warren mccarthy

Thank you Daron. I just emptied the leaves into a new cage and have yet to see any turds anyways.

Another question. I was wondering if introducing mycelium from a local mushroom would be beneficial to making leaf mould. Would that kind of change the finished product?

I had another question. I just got about a yard of leaves from a customers house. I know that her neighbor has a cat though and I guess I just worry about whether or not it pooped in the leaves. Is this something I should worry about. I haven't noticed any poop in her yard before. I have heard before that cat poop can carry diseases that ate not destroyed during the compost process.

Thanks Annie! It's good to know that Oak leaves were still able to break down in only a few years because we have tons of them here. Maybe we'll just do that instead of burning them this year. We already compost a lot of them but there are just so many! And thank you for the tip about the tin floor as well. I dont have any extra tin laying around so I'll have to think of something else maybe.

Thank you friend! That was very helpful. I am actually trying to go as low tech as possible, so I might not even spend the time shredding the leaves after all. Our garden gets plenty of compost every year ammended to it, so it should be fine for a couple years while I wait.

As for the leaves being all brown- I made two bins with pretty much all brown sycamore leaves in them. then I also made two more bins and filled them with a pile that I got from a customers house a week or so ago. when I started collecting the pile, I noticed that parts of it were warm because even though the leaves were falling off because of the season, some of them were still green. I am wondering if I should just throw those in the regular compost pile now.

I am starting to make some leaf mould but I have a few questions becasue I've seen some contradictions in people's advice on how to go about making it. One big one is that I've heard you don't want your pile to produce heat, so you keep it below a certain size. another question I have would be is it better to let it have it as open as possible so it can breathe, or to maybe put some kind of liner around the bin in order to retain moisture?

Also, I realize I need to shred the leaves. I have a lawn mower that I can chop them up with, but it is the mower that I use for work and has come in contact with dog poo. How saniary do I need to be about this? Is it enough to just hose down the mower? Or should I maybe use some kind of sanitizer on it first?

Still not totally sure if we'really going to use the box or make another one out of heat treated pallets, but Im going to be using these reprised computer fans for air flow.

I now know that plywood has formaldehyde in it as well,  and that it's only harmful in certan amounts and seeing that the box will have alot of air moving through it, maybe it won't really be a big deal.

Just finished this project I'd been working on for the last 2 1/2 hrs. It turned out pretty sweet . I made it from an old speaker box we had in the garage and a pallet. All free materials and I was really stoked until I discovered that particle board has formaldehyde in it.

Chris Kott wrote:One home-based approach that is more sustainable than a purchased litmus product is red cabbage water. It changes colour as the acidity changes. I believe pink means acidic.

I don't have a recipe or a colour chart handy, and it's not the best way, as it only gives you an idea of the direction in which you want to amend it, but it's a starting point you can get to without buying anything or sending soil out to a lab.

The cost of soil testing compared to how useful an in depth analysis can be is truly miniscule, though, especially if your local ag extension is subsidised to perform cheap tests.

I am curious. Why do you not want to get a soil analysis done? If you're eating the stuff you're growing, a soil test may be one of the best gifts you ever give yourself.

-CK

You've got a good point there. Ill have to check out what the cost are here locally to do an in depth soil analysis. I just wanted to do pH, so I didn't think it was worth it to send to a lab, but if I just go ahead for a nutrient analysis while I'm at it, that could be really beneficial.

I just found out that deer manure can carry a brain disease similar to mad cow disease. I've been using leaves that have deer poop mixed in with them in my compost and have even givend them to my worms! I'm starting to feel like I should start over.

What's the best way to test pH besides sending it in to a lab. I have used the probes and the powder in the past. The probes break to fast and I'm not sure how sustainable the powder is. We just ran out of all our capsules and I'm wondering if I should get more or if I should switch to a different method.