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Soil, Compost & Mulch

Hurry up composting

yumpin_yimminie

16 years ago

I have a goal of seeding for wildflowers around May 2nd. Since grasses and other weeds apparently make things difficult for wildflowers my plan is to compost and spread 3 to 6 inches of the fresh compost over the the area to be seeded.

My compost is leaves most of which are chopped up from last fall and then bagged chicken manure at about 25% of weight of the leaves. When I make the compost piles and mixing the manure in should I thoroughly wet the pile as I build it or should I just build the pile with thoroughly incorporating the manure and then just wet down the outside of the pile?

Rain forecast is for for daily rain for the next week or so. My plan is to keep turning the piles on a daily basis.

Any information is appreciated.

Thank you.

Have a Great Day,

Jim

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Comments (4)

decklap
16 years ago
You'll need to check your C-N ratio to get a really hot quick pile but in any event you don't want it to be too wet. Water crowds out oxygen.
tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
16 years ago
Are the weeds and grass there now? If so, I would guess they will really like the compost, grow right through it as the compost disappears and they will choke the wildflowers. You may want to think about lasagna gardening with thick layers of paper/cardboard on the bottom. If the weeds are still there, that is.

tj
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bcomplx
16 years ago
With leaves and chicken manure as your main ingredients, you don't need to worry about weeds in your compost. However, little wildflowers always struggle with weed competition, so you might consider getting a head start by sowing some of your seeds in flats lined with newspaper. After the seeds are up and the weather warms, you can slip the mat of seedlings out, like a pizza, and presto, you have little islands of seedlings.

If you don't want to do all that turning, you might cover your planting site with newspapers or cardboard, and then spread your leaf/manure mixture over it 3 inches deep. You should get excellent weed suppression, the compost will keep rotting just fine, and when you're ready to seed, open up little spots and do it.

Here is a link that might be useful: my website
Kimmsr
16 years ago
Your compost will get digested faster if the material is well mixed, providing you limit the amount of water to just what is needed since water does displace air. Whether you should plan on putting that much compost on the area you will bee seeding in those wild flowers is really iffy since wild flowers have grown up for eons in not really very fertile soils and your compost may make that soil too rich for your wild flowers to grow, set blossoms, or self seed.

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