WORK, work, and more work

Well, here at Hoffman's Haven the work never stops. I decided since my compost piles went completely anaerobic from the rain and I wasn't really going to get much further that I would go ahead and till in the compost that we had. Here is a short video of what I did.

I realize that we still need about 13 yards of topsoil/organic material to put us where I want to be. I still need to build in two or three working/walking paths in this thing. I also need to run the water line over for the drip system. We are going to go ahead though and plant a few things in here and see what happens. Late in the year I will haul in more material and plant a living mulch to till in later. For a living mulch I am going to get a bean mix as it is a nitrogen fixer. When everything dies off in the winter I can till it in as well but not before we can harvest some food from it.

This area used to be a playground and we thought about moving dirt/sand and taking the wood and building proper raised beds but I decided to just go with it as is. I know I am lazy but I can just add some paths in here it will be just as well. After we tilled the mixture of sand, dirt, and organic material smelled really good but we have a lot of work yet to do.

I hope one person out there in the internet land gets something from this. If just some inspiration and the willingness to grow some of their own food. I never want to preach to you. This is just what we are doing. I hope you can learn from it and hopefully use the knowledge for yourself. 

Garden Spot

Here is a picture of our garden spot.

You can see my other compost piles. I am experimenting with this stuff. The galvanized machine cloth was purchased at the local Home Depot and the larger one was purchased at I.F.A. The wire is a little different and the stuff I got at I.F.A. was a little cheaper and easier to work with. I pile everything in there for a week or so then unsnap the wire and move it then shovel the compost back in. I make sure to break it up and pile it in loosely. You want as much oxygen in the middle of the pile as possible. I have a piece of PVC I am thinking about drilling holes in and poking down in the center of the pile to make sure oxygen gets in there. I will have to let everyone know how that works out. All of this went anaerobic on me because of the rain and started to smell. I turned it over twice last weekend hoping that would help. It smells like a garbage pile and has plenty of fungi growing in it. It has been dry this week though and I will turn it all on Saturday hoping things will be improved.

The garden plot itself is a 20X20 area that the previous owners of the house had used for a kid's play area. It had a swings and a slide on it which was moved away by them. When we bought the place we just decided to use this as our first garden plot as it was just easier to go with it then have to move the dirt around. It is very sandy and we are adding organic material to it like crazy. In the next few weeks we will get a tiller in there and see what we got. I will be running a drip system in here. So I will be digging a trench and burying a water line over then branching that off with the drip lines. I will install a PLC to run a valve and that will automate the process. I plan on running the drip system for about two hours in the morning every other day. Of course there will be a lot of trial and error to get the right amount. I also will be experimenting with plastic mulches and a lot of other neat stuff. Stay tuned as we try and figure out how to feed ourselves.

Lifetime Compost Tumbler

Here are some quick and dirty pictures of one of the two Lifetime compost tumblers we purchased. We purchased two of them at our local Costco two weeks ago. I am impressed with the quality of these units especially for the price. They were $99.99 apiece. The assembly is very tedious and time consuming and requires two people. I wouldn't call it difficult though. It took my wife and I about 3 hours to assemble the first one. The first 2 hours only took me but there are some plastic nuts that go at the end of the screws that hold the panels together and those are where you will need another hand. I will be doing a video of the assembly and loading of the second unit this weekend.

Here is the first picture:

As you can see I prepared the location before hand leveling it and putting down these walkway bricks that we seem to have in abundance.

Picture 2:

There are plenty of places to grab the unit and spin it. These are quite heavy when you get them full. The latches and hardware works well. All of the hardware here isn't stainless and will rust. I gave everything a good coat of petroleum jelly when I assembled it to inhibit rust. I would suggest if you purchase one to do the same or coat them with some kind of oil.

Picture 3:

Here is a picture of the inside that I have about 3/4 of the way full. Everything in there is from our yard and kitchen waste. I also have the restaurant where I work supplying me with a nice supply of kitchen waste that goes in here. As you can see the contents are breaking down nicely. This unit works much better than an open pile as I can control how much green to brown material is in there and how wet it is. I like it pretty dry as the more wet it is the harder it is to get air inside and you sure don't want your compost going anaerobic it stinks. This is after about 10 days. I rotate it every three or four days. With all of the rain we have had everything is pretty wet and I have not had to add any more water.

Watch for the video this weekend I will be giving out a lot more information about these units. So far I am not disappointed with them. The quality seems good for the price. I know they will not last forever but I think we will get many years of use out of them. I will be updating the blog periodically about these units.

Lifetime is a Utah company and they make several products for the home gardener. These tumblers are manufactured in China however. I would love to be able to purchase something made in the U.S.A. We often purchase gear and products made here when they are available. I would rather pay more for something that is made in the U.S.A. hint hint hint Lifetime.