Not sure what kind of winds you endure but I rarely get heavy winds, I tossed together some wood & metal roofing I pull over the piles, super attractive it's not but it works great, one fall the grizzly bears pre-winter pile turn for me after I put salmon carcuses in Simply amazing how effortless tearing up a pile is for them...
Daft as it sounds that's an easy way to get some bears to do all the hard work of turning your pile for ya. Dam no bears in my country, me thinks Henry 8th shot em all or some shit like that.
Count your blessing that you don't have Bears to deal with. They visit my spread daily and can do horrible stuff in seconds! cheers os
That's a great plan if they are outside 24/7 everyday. The Brown ones don't fear dogs like the Black ones do, but the local dogs do a pretty damn good job on the Black ones. cheers os
Can't say we have these issues to deal with, but you should take it as blessing. Our lands have been pillaged long ago by the aristocracy. If they are that fearless and dogs need to be out 24/7 then it sounds like estate dogs would be better - bullmastiffs, douge de bordeux, boerboels. I would like to see a brown bear take on 4/5 Bully Kuttas or Kangals.....
They did DNA testing on the hair samples from my barb wire fence one fall, 13 differnt Griz crossed my property, rarely see them now, it took electric fencers on garbages, got rid of all critters-- chickens, turkeys, before they became uninterested, still hit the fruit trees once in awhile, numbers are on the increase around here big time.
Thanks for your contribution @jerry111165. There is a ton of great information here. What a great thread.
I came out of the highlands yesterday and hit the big city, the nursery there had a big pile of “organic compost” that was starting to thaw out nicely. I’m a bit sceptical of where they sourced all of the inputs though, I need to have a chat with the owners I guess. My piles are still frozen under feet of snow! I’m already thinking about building as many compost piles this year as possible. We have a brief window here in spring where I can source good brown material once the snow melts and before the new grasses start to grow, so I’m going to collect as much as I can. Probably come up your way @ElRanchoDeluxe and score some more of that hardwood “dust” too!
Sometimes the show must go on, even if ya planned poorly, and didn't stash enough compost inside in the fall. cheers os
If you're talking about cow patties they are actually your green or N source. The hardwood sawdust is your brown or C source. Bu's compost is still available locally. I may order a pallet of Teufels if I do the outdoor thing this year. We should probably call the horse lady and let her know we will take care of the pile this year. I'm going to have a run down detached 2 car garage to work with. RD
Cow patties as green material you say? Interesting... I have access to a few of those lol! I believe the fields that they graze in all summer probably get sprayed for weeds at some point though, I can verify that with the rancher who runs them. That would be an issue right? I can’t imagine that the toxins get broken down enough to not be an issue just by going through the digestive process. I need to find out what I can do with leaves from cottonwoods and aspen trees. Now THAT’S something I can source easily. Edit: just did some reading on cottonwoods and aspens. High tannin levels, only recommended in small amounts. Damn.
I have always read that cottonwoods and aspens are some of the most sought after leaves to work with. They make up the bulk of the leaves I use for compost and leaf mold, and I feel I have great results. cheers os
I dug deeper and what I found just said that the high tannin levels make them hard to breakdown quickly so shredding them was suggested. It also stated that they could raise the ph levels in the soil. I’d love to be able to utilize them, I could pile up a small mountain every fall! My buddy had some fall clean up in his yard last year and the landscape company left him with a huge pile of chipped aspen and cottonwood waste. It’s just chipped and not pulverized. Would this be a good source of bio mass for composting?
Its doable. The only thing with wood chips in composting is it takes a lot of greens to break them down. Then it should be screened to remove the wood chips that are still left. I would think the longer you were able to let it sit, the better it may be. Like a year. Maybe someone else will chime in, wood chips are used a lot in commercial compost. cheers os
The cow patties probably aren't worth the time. It depends on what's been sprayed. I think our horse manure is a safer bet. Wood chips would be a great source but like OS said it will take awhile to break down. Better yet, they would make a great base along with a few logs for a hugelkulture bed. Or even better still, use them to build an oyster mushroom bed. Oysters should be in our area in the next 3-5 weeks. They are super easy to spawn. Or you can skip the mushrooms and bury the chips in a foot or two of your compost. Squash might do well in it this year and I'd plant some spuds in it too. Or you could do the same thing but with the red wiggler infested horse poo we have access to, the first year it's a windrow for worms and the next year you can harvest castings or plant it. RD
Here's a pic of an oyster bed and some hugels I was working on awhile back. I had a thread called "Back on the Ranch" ??? or something like that if you are interested in more details. Sent from my XT1609 using Grasscity Forum mobile app