A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Organically Speaking... Compost question

Hello everyone. This may be a bit long winded before I get to my actual question, so please be patient.

I expanded my container gardening last year. In doing so I used local dirt (a lot of clay) and mixed it with some chicken manure and potting soil. Seemed to work okay, but the dirt was mostly clay.

At the end of the year I dumped all the containers along with the old plants in a pile. I have a persimon tree in the yard so I mixed all those leaves in as well (a lot of leaves).

I've filled some containers for the early season stuff and have noticed that the dirt seems much more dark, but there are a ton of leaves that did not really decompose. Do I need to try and separate them out or just put them in the containers with the dirt?? I figure they will decompose eventually, but am not sure how it effects the plants I'm growing.

Sorry it took so long to get to the questions.

Shawn

I turn my compost even during the winter if the weather is nice enough. So most of my leaves do decompose. The trick is to make each leaf piece about 1 inch square or less. If they stay big they stay around a long time. You may also want to add grass to your compost pile when you get some. The ratio is usually 1/4 grass to 3/4 leaves. That way the compost doesn't smell and it does get hot enough to kill any weed seeds that might stray over there.

I would probably keep the leaves and add the new mown grass to them. Leaves are hard to come by this time of year while grass is just getting started lol. But the leaves won't hurt your soil at all.

Thanks for the info. You guys would laugh if you saw my "yard"...3 trees, rocks, and concrete. It's tough to find a place with a yard here, everything is just so congested. I do my best with my containers though. They sit in the only place I get any decent sun. I'll have to post some pictures once I get things going.

I'll try to pick the leaves out as much as I can. It is still too cool to even think about putting out peppers or tomatoes, so hopefully my dirt mound will break a few more of the leaves down.

Thanks again for the help.

Shawn

Okinawa was like that too. A concrete island. You might want to add a can of stale beer to the compost to get it started or start a packet of yeast and put that on it. Either one will work. Just follow the directions on the yeast packet. And yes keep it moist like a damp sponge.

Wow, my post was moved and it took me forever to navigate the "new site" to find it.

I spent 6 years in Okinawa, but didn't try growing anything but some boony peppers I picked up in Guam. There was a jungle in my back yard that had all kinds of cool flowers, along with interesting insects and birds visiting.

Thanks for all the great advice, I'm hoping this will be my best year yet.

Shawn

I'm sure it will be.