Part 4 a: More Dirt On Dirt

My timing is perpetually off on this tomato series, as I should have put up this post back in November or December.  But there is still time if you act quickly and don't plan to put in your vegetable garden until mid-April or early-May.

It's called sheet composting, and it's a great way to add organic material to your garden beds if you don't have a compost pile or bin in your back yard.

Being we're already nearing February, you'll want materials that will decompose quickly, such as soft kitchen scraps and lawn trimmings.  Simply chop them up and take them out to your garden beds and spread them around.

Once spread out, cover the material with a layer of steer or chicken manure (costs about $1 a bag at Lowes or Home Depot).  Mix a bag of worm castings and a good quality compost, such as SuperSoil then spread that on top.  It's important to put a good two inches or more over this to avoid rodents digging up your material for food.  I personally think the steer manure creates a good "scent mask" to keep the rats and mice from smelling something tasty underneath.

Make sure this stays watered through the spring.  Decomposition will halt if this all dries out.  But if you do this over the next few weeks, you'll have a great base of rich soil to plant in come May.

As I mentioned, this is really ideal for Fall.  That's when you'll have a lot of organic material from your spent vegetable plants and fall leaves.  Do this at the end of season, cover it with your manure, castings and soil, and you will be good to go next summer.  You'll also have more options available as to what you can throw in.  This being February, and with only 60-75 days to go before summer plantings, you'll want to be sure whatever you add is chopped well and you leave out heavy materials such as corn cobs, branches, or heavy melon rinds, etc.  But if you're doing this in the fall, all those things can be added.

As to what NOT to add:  This is cold composting which means your compost doesn't heat up enough to kill the bad things you don't want in your garden.  So avoid adding any of the following:

• Seeds, especially weed, tomato and pepper seeds.
• Weeds, especially crabgrass, clover (actually Oxails which looks like clover but is a weed in these parts).
• Plants that show signs of disease, especially rust and fungus.
• Anything processed, such as store-bought bread or plant-based "meat".  You really want to stick to whole, unprocessed materials.  An exception would be coffee grounds, shredded newspaper or cut up, unbleached cardboard.
• Anything animal based, such as meats.  The only exception being crushed egg shells, which are fantastic for your garden and will add calcium to the soil.

Here is a great link on items you should avoid composting, especially if you are using this sheet composting technique:  Things To Avoid Composting (And Why)

You also don't have to do this all at once.  As soon as you are done planting for the season, you can take your kitchen waste out to your empty garden beds and bury it in holes as you collect it.  I've done this successfully over the years and found it's a nice way to add that organic material without needing to maintain a compost bin.