Easy Low Cost Composting with Free Coffee Grounds and Wood Chips Alberta Urban Garden
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ค. 2024
- Compost is the best way to amend your garden bed to improve vegetable yields. It does not have to be complex or costly to do! It can be done even in harsh winters.
Compost can be broken into three simple components that often come free in most cities and towns!
Residential kitchen scraps. Things like vegetable and fruit cuttings represent the "green" category and used paper towel and cardboard represent the "brown component" avoid glossy paper. Most inc on non-glossy paper is soy based and will break down.
Coffee grounds are a great free resource often being tossed in the garbage by coffee shops. Most of the time calling them in the morning and asking them to collect them for the day works wonders.
Municipal wood chips and leaf/grass compost. These are typically the "brown" ingredients. Most towns produce this during their regular maintenance activities and will give it away or sell it for a very reasonable cost. I recommend getting to the oldest part of the pile as it has had enough time to start breaking down. The leaf and grass compost comes with lots of beneficial aerobic bacteria that will help develop the compost pile.
I like to keep it simple. 50% "green" and 50% "brown" ingredients. To build the pile start with a layer of garden soil or existing compost material. Layer the residential scraps in a 15cm (6in) layer. Add a covering of coffee grounds and a 15cm (6in) layer of finished compost and wood chips. internal layers can be mixed a little to increase the surface contacts between Green and Brown materials. Repeat the process with the top layer of finished compost and wood chips. The finished compost and wood chips will act as a bio filter keeping any smells down.
If you have issues with smell that persist you can use grass clippings or leafs to continue to pile on top.
This pile will heat up and become a great hot compost. If you wish you can flip the pile a few times to get the pile to heat up again by adding oxygen. Heating the pile will help kill off weed seeds. I dont typically flip mine. Once the pile cools off the worms typically come into the pile and it becomes a vermicompost pile.
Planting on top of my compost pile is a great way to increase the production of small urban gardens while covering the pile from view. I typically plant vine crops like pumpkins and squash. Their roots can tolerate the incomplete compost and their roots bring on oxygen and create a symbiotic relationship with beneficial aerobic bacteria. Those bacteria break down the compost and bring in more worms.
it is important to keep the pile moist. when layering you can water when you complete each layer. Make sure to keep the pile moist but not sopping wet. Keeping it moist with oxygen will further cultivate the beneficial aerobic bacteria. Not enough water or way to much will promote the anaerobic bacteria we want to avoid. Keeping the pile moist will keep that bio-filter we were speaking about working. once the pile is dry down to 2-3cm (1in) water the pile.
I would like to send a special thanks to Second Cup in Fort Saskatchewan for providing the free coffee grounds.
Thanks to the City of Fort Saskatchewan for providing the leaf and grass compost and wood chips!
for more information check out these URLs
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Some of my favorite childhood memories are of gardening with my parents and brothers. This channel is about low cost organic urban gardening in zone 3. I am by no means an expert gardener however I love to share my experiments and journey garden year round. Please feel free to join the conversation and if you think you might like this channel subscribe. Have a great day!
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Amazing!! Garden Scott introduced me to your challenge. I love it. I am learning so much. I am Glendora, California started a garden for my family. My 4 year old is learning about compos and how his berries and vegetables grow.
My mom who sometimes stays with us is helping me try new vegetables that she never thought we could grow like bitter melon. I pass on all I learn from you and other gardens to my son and my mom. Thank you!!
Well done! Working a half frozen compost pile shows true dedication! :D Great use of free resources with the used coffee grounds and wood chips! I'm about to make my weekly call to the coffee shop to ask them to save their grounds for me today. Happy composting!
I have to say I was inspired to show this process after following some of your guiding principals. So far so good ! Free resources and a large pile ! That said I might switch it to primarily vermicompost inside so I can save space and still produce high quality castings !
***** Yeah, one of the many great things about having worm bins is that you can keep composting during the winter.
I think that is the goal! that will allow me to compost during the winter and use the worm castings in my seedlings further reducing the cost of my garden ;)
An aerobic workout for aerobic microbes! Thanks for sharing.
Lol DMC Grant I never thought of that lol.
Cheers from Ontario. Nice to watch videos from someone with similar climate and obstacles.
Howdy from Alberta ! I love finding new Canadian gardeners ! It's definitely not some of the nicer zones but we do pretty good up here hey !
Great job Stephen and hooray for free resources :)
Thank you ***** ! Can't get better then free
What a determined man to get this work done despite the climate. Whew.
It would seem this year if I did not work when it's cold I would not work at all lol.
Thanks so much for this informational video!
Mallika Kamat I am glad I could help out!
Compost is the key! Good vid. Stephen!
Thank you!
Great video. The fact you are turning and working your pile in while snow is on the ground is inspiring. I also have a similar pile & my "secrete" has been to bury fermented Bokashi scraps into the middle of the pile.. The worms love it, and the larger bit and pieces are much easier to break down.. In fact, I will make a video about Bokashi to share.. Thanks again for showing us how you work your pile !
I would love to see how you do your compost pile !
We have had nothing but snow this year. We got another 4" after I finished his video ... Ugh
I was a bad girl this winter. I didn't compost. I have 3 compost bins and I could not safely get to any of them all winter long because there was so much snow and ice. In the past, I sometimes moved one of them closer to the house for the winter months, but there never really was a need to do that (until this winter). I'll no better for the future. Good for you for keeping it up year round!
It is a good tip to have them close to the house so it is easy to use. I leave mine in the garden area out of fall laziness I regret it every time I have to shovel! :)
Awesome vid brother, great info
I am very glad you enjoyed it !
Great video on how to make some hot compost up in frozen Canada. Love the lasagna approach and looking forward to the black gold of fresh compost.
#compost #composting #compostable
Thank you Wes ! I kind of do a layered mix :) gotta keep it simple !
Shouldn't you be using a pitchfork instead of a shovel so that you don't kill any worms that may be lurking about in your compost pile?
Another well done video, Stephen! I also use grass clippings to keep the smell down. Grass clippings have so many uses! I'm proud to say that my yard produces zero waste. Nothing goes to the curb for pick up, I use everything!
I am glad to say I achieved the same ;) I love using grass clippings. I use so many I get my neighbour to give me his !
I am glad you enjoyed my video !
All that hard will pay off! Great video and it's great to have free stuff! We do the same and pick up coffee grounds from a local coffee shop...My coworkers same some for me too now :) Well done Stephen!
isnt it great to have access to the free resources! I wish I could just get a few more people to do the same!
*****
I couldn't agree more!
Good info. I never thought about planting in a compost pile. A cover crop would certainly keep weed seeds down to a minimum. Thanks:)
It's a great way to keep the pile looking nice and waste no space :)
Nice update, Stephen!
I was lucky this winter, since my compost piles were warm all winter through. I`ve noticed coffee grounds axellerate a good amount of heat already in the house bin I have. When emptied into the compost pile it still remain hot, and share it`s heat with the rest of the underlaying stuff. I had my compost covered in two layers of plastic this winter, and the insulation increased impressive.
I bagged loads of carved leaves last fall, and kept it frost free inside the hen house. I then used it as a layering component between the "greens"..
Keep up the good work!
All the best,
Halvor.
Oh I wish mine would stay hot lol. I tried insulating it one year and Mother Nature laughed at me lol. Froze it solid lol.
I bet you can have all the leafs you want living in the beautiful area you do!
***** Thanks for nice words about the place here.
I have so much leaves in the fall here, I could fill a couple of trucks if I wanted to. :)
Oh what I would do to have access to leafs like that. As it is I have to go into the city and try to get people to let me take them ;)
*****
That`s a good method too!
I suppose you dont have to rake and bag them?
we are required to in our cities but most of the time the city uses them for their own compost which is where I got mine from this year. That said Id love for the worms and microbes to do the work for me instead of them lol.
Great video, I just love the snow effect you added :) haha only kidding :)
yes effect lol. it snowed like 4 inches later that day! lucky its all melted now!
Keep your fingers and your toes crossed, :)
I hope so I actually have plants outside now thanks to SavageNorthGarden
Great video, gardening in the snow. Like OneYardRevolution said loads of dedication in the cold temperatures! Our pile is probably around twice the height but I must get some woodchips and coffee grounds from somewhere :)
#gardening
Great! I did not know that paper, paper towel and such could be used...great video.
AgroSuede They are a great source of brown components!
***** Oh that's good...i will use them...
Great tip for hard work:)
Coffee grounds u can get it from your office coffee machine
You known I never thought of that ! We go through so much coffee at work ! Thank you ! I am going to set up a bin :)
Are the cool shades to avoid snow blindness? You look good man! ... and wow, composting in the Winter! *You are hard core :)*
That is right Blake. To be honest I had forgotten to take them off ;)
If I did not work in the winter what else would I do ;)
Forget composting in winter... Blake Kirby is spoiled by the TX weather and is surprised to see what winter really looks like.
I should have done this 4 hours later. We got 4" of snow lol.
You should put the links to additional videos at the END of the video. Thanks for the info.
+rain coast I do that now but in the old days I could not figure out how :)
hey man, love the video!
i'm curious why you don't add meat and dairy products to your compost pile... there's no risks in adding the material and it totally breaks down just like everything else you have in there. Balance it out with 2x - 3x brown materials and it'll cook even better against the winter cold.
Thank you my friend ! I don't put them in there for pest reasons. I have a varying level of little monsters whom will find their way in there and cause issues. If I had a larger pile and did not live in an urban area I would not worry about it.
Thank you my friend for commenting and stopping by ! Feel free to come back any time !
try to avoid manures as well unless you are inoculating with beneficial microbes to get the compost heat up really hot. I do use manures in mine and inoculate. Right now i have a bin that is hotter than my thermometer will go which is 200 degrees.
Wow that's hot. At those temperatures your beneficial microbes are likely replaced by extremeophyles that love the excessive heat. That said it's probably soon a great job breaking everything down!
well yeah lol its broken down so fast just a month ago the bin was full now it is like quarter full. its in one of those plastic garbage cans with a lid so a turn it about every two weeks. stuff is really crackin! =D
I bet your plants will absolutely love that compost!
i bet they will when its done lol. i used a lot of dog manure because my dog litters the yard with it so i let it get really hot and let it sit for a while.
I have never seen dog manure !
now that's alot of snow for sure
Lots of it had melted already by then ;)
yeah I assumed so lol ,, since your snow melted before mine , I have been paying attention lol
lol we got record amounts of snow in November and December here and then it started going away in January slowly lol
I am so glad its over for another year , i have my fingers and toes crossed, the joys of living in canada lol
We cant win but we try ;)
how u get your pile heat up??? my pile been sitting 3 weeks now and its ice cold
check out this simple video on making a hot compost. It may take some digging now but you can easily get it going. th-cam.com/video/BjGRhFqCDVg/w-d-xo.html
yeh saw that video and every other one on compost,,,,,
Add some brewery grains ;)
hmmmm good thought,,,
My pile is now 55c and just moving! It is nice to see the pile steam
stephen we love ur vids. just like we were rt there with u. but not helping u shovel...sorry just a thought. throw in alittle rock dust as well my buddy. to start that down the line thing i spoke of in one of ur last vids...the rock dust will start to amend ur compost as the mircrobes work the magic and disperse the minerals throughout the compost......mike and deb
I am glad you like my videos Mike and Deb !
I was thinking of adding rock dust but I wanted to see the results of our trials before I start using it a lot more. I just want to make sure it works before I spend any more money on it :)
Your more then welcome to come over and have a coffee while I work ;)
Sprinkle a hand full of clay soil if getting smell.
Garden soil or brown material works really well to suppress smell too.
I would not using oranges - citrus. It will keep composting worms out which you want.
I have not had any issues as of yet. That said I don't use a whole lot.
layering seems pointless , I'd say mix it all together. And then it will break down much faster
girl doesn't understand difference between composting and recycling.
Do me a favor or that coffee is doing nothing. Try adding a 5 gallon of coffee pail on top of the pile and add water it in. Your carbon is min. At best add couple inches of wood chips and Try covering totally with cardboard . Then finish it off with another 2-4 inches of compost on top of that .
Now your pile will be doing a 120-130 degrees in temperature . When temp drops back to 100 degrees the move pile to add air and water. Now that will be a compost pile you will be proud of
Thank you for the tips my friend. My compost thermometer does not work however I have done my hand method the pile heats up nicely. I have replacement on its way and may implement your recommendations.
Great video, gardening in the snow. Like OneYardRevolution said loads of dedication in the cold temperatures! Our pile is probably around twice the height but I must get some woodchips and coffee grounds from somewhere :)
#gardening
If I did not compost in the winter I dont know what I would do with myself in the spring !
I am sure coffee grounds and wood-chips should be easy enough to find in a small town ;)