Create accountLogin

Recent searches

No recent searches

Search options

Only available when logged in.
mstdn.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A general-purpose Mastodon server with a 500 character limit. All languages are welcome.

Administered by:

Server stats:

16K
active users

mstdn.social: AboutStatusProfiles directoryPrivacy policy

Mastodon: AboutGet the appKeyboard shortcutsView source codev4.3.4

Public
Eugene Parnell

Spring cleaning this weekend to get ready for new gardening season. First, the compost needs to be turned. The first thing to know about compost is that there are a lot of ways to do it, and a lot of people are convinced that theirs is the only right way. I ignore them. I am a lazy composter. I don't balance my greens and browns, I don't take temperature readings, I don't turn the piles more than a few times a year. I use the three bay system.
1/x



A compost area with 3 bays. The structure is made of cedar 2x4s and wire mesh. The bin on the left is full of leaves and has a wooden gate over its front. The other two are full of brownish black compost and their fronts are open. A storage shed and some bushes are visible in the background.
Public
Eugene Parnell

Spring cleaning 2. So you put compostables into the left bay. Then when they're partially done, you shift them to the middle bay, then to the right. Two turns and you're done. Here I've pulled off the newer material to get to the older stuff to move it to the right (after using the finished compost and shifting the middle bin first). This is all to make room in the left bin for the chicken manure and bedding that's coming.
2/x

Closer view of one bin of the 2 bar described in previous post. Dead leaves, green leaves fill the bay. A chicken watches from behind a fence on the left.
View of the left 2 bays, the far left one has some of the material pulled off into a pile. A digging fork sits in the pile. Chicken is still watching.
Top view of the 3 bays. Now the left one is mostly empty and the middle one is very full and the right one has just a bit in it.
Eugene Parnell

Spring cleaning 3/x
I'm making room in the compost bin for chicken bedding and manure. We do have municipal compost (I use it for brushy material) but the chicken waste, grass and plant clippings, and most autumn leaves we compost on site. I'll spare you the details of cleaning the coop, but the chickens clean like to help. The only thing is, their idea of helping isn't quite same as mine.

A wheelbarrow full of used chicken manure and bedding. A gray and white speckled chicken has climbed up on the wheelbarrow and is in the midst of scratching some of its contents all over the ground. Rock walls and a vegetable garden bed in the background.
View from inside a chicken coop looking out the small hatch. In the foreground is dirty bedding. The ramp leads away into the outdoor run. The screen fence is visible in the back. A chicken poses on the ramp, looking skeptically through the doorway at the camera.
Mar 19, 2025, 05:46 AM·Public·Ivory for iOS
7boosts·21favorites
Public
Greg Johnston

@eugeneparnell That'll make fabulous, rich compost. I add composted chicken manure to the garden every year. I have to buy it though.

ExploreLive feeds
About