Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["McBride & Putnam" <dragonhill2@netzero.net>]

I borrowed my friend/neighbor's small tractor that has a front end loader on it and spent the day out in a freezing wind taking about 20 scoops of finished compost from our big compost pile to the garden and dumping them over the fence to be spread on the beds as soon as I get time.  That done, I proceeded to carry unnumbered scoops of compost down the field to an area where I hope to grow mangels next year.  Considering the state of the soil, I think I may need to put in a green manure crop first--perhaps an early planting of oats.  The area is reclaimed strip-mined land and 20 years of spreading manure and compost and grazing sheep is just now getting it to the point where it actually has a bit of pasture value.  In between spreading compost I rebuilt our compost heap, layering incredibly rich soil that has built up around the area, fresh manure and partially broken down compost from cleaning stalls over the past few weeks, well-composted material, and new grass and brush clippings. Right now it looks as if a small volcano as erupted  just outside the barnyard, as there is a nice little column of steam rising from the cone.  Darkness and feeding time overtook me before I finished spreading all the compost so I'll have more to move tomorrow.  A semi- truck load had gotten built up because I didn't get a chance to spread it last fall.  Everything from our goat barn, the main barn, which houses 3 horses and 3 pigs at this moment, and all the rakings from the sheep yard go onto this compost pile. We bed the horses with wood shaving and the goats,sheep, and pigs with straw. Also, everything from the cleaning the chicken house is cleaned to here, all scraps from the garden and kitchen are fed to chickens or pigs before going to the compost. Brush, leaves, grass cuttings--everything organic goes on the compost heap.   Every week or two, I use my tractor and blade to turn and stir and pile the compost up into a pyramid shape to keep it cooking and to help keep water draining off so it doesn't get sloppy.  Because fresh manure is being continuously added there's seldom a problem with the heap being to dry but if it does get dry there's a water spigot close enough to hook up a hose and wet it down.

 

It's nice to have such large quantities of compost available--but I sure could have used a warmer day to be moving it around.

 

Claudia