Catherine,
What type of composting system are you trying to set-up for Culverhouse? If you are simply wanting a place for vegetative waste to decompose by piling it in a bin, then a bin of your dimensions might work. If your are wanting to actively compost, the size is going to be way to large to manage unless you have a Bobcat or similar type of front-end loader to turn the material. You will also need a chipper/ shredder for this size bin to work. Gail and I have actively composted at Rosemary and Orange Blossom. We have also rescued the composting operation at Florida House on more than one occassion. Compost will happen, but a big mess that attracts racoons, oppussums, rats, flies, roaches, and perpetuates plant pests and diseases is a very strong possibility unless you are actively composting and managing the system. Earthworms will not colonize to the degree that they are effecient decomposers in our climate and soil without a whole lot of help. We have found that vermi-composting is best managed seperately from general garden composting. Actively composting will result in a much higher quality of finished compost in an eight to ten week period of time. Passive composting will result in a product that is simply a pile of decomposed organic matter with very few nutrients and little microbial life. Many of the nutrients will leach from the "pile" in a passive pile of decomposing vegetative waste regardless of whether you have a concrete surface. There are some excellent on-line and written materials on composting. Most of our libraries have the Rodale book on composting. I would suggest that everyone involved in your composting read the book from cover to cover. We are expanding our compost operations soon if we get the funding and will be offering another (expanded) composting training session in April if all goes well. Barbara Orange Blossom Community Garden -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20101014/b81bd8f6/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: community_garden@list.communitygarden.org To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
