickup load this week, which, if it's as broken down as the last load, I'll spread on the pasture garden to be plowed in a few weeks from now.

Compost turnin'

Not my favorite activity. Every time I do it I wish I had one of those silly plastic compost tumblers (not really). Turning is the only way to know how far along the compost has come, as the outside of the pile generally looks about that same as when it was built. When rebuilding the un-composted parts go on the bottom and in the middle of the pile, and the more finished around it. Turning also serves to oxygenate the pile, allowing the soil microbe colony to continue to grow and feed on the uncomposted material as it is turned into the middle of the pile.

I have 3 piles right now. This is the core of the most recently built pile. You can see that the middle of the pile is fairly well composted, and the outside is still raw hay. This is mostly because I did not water this pile at all after I built it, so the outside dried and didn't decompose, while the middle broke down.

About half way done. Still some recognizable pieces in there, which means it isn't done yet. If you look closely you can see quite a few sowbugs in there - the pile was teeming with them, literally hundreds. That's good, cause they eat plant litter.


After rebuilding the two round piles, I wrapped them in some black plastic I had lying around in an attempt to keep them from drying out. Usually you wouldn't cover a compost pile, because it needs oxygen, but these piles are open on top and built on pallets for air flow from the bottom, so they should be fine. I'll throw the last bits of the garden on top, and let these sit until spring, when the finished compost will be spread in the garden.

Making a compost pile

Every week at our new house I have 2 or 3 wheelbarrows full of weeds, bags of grass clippings, and access to as much dry hay and straw as I need - the perfect materials for making good compost. So I decided to make a compost pile, using some pallets I got for free to form a large bin.

The main ingredients: rough soil mix in the upper left, greens in the upper right, and dry straw/grass at the bottom.

These lesser ingredients are not required to make good compost, but they will ensure a rich result (from the steer manure), and help ensure the pile heats up like it should (microbes in the compost maker). Extra water is added to keep the pile moist - it should be as wet as a squeezed-out sponge.

Making the pile is easy.
1) A layer of dry material 3-6" thick. This is very important because it helps keep the pile loose and aerated, which is essential for providing oxygen for the microbes to do their work heating up the pile. If the pile is un-aerated and stays cool and wet, you end up with mold and anaerobic decomposition (it stinks!).
2) Next a layer of green material 3" thick. Weeds (avoid those going to seed), some grass clippings (not too much, they tend to clump), and vegetable scraps. Water to the correct moistness.
3) Last a thin (about 1/2") layer of dirt/manure mix, a sprinkle of "compost maker", and repeat until the pile is gone.

That's as simple as composting gets - layer some greens and browns and let it sit for 6 months. There are many technical factors operating in the background (temperature, carbon to nitrogen ratio, proper oxygenation, dozens of different microbes working together, etc) and all these can be explored and controlled if one wishes to make REALLY good compost.

Last but not least is the proper site for the compost pile. Mine is near the garden (easy to throw on weeds and trimmings) and under the branches of deciduous trees (shaded in summer so it doesn't dry out as fast and exposed in spring to the sun to warm up more quickly). We'll see how it goes.