I would like to learn:
– is this effort beneficial? Worth the time?
– could it be done differently or better?
– tips on getting plants to take root on the edges?
This is my long term composter. It’s where I put tree trimmings, branches, some weeds, some soil, and lots and lots of bags of coffee grounds from local shop.
Today I turned out some of the center and pushed to edges, preparing to add more tree trimmings this fall.
I built and filled it three years ago, and I add to it regularly. I churn it 2-4 times a year with a 6’ steel pry bar. The level always goes down, I add more, and it goes down again.
Central Texas, alkaline soil (clay and limestone). I only grow native plants adapted to soil.
by Zealousideal_View910
24 Comments
Ah yes, the iconic Mouse Lodge.
Hope you have cats (or snakes in your yard), because rodents LOVE this kind of setup
I think most of the pile will stay too dry most of the time. It will break down, but you’re looking at double digit years probably? If you buried this in a raised bed, most of this would decompose in a couple of years. As is, could be like 10 years. I’m assuming that stuff at the bottom was in there three years ago when you built and it’s probably breaking down, but incredibly slow.
This is a very drive by opinion, but get the pieces broken down more, mix in with composted material to inoculate, and hold more moisture. Should do what you want faster if it’s all chipped up.
this kind of seems like it could be a [Hügelkultur](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%BCgelkultur).
I feel like you are going to get termites before fungal decomposition
This looks like a fun experiment to me. I would try to cover it with something, like a tarp to block light and keep it moist. I bet a bunch of mushrooms take over
I’m not expert but that looks like a compost pile your children can inherit.
It seems like any material that successfully composts will leak out pretty quick. Make it wider and shorter, like a raised bed.
I got a similar one and now is full of beatle larvae eating the logs. I dont know what to do 😭
Just make a hugelkulture bed so you get some use out of it now instead of years later. All that wood would work great to retain moisture in the soil.
Needs more green materials mixed in with the logs. That would help the carbon rich logs soak up nitrogen.
This is so wonderful, I’m jealous. The bees and insects need places to hide–this is just perfection!
Call it your carbon capture and storage facility.
For added context, I do not rely on this for compost. Instead it’s a place to have the logs break down. I’m not opposed to speeding it up, and will try some of the suggestions made here, but that isn’t much of a concern.
This man doing great things for the beetles
Just add a little piss on it
Make sure to piss on it a lot
Nice work !!
Look into hügelkulture for using wood in your garden. I’ve had great success with mine. Had to bury the logs 3 feet.
So funny story. About 20 years ago, a guy several blocks away from our house started breeding garter snakes. This went on for a while until the city couldn’t ignore it anymore. So they showed up at his place AND RELEASED ALL THE SNEEKS!
So we don’t have much vermin to this day because the snakes are hungry. We just have snakes everywhere.
May want to look into hugelkulture – basically, you bury a whole tree trunk into a long mound. Then the crops you plant on top of that benefit from the tree trunk breaking down.
Gondor calls for aid, light the beacons!
You could use the wood for BBQ and then mix the ash in your regular compost
From your description, it sounds like you’re doing something useful with all of your yard waste, though it’s going to take a while and it’ll be hard to separate out the finished compost if you want to use it elsewhere.
To answer your questions: It certainly seems beneficial; it’s probably worth the time, as long as you aren’t spending huge amount of time on it.
If you wanted it go faster, you could run some or most of those sticks through a wood chipper, since wood chips are always going to decompose faster than large intact sticks.
Not sure about the best way to have plants rooted there. Maybe you could plant vines or climbing plants (grapes, trumpet vine, sweet peas, etc)?
burn the wood and make biochar