As much as I can, I will. Although I'd be REALLY tempted to have some hauled in if we get another one any time soon.
Did you fully clear out the pens? I've been mucking the duck area for the garden. It took 3 wheel barrows full to cover my main vegetable garden this weekend. I used another set of 3 hauls for another garden along the driveway. I have about another 3 wheel barrows full to dig out. I keep a rotation going from their coop to the pen with straw, and also add lawn clippings to their run. By the time I dig it out to use it, it is partially broken down and completely saturated with duck shit. The plants love it.
Oh yeah, the stuff I've been using on the garden beds right now is multiple years old. Chicken shit is really hot, so I let it break down along with the hay and all that for a long time. I'll try and get a close up pic later so you can see just how much it's broken down into compost. There's still a little not so rotted down shavings and such in there, but I figure that just helps retain moisture as well as feed the worms.
I shoveled and hauled all the gravel and dirt into the wicking bed I built several years ago, and that weekend taught me that paying a couple teens in the neighborhood to drive the shovels would be money well spent. The sad thing is we're barely using it for much more than a herb garden at the moment. Between our jobs and the kids, my wife and I decided this year we just don't have the time to devote to anything that needs regular tending. We found carrots do well without much work, they just don't grow very long/deep. We also have chives...a lot...of chives. If/when we do get back out into the garden, I am interested in trying to grow some of the tomato varieties @bewildered posted last fall. I'm not typically a big tomato fan, but some of those looked really good. Especially the one's you roasted.
I think you're talking about the beefsteak tomatoes. They are a personal favorite of mine. Their shape is a little irregular but the flavor and density just can't be beat. Pm me if you want, I can mail you some of the seeds I saved.
Yeah, chicken shit being hot is a major difference and was part of the decision to get ducks. Ducks are messy and wet but you can use it immediately. If your stuff was aged that long, it's primo stuff. You know, you do all this reading before you get into a new hobby or whatever. But until you do it, you have no idea. I have lived and learned the hard way that ducks are about 10x more work than chickens. But I'm locked in on a cycle in the garden that works for me so I won't go back and change that decision.
Have any of you done any "open field" composting? Because I have an HOA, I'm technically not allowed to compost on my property; however, the back end of my property butts up against a large wooded area that surrounds a public park, and there's a decent clearing a few feet into the woods directly accessible from my yard, so I was thinking about maybe digging out a small area that I could use for composting things like grass clippings, some food scraps, leaves/brush from the woods, etc. Just not sure if it's something that's both feasible and/or worth the effort for what might end up being a negligible amount of material.
My family does it, they have a huge pile, that gets a lot of direct sun. I think that heat really helps the composting process. They do it in a back field and turn the material with a front end bucket on a tractor. Their setup puts out a lot of good compost.
The problem with food scraps near a forest is that it can become an animal attractant. I am very pro composting though. I do bins but would build a semi open pile of I had space. It is 100% worth it, even if you don't garden much. Feeding and building soil is very important for the ecosystem and perpetuity of our natural spaces.
I randomly come across articles stating that we are going to run out of top soil. Commercial agriculture is not in the business of soil building. I kinda go "ehh" when I see the click bait headline but it is an important topic that few even think about.
I don't know I'd agree with that, depending on how you define it. Almost every farmer I know builds their top soil and maintains it over time. For example, they intentionally plant crops to do nothing but till it in to improve the soil for the next crop, never mind the detailed analysis they do around soil chemistry. Their yields are directly tied to the quality of the soil (among other things) so it's an important part of what they manage.
That's not how commercial agriculture works in the US. A big ag corp will come into an area and lease farmland for much more than local farmers can afford. They then just grow, grow, grow without crop rotation, off seasons etc. Once their lease is over they move on to the next piece of farmland leaving the soil in pretty bad shape. I'm sure that's not always the case, but it seems to be a pretty common practice.
My issue is that it would have to be 'hidden' in the woods, so while it might get some direct sunlight, it wouldn't be a ton. That's also a thought I've had, but my other thought is that if I just cover it enough with grass clippings or other ground cover, it would hopefully somewhat mask the scent of any food scraps I do throw into it.
I figure you would have to be discreet. I'm sure it would still work, just not as quickly as it would if the pile was baking in direct sun all day. I didn't ever consider animals because theirs is so far from the house. What do you think would come and what problems would you expect? You talking bears, coyotes, or something like raccoons? What about you, @bewildered ?
Ahh, OK... that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification. I'm used to dealing with generational farmers, like my dad's half of the family.... not big Ag companies.
I wouldn't consider bears a potential issue, but we have had sporadic issues with coyotes in the past, as well as raccoons. More nuisance animals as opposed to anything that could pose an actual threat.
We tend to have so many people feeding the birds around here that most animals wouldn’t even look twice at compost, and head straight for the good shit.
The heat and speed of decomposition of a pile has less to do with direct sunlight and more to do with the mass and volume of the pile. Smaller pieces break down faster than larger. You probably have access to unlimited "brown" material for your pile, it's called cardboard. Most of your fresh grass clippings and household scraps will be nitrogen rich "green." You do not need to dig into the ground for a pile, unless that has to do with obscuring the location. As far as pests, it really depends on what you are tossing. Racoons, rodents, skunks. Scavengers mostly. Avoid throwing meat or carcasses in there because that will definitely draw some creatures and those items take for. Ev. Ver. To break down, unless you have a giant active pile going at a high temp already.
You're right, some farmers do tend their land better than some, but it is mostly the family owned property taking care of their land and their future. You may have read about how big commercial agriculture is sucking up property and out competing the little guys. Around here, I definitely witness cover crops and off time for certain land. The farms who want out just sell their land for a couple cool mil to the housing developers because housing is so tight and expensive. Cover crops is a newer practice around here, however. I am told that dust storms were very common here before,and they were not doing the cover crops like they are now. We are surrounded by either steppe grasslands or open farms and I am convinced the dust storms had to do with their land maintenance.
With modern soy bean tech the share cropper that does our place just sprays pesticides, then fertilizer, then plants. No till but not regenerative. He doesn’t seem too concerned about long term stuff. Not sure if he’s got major equipment cost but he grosses about 15k a year for what amounts to about five days of work at our place. Think he does about 15 other places like ours. Seems lucrative and low investment for what he does.