Hey everyone,
Its been one of those days, let me tell ya. Ill spare you the rest of the days story and cut to the pepper related part.
My worm bins have been doing great but cant keep up with my over zealous planting. I ended up planting double what I had planned and I have an extensive indoor garden as well to tend to. So Ive been looking into doing some outdoor composting. Ive got the worm thing down but other then being well read on composting I have no actual experience with it.
Upon digging around I found an add on craigslist for compost. $40 for a full yard or $20 for a half yard. The ad said that it is a "professionally managed and maintained compost pile created over a years time from chicken manure, horse manure, wood ash, and rabbit poo."
Well smack my a## and call me sally ... right? Ill grab my trailer and take it to work with me and go pick up a whole trailer full after work! Im growing in pots after all and a trailer full would last me a better part of a year plus give me some to work with on my outdoor areas that I want to build, but havent figured out yet.
I get there and pull the trailer up, the pile was around back of this guys acreage so he goes tearing off in his tractor before I get a chance to ask to see the pile, but I assumed ( <--- you know what they say about that) after a description like that - that all will be well.
So he comes heading back with a load and as hes approaching his border collie brings me a ball and literally sits on its rear, with its paws in the air ... ball in mouth .. trying to get me to play with him. How are you gonna resist that!? Damn dog was putting on a show! So I throw the ball and start turning around to see what the compost looks like... the damn thing practically does a back flip and catches it mid air... bringing it right back to me and sits on his hind end again and repeats the charade.
Of course by that time the guy had emptied the tractor full into my trailer. I looked at it and its filled with dirt. Im in Arizona... Flagstaff... up in the mountains at 7,000' but our dirt is red...and so is this "compost". Long story short ... this doesnt look like any damn compost Ive ever seen.
Now... to be fair, Ive never MADE compost ... only lots and lots of worm castings. I realize worm castings are different but from the pics Ive seen of quality compost Im pretty damn sure this is little more the ammended topsoil. Please correct me if Im wrong but isnt good compost supposed to be black?
Now Im sure all those manures are contained in it, but theres tons of dirt and rocks and even chunks of wood scraps and pieces of hay that are clearly recognizable from the horse manure. Not only that but its extremely dusty ... I mean .. its basically dirt with tilled in horse manure. At least it looks like the beds in my back yard that I tilled horse manure into.
Worst part about it as Im inspecting it the guy starts going on and on about it. He was so damn proud of it I couldnt bare to say otherwise so I just sucked it up and drove down the road. Like I said.. one of those days. You know the kind where its just better for you to not say anything at all?
Then I get home and start hauling my 5 gallon buckets with super hots in them from outside to the garage for the night, they have been hardening off for the last three days or so, and I realize they are covered in white flies already. In THREE days. Grrrrrr.......
So before I go crack open a cold one and kick my shoes off at disgust for the day, I figured Ild check with you compost pros here.
Its crappy compost isnt it?
Looks like crap to me. Again, I admit Ive never made any but it certainly isnt what I expected. Now what am I gonna do with it. lol ... Im half tempted to stick the trailer at the end of my driveway this weekend and put a sign that says free raised garden bed soil (cause I do think it would be good for outdoor use, but DEFINATELY not in my potting soil mix).
Am I mistaken?
Thanks for letting me blow off some steam! Cheers!!!
Its been one of those days, let me tell ya. Ill spare you the rest of the days story and cut to the pepper related part.
My worm bins have been doing great but cant keep up with my over zealous planting. I ended up planting double what I had planned and I have an extensive indoor garden as well to tend to. So Ive been looking into doing some outdoor composting. Ive got the worm thing down but other then being well read on composting I have no actual experience with it.
Upon digging around I found an add on craigslist for compost. $40 for a full yard or $20 for a half yard. The ad said that it is a "professionally managed and maintained compost pile created over a years time from chicken manure, horse manure, wood ash, and rabbit poo."
Well smack my a## and call me sally ... right? Ill grab my trailer and take it to work with me and go pick up a whole trailer full after work! Im growing in pots after all and a trailer full would last me a better part of a year plus give me some to work with on my outdoor areas that I want to build, but havent figured out yet.
I get there and pull the trailer up, the pile was around back of this guys acreage so he goes tearing off in his tractor before I get a chance to ask to see the pile, but I assumed ( <--- you know what they say about that) after a description like that - that all will be well.
So he comes heading back with a load and as hes approaching his border collie brings me a ball and literally sits on its rear, with its paws in the air ... ball in mouth .. trying to get me to play with him. How are you gonna resist that!? Damn dog was putting on a show! So I throw the ball and start turning around to see what the compost looks like... the damn thing practically does a back flip and catches it mid air... bringing it right back to me and sits on his hind end again and repeats the charade.
Of course by that time the guy had emptied the tractor full into my trailer. I looked at it and its filled with dirt. Im in Arizona... Flagstaff... up in the mountains at 7,000' but our dirt is red...and so is this "compost". Long story short ... this doesnt look like any damn compost Ive ever seen.
Now... to be fair, Ive never MADE compost ... only lots and lots of worm castings. I realize worm castings are different but from the pics Ive seen of quality compost Im pretty damn sure this is little more the ammended topsoil. Please correct me if Im wrong but isnt good compost supposed to be black?
Now Im sure all those manures are contained in it, but theres tons of dirt and rocks and even chunks of wood scraps and pieces of hay that are clearly recognizable from the horse manure. Not only that but its extremely dusty ... I mean .. its basically dirt with tilled in horse manure. At least it looks like the beds in my back yard that I tilled horse manure into.
Worst part about it as Im inspecting it the guy starts going on and on about it. He was so damn proud of it I couldnt bare to say otherwise so I just sucked it up and drove down the road. Like I said.. one of those days. You know the kind where its just better for you to not say anything at all?
Then I get home and start hauling my 5 gallon buckets with super hots in them from outside to the garage for the night, they have been hardening off for the last three days or so, and I realize they are covered in white flies already. In THREE days. Grrrrrr.......
So before I go crack open a cold one and kick my shoes off at disgust for the day, I figured Ild check with you compost pros here.
Its crappy compost isnt it?
Looks like crap to me. Again, I admit Ive never made any but it certainly isnt what I expected. Now what am I gonna do with it. lol ... Im half tempted to stick the trailer at the end of my driveway this weekend and put a sign that says free raised garden bed soil (cause I do think it would be good for outdoor use, but DEFINATELY not in my potting soil mix).
Am I mistaken?
Thanks for letting me blow off some steam! Cheers!!!
Talking about how he turns it over and even took off the outer edges of the pile and put in next years pile so people would only get the "good stuff".
