Making compost with fall leaves, kitchen scraps, horse manure.

[michael68]

Hey guys, since fall is about here and the leaves are falling I'm wondering if they're any good for compost making? I've read they don't contain any nutrients but do they compost fine and provide good structure?

I'm thinking about starting a compost pile in a big chicken wire cage thingy with a bunch of leaves and consistently adding kitchen scraps and maybe a little horse manure from my neighbor.

Any special way to go about doing this/will this work and will I have compost by around spring?

Cheers for any help.

 

[Scrappy4]

Leaves make for the brown part of a great compost mix. Make sure to get them in as small of pieces as you can. I run mine over a couple of times with the mower then pick them up for the pile. Horse manure is another good addition, if the horses have been dewormed I'd give it a while to break down a little though. In my pile I use alfalfa meal and grass clippings for the green, along with any old organic nutrients I want to get rid of. It is also a good time to add rock dusts, minerals, and those hard/long to break down things like guano. I'm also a fan of use what's already in your yard, it just makes sense.......best of luck.....scrappy

 

[CT Guy]

This link may be helpful.
http://www.klickitatcounty.org/solidwaste/fileshtml/organics/compostcalc.htm

Keep in mind if you wish to do thermal composting, it's recommended to get a compost thermometer so you can make sure you're heating the compost to at least 131F but keeping it below 160F so as to kill off weed seeds and pathogens but not burn the organic material.

There's a lot of good links to composting online. You may want to consider passive or static composting if you're not in any hurry and don't want to mess with it.

A worm bin is also a good option and well worth the initial investment in my opinion. You won't get a ton of castings out of a small bin but you can topdress your favorite plants with it or use it in an ACT brewer.

Lastly, we collect the leaves from our neighbors in the Fall and spread them in our garden. We do a final ACT spraying over the top. (shred the leaves if you have the time and a shredder as this will help them break down faster)

By the time Spring rolls around, most of the leaves have decomposed and we've added good organic matter to our soil. Haven't tilled in 20 years and have no compaction and a wonderful garden.

You can also use the leaves to make a container for growing potatoes.

 

[jaykush]

i make leaf mold every year, its some of THE BEST mulch you can make. and its effortless. just make a big pile ( the bigger the better and let it rot all winter and early spring. by then it should be full of worms, fungi, and all the other soil friends.

or you can use them as the carbon source for composting.

 

[MrFista]

Leaf mulch is wonderful stuff as a mulch or as a carbon source for composting. Add the horse manure to it for compost, read up a bit, and enjoy.

 

[michael68]

Ty everyone for the replies.

Been reading up a lot on this lately.

Gonna make some strictly leaf mold too.

peace

 

[mad librettist]

remember to sort out the oak leaves into a separate pile.

 

[rrog]

Interesting. What is it about Oak? The bark is one of the accelerants in the Quick Return method.

 

[mad librettist]

oak leaves are much higher in lignin than other leaves.

lignin is very tough stuff.

 

[rrog]

Ah. I knew about lignin. Didn't consider it was in leaves also. Thanks.

 

[Blue Socks]

On my deck there was a bunch of decayed leaves and earth and just matter that hadn't been touched for over a year, I got tired of looking at it and used a push broom to sweep it off the deck. Well when I started to move the pile, to my surprise it had a really good earthy dank smell to it and there were a ton of worms living in there. I'm wondering if that stuff would have been good to use in my indoor containers? I'm thinking it had composted after all the wet dry cycles and it may have been good to use? I'm kind of kicking myself for not checking with you all before I got rid of it.

 

[Dislexus]

How about grass clippings. I gotta lower the lawn so it'll have straight up turf also... and I can get all the horse manure I want.

I'm thinking of doing a the simple round wire mulch stack in a dead corner of the yard... but not chicken wire... something sturdier. Wire ends together into circle, wire across twice to tie an x at the bottom. Then cut a wide rectangle a quarter or third of the circumference of the side almost to the top and bottom, wire it so its hinged, wire it shut, done.