[Market-farming] Mixing A Lot Of Stuff

Willie McKemie mf at austinfarm.org
Tue Sep 28 20:02:39 EDT 2004


> 
> I'd like to find out if anyone has any suggestions for mixing a huge amount
> of dirt + compost.  I'm still in the process of building my tire garden and
> in the short term I need about 635 cubic feet of this mixture (actually in
> the VERY VERY short term, it's more on the order of 141 cf).  I've got the
> dirt, I've got the compost.  What I've *been* doing is mixing it in a
> wheelbarrow, sort of 2 cubic feet at a time.  Every turn of the shovel to
> get the stuff mixed is accompanied by an explative of one flavor or
> another.  There MUST be a better way!  All I can come up with is renting a
> concrete mixer for a day or two, but even the 9 cubic foot one I could get
> for $75 a day would require 70 loads.  I've tried a 30 gallon trash can but
> that doesn't work too well.  I've also tried various incantations.  I've
> even tried wishing really really hard.  Swearing at the whole thing doesn't
> do much, either.  ;)

Wishing and swearing ARE probably your best options.

The transplant people that I use have a permanent mounted cement 
mixer for mixing their medium.  This is the mixer off of a "haul 
concrete to the job site" truck.

Spreading the stuff out and running a plow over it is what I would 
probably do.  Use either a disk or a turning plow or both.  You would 
need a front-end loader to spread it out and pick it back up.

You need to start buying serious equipment, anyway.

-- 
Willie, ONWARD!  Through the fog!
Good Health: the slowest way to die
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