Spring is a big and busy time around here : I pull up erstwhile plant , skim over beds , amend the soil , sow in rows of seeds , and ascertain over seedling . For most of March and April , I ’m forever deal with dirt under my nail and mud perplex to my Bogs . ( Hence , you will almost always see me in picture with a manicure , as the finish helps cover unsightly nails . It sounds unknown , but I ’d go demented if I could see how they actually looked after I ’d just repotted a hundred plant . )
One task I gayly reach over to my husband , however , is managing our main compost heap . We have a few compost heaps going on all over the yard , all year long , from ourvermicompostto our poulet manure to our leaf mold to our tumbler ( plus a few piles of dead plants we pull up every season ) .
The tumbler pigeon is where we add our Mrs. Henry Wood ash tree and kitchen bit , and twice a twelvemonth we knock down it all out and collect all the compost it ’s created .
Most of the time , we get a heap of fine , crumbly , beautiful inglorious worldly concern that ’s ready for the garden . But other times , there are still bit of moldy oranges or rotting squash rackets buried in the mix , not fully suffer yet . Maybe we ’ll even find a few branchlet or rock in there .
While it ’s not always necessary to strain your compost before spreading it in the garden , it make a better planting culture medium without all those lumps and clump , and also ensure that only finish compost run into the soil . Sifting also aerates the compost , improving the soil structure of your garden beds .
To sieve our compost , we made a sifting screen out of three 2x4s and a sheet of paper of 1/2 - in hardware material stapled to the frame . The cause we have a three - sided frame ( instead of a more uncouth four - sided frame ) is for ease of usage with a power shovel .
We ( and by we , I really entail he − the hubs ) prop up the covert up at a 45 ° slant , shovel a layer of compost over the screen door , then apply the plane oddment of the digger to “ fret ” the compost against the hardware cloth . Finished compost fall through the screen , while unfinished compost falls back to the ground .
When all is sifted and done , the finished compost is shoveled into a freestanding bin for succeeding use , while the unfinished compost is put back in the tumbler as a entrant for next season ’s scraps .
From the tumbler alone , we usually make full a large trash bin with enough compost to amend a couple of raised layer . The compost is stack onto the grease as a top layer several inch duncical , thoroughly watered in , and left to rest for a few day before we start plant .
Next week , we ’ll undertake the composted chicken manure . What are your garden chores this spring ?
