[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!
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