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.
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