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Oklahoma Gardening

Composting

14 years ago

I would like to have some advice, or a link that offers some sensible advice on composting. My son who recently visited from Albuquerque had become very discouraged in his gardening efforts due to the poor soil where he lives. After visiting my garden, he now wants to start building his soil and renewing his efforts in gardening.

I went to the GardenWeb composting site and found mostly nonsense, which I don't think would be very helpful to a newbie. For his needs, he will probably need to build a three compartment bin, so it will look nice and neat in the subdivision where he lives. I'm thankful I don't have those restrictions to be concerned with where I live!

Also, the local supply of amendments there in ABQ is probably pretty sparce, but he could probably manage to locate some horse bedding and the like. Since there are zero grass clippings, and no fall leaves to gather, he will probably have to buy amendments. Anyways, any suggestions and or good links that you know of would be helpful.

Thanks,

Barbara

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Comments (2)

OklaMoni
14 years ago
Hi Barbara

Maybe he needs to get outside of his addition for leaves and grass clippings?

My daughter lives in ABQ too. Not that she composts, but I visit, and see what's available.

Does he do coffee? Starbucks has a GREAT option for free used coffee grounds. I got three bags sitting by my car right now, that I picked up, and want to distribute on my lawn. Yes, they are great for that as well as the compost pile.

Shredded paper from the office can take the place for dry leaves. All, and I mean ALL vegetable scraps from the house can go in the pile.

Now, one word of caution: wildlife.

My daughters neighbor found a mountain lion in her yard.
shekanahh
Original Author
14 years ago
Moni..
We did discuss Starbucks, and there is another coffee shop that started up nearby. Well, they are big veggie eaters so they will have lots of scraps. He just needs a game plan to get started including bins, and what should and shouldn't go into a compost. If you went over to the GardenWeb composting site, you'd see that people really need help on this...what should be so simple, isn't.
My son's wife for example thought it would smell nasty and draw flies. Of course we know that what we put into a bin needs to be immediately covered up with something like hay, straw, peat, or plain ole dirt.
And oh yea, the mountain lion thing...they live very close to the Indian reservation with only the highway dividing them, and then miles of nothing but bare Indian Res. I do worry about that, because even the coyotes are so brazen they come in and snatch people's pets. My son keeps two labs kenneled in the yard while he's at work. Pretty defenseless. And we do know there are big cats in the area that come right in people's yards, just like your daughter's. You don't have to live in the country anymore to be concerned with this sort of thing.

Barbara
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totoro, my roses have really responded well to the tea. It's the best they've looked all year, so I'm bummed it's getting cold. I so hope all my buds eventually open. I also "accidentally" made some compost tea so I sprayed that with a little bit of AT directly on the leaves to combat BS. It's hard to know if worked, but even the worst offenders haven't caught BS yet, so who knows. Usually those grow back with BS, though. I'll try it from the first of the season next year now that I see how easy it is with my new Chapin mosquito sprayer. Samuel, you are so far ahead of us. We haven't lost any leaves and everything is still green. That will probably change with the cold this week. I've been putting the remainder of this years compost in bags leaving just enough to help with the microbes. I really need a source of nitrogen. Nobody bags grass around here so maybe it's time to try the coffee grounds. The thought has crossed my mind that applying it directly may help with midge due to the ph, but I haven't read any research on that. I have a separate place for my food waste. I'd still like to try turkey manure, but I lost access to a truck so It's bagged for me, I guess. What other easy sources of N could I find? I brought in all my houseplants and cuttings/rootings. I think I can leave my 5gal. potted roses out a bit longer. I don't think my coal cellar is that cold yet. I wonder what the temp needs to be to induce dormancy?
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