need ideas to use leaves, grass clippings, compost

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

hello!

We're pretty new gardeners and eager to rejuvenate our soil over the winter and not sure the optimal way to do it. We have been reading about using leaves, making compost, raised beds, newspapers, lasagna gardening, etc., and we are a bit overwhelmed with all the information and need help breaking it down into bite sized pieces.

What we start with is:

11 chickens and therefore a small pile of pure, aged x 4 mo chicken manure, and a large pile of cedar and pine shavings with chicken manure mixed in;

a large pile of shredded leaves from this fall;

an even larger pile of composting grass clippings, which is about 5 feet high and 10 feet wide, and has pure compost on the inside (I don't know if there is more in there than just grass clippings as we bought the property this spring and the pile was already pretty big, but this year all we added was grass clippings. It is too big to turn.)

stacks of newspapers

11 raised beds measuring 8x4 feet, which this year had tomatoes, carrots, parsley, cilantrol (all gone) and kale, chard, beets, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and sugar snap peas (all still growing).

an 8000 sf field in which I am planting rows of blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, grapes, figs, apples, pears, persimmons, plums, nectarines, and most importantly asparagus next spring.

We live in PNW Zone 8 so cool wet winters with minimal to no snow, and dry mild summers. The varieties of broccoli, cauliflower, etc that we have now can overwinter and the kale and chard can in theory grow all winter long.

OK, my question is how to take all the raw materials I have - shredded leaves, grass clippings, some very hot compost, cedar and pine shavings, chicken manure, newspaper - and my growing area - 11 raised beds plus rows that I want to prep for growing small fruits and fruit trees - and maximize my soil rejuvenation over the winter. What would you do and how and when? Should I mix the grass clippings with the leaves? Use plain shredded leaves as a mulch? Put the shavings and chicken manure directly into the beds now? Cover with newspaper and then with compost and let sit til spring?

Thank you for walking me through this. We're very excited.

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Comments (3)

maxjohnson
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
I think you have some very good materials there. I really don't think it have to be complicated science. Personally I would just put them down now, just mulch all your raised beds with them, I don't think it matters which goes first because it'll be composting over the winter and by spring time when it's warm enough for growing all the materials would be broken down.

Problem with having a thin layer is that if you have just
scattered stuff on top, they oxidized and dehydrates (if no rain) and
doesn't compost well as in a big pile. It may be better to have grass clippings on top because it creates a good seal to keep the soil warm, retains the moisture and help the composting activities.

If you were growing at the same time you put these materials down, I would put more broken down/composted materials down first, then the more green and coarse on top. Stuff like unbroken down woodchips can tie up the nitrogen in your soil a bit if you mixed in while it haven't composted. But since you mixed your wood shavings with chicken manure, and leaving it over the winter to compost, it is not a problem.

I don't believe in doing all the complicated composting methods and separating things, organic matters is organic matters for me. So I would just throw them in. You can check out the youtube channel "OneYardRevolution" where the guy improved his soil simply by mulching with leaves and adding compost over time.
led_zep_rules
7 years ago
I would say pretty much exactly the same thing! Don't worry about how thick any layer is or how you combine them. Try to have browns and greens both but whatever you have will work. We fling compost materials into our raised beds each fall and winter to fill them up, as old compost gets smaller and so you always need new stuff. By spring it's ready to be planted. You don't need to worry if you can still identify wood chips or leaves or banana peels, just plant around things as best you can. Mother Nature works well. :-)

Where you will be planting in the spring, assuming there is something growing there already, won't hurt to put some layers of newspaper down in rows and fling a few inches of your compost supplies on top of it. That will help to smother the grass/weeds there, and improve the soil at the same time.
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I believe that 2 mechanisms are mineralization and denitrification- although they are normally described in soils or water. In the first- N forms (simple anions, or from proteins) are transformed into NH4+, and NH3 is lost because it is volatile. Normal thermal/ light induced degradation and bacterial action can cause this to happen (going on memory here). In denitrification NO3- is directly converted to N2 as part of the nitrogen cycle. You may remember basic fishtank chemistry where NH4+ --> NO2- --> NO3- . I guess this is the opposite of that. Going on memory there. However- green leaves turning brown, fresh cut green grass drying out and turning brown- both are accompanied by loss of N as a volatile. I'm sure that autocatalytic breakdown of the proteins in the greens would cause loss of a variety of N bearing compounds. Manures and urine often contain urea, which has a very simple pathway to NH3 conversion.
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@GSRedneck: brief answer is two/three parts: i) No compost pile will stay 'hot' continuously. At some point things cool down. Lots of sources to read about this. ii) Compost piles where you're adding from time to time, especially one type of material like kitchen scraps, likely won't stay hot for long periods, and may never get 'hot'. That usually requires a fairly big pile that has the right mix and goes through one or several hot periods (due to turning and air and water additions). iii) You can cold compost - it will eventually break down. It won't 'kill' bad bacteria and weed seeds as well, and it will be slower. That doesn't mean that compost is bad or dangerous necessarily (there may not be that many bad bacteria in compost made mostly of plants, i.e. little or no meat or faeces or dairy, etc). Opinions differ in this but _my_ take on it is that it's more about helping the 'good' bacteria dominate, which mostly means plenty of air, rather than worrying. You might see if you can encourage compost worms to populate your pile. You may need to cover to keep more light out and keep it more damp. They like compost and will probably show up on their own, you'd just be helping them out. This probably sounds scary but short form is that hot composting is not the only way. Lots of people never get their compost piles hot. If what you want to do is reduce your kitchen-scrap (plant) garbage, cold is perfectly fine too. The other things you can do like adding browns 'help' optimise, you're just trying to get it to fit your needs. But do read up in other places.
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This has probably been mentioned: The option to use the clippings for mulch. I have been using grass clippings for the past few years in raised beds with no problem. I know the four problems people espouse: 1. seeds to turn weeds. In my raised beds I pull grass and weeds early in the morning while drinking coffee. It is not labor intensive. 2. It is an un-appealing color as mulch. I don't care about aesthetics in my vegetable beds. Although I do have flowers in them...maybe I do and don't find the grass offensive. 3. turns to slimy mats. I throw the clippings in my compost bin for a few days. Things get hot and brown the clippings; have felt like my hands are burning while laying the mulch. Lay down an inch or two with no problems. 4. mats up and repels water. I have never had a problem. I have checked after rainfall and the soil appears evenly wet. I run a hose for irrigation when needed. You can see the grass float up where the water is spreading underneath. I also have the benefit of turning in the decomposing mulch at the end of the season for an additional soil amendment. I cannot find any issues with clippings as mulch. IF you are trying this on a large scale garden, then some of the issues like "seed to weed" will be problematic. I work with 4 - 12'x4' raised beds, 1 - 4'x4' strawberry bed, and some other oddball planting areas.
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lazy_gardens
7 years ago
Whatever you amend, do it thoroughly, not skimpily. It's better to amend half your beds or part of the planned orchard area well than to thinly spread what you have.

Asparagus is a "heavy feeder", so layering all the chicken manure into the excavated area, below the planting level, and covering it with compost would be a good idea. The better you prepare that bed the better the crops.

The empty raised beds? Top them up with compost and leaves and let them sit until you want to grow stuff.

When you harvest the last of the winter veggies, top them up with compost and plant summer stuff. (if you alternate planting areas between types of crop you have fewer pest problems).

As you plant the orchard area, mulch around the new plants with the newspapers and cover with composted something for weed control.

need ideas to use leaves, grass clippings, compost

Comments (3)

maxjohnson

led_zep_rules

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