Sunday, June 25, 2006

Compost Heats Up


Back in April, I got 2 new compost bins so that I could work on speeding up the process to make compost. The plan was to add new material to one of them, and when full, to transfer the full bin's contents to another bin. In this other bin, no new material would be added and I would turn the pile about once a week and add enough water to keep the pile as moist as a wrung-out sponge.

Yesterday, after raking and shredding the fallen leaves from my neighbor's magnolia tree, my bin filled up for the first time! I transferred the whole pile to an empty bin and added some water after transferring each third of the pile.

Today, I took a look at my compost thermometer, and it read 148 degrees Fahrenheit! I have never seen it that high before. That means the microorganisms have kicked in and the pile is cooking. I am anxious to see how long it will take before the whole pile is black gold.

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