Compost, Worms, Mulching: All Good Things

Here's the newest **On-Site Soil-Improvement System** at Roswitha's: built last year by Allen, who officially comes to clean the pool and ends up building composters/fostering cats etc. (Sometimes Roswitha's is like a sitcom.) The boards in the front panel can slide up and out for easy shovel/fork access when the piles need turning or emptying. The plywood lid is invisibly propped back against the fence.

This (above, still) is exactly one-season's worth of yard-waste compost. I turned it over this winter, to see how much it had broken down, and was pleased with all the humus-y material.

I should clarify that I was selective about what I put in there--mainly perennial and annual soft green debris, pond scum, and soft deciduous tree leaves (as opposed to cedar or crunchy rhodo leaves). I wanted the pile to compost quickly and cleanly, so I dumped weedy/woody debris on discard piles elsewhere on the property. (In fact, I leave a lot of natural leaf debris in place in the woodland garden, and use cedar debris to mulch pathways.)

There was still a lot of leafy debris in the mix, so I rescued an ancient soil-sifter from the ancient greenhouse, and attempted to sift. The compost was too clumpy, the wire mesh too small, so this was too time-consuming. (I use a bucket instead of a wheelbarrow, because this property is too steep, so Sherpa-techniques work better.)

So I found this wire in the garage, and started sifting. The biggest bits went into my Lee Valley canvas bag...

...and I distributed this bounty of leaf-mulch around big rhododendrons and magnolias.

I ended up with several Sherpa-loads of fine compost--and you can't buy stuff this good.

Humus like this is full of active bacteria and nutrients...and worm poo...

These are Red Wigglers, the worm genus that tends to hang out in compost bins. If you've heard of Worm Composters/Bins, these are the guys you want. After bacteria break down organic matter, Red Wigglers move in and "process" it into a nutrient-rich humus directly accessible to plants. In human terms, it's like taking grain and processing it into bread--a form that we can digest.

If you see these little golden space-pods in your compost, you know you have a healthy system going on. (They're worm eggs.) The little pillbug ambling through the shot is also part of the compost community.

So we ended up with enough sifted compost to mulch all the pots/planters on the pool deck...

You can buy soil amenders, but nothing compares to fresh compost.