Western Pa

Hi my name is Chuck d'Argy (don't look at it, just say Dar gee). I have been playing around with SFG since the 90's, but due to my job never really had time to dig deep, so to speak.  I have retired, so now I am ready. I have a small lot, but have picked out a chunk of dirt to put my boxes. Been scrambling around looking for 5 compost ingredients, for next year. This year will just have to settle for what I can find.  And that works ok. But I have friends in the area with cattle, horses, and chickens. 

New for this time around, 5 gallon buckets for most stuff and larger for potatoes, all with Mel's Mix, at least what I can contrive this year. I am a retired engineer so I'll see where this goes. Helps me go vertical with a rack and use a 10x12 area covered with concrete that I otherwise couldn't use for gardening. Anyone tried 5 gallon buckets yet?

Any thoughts on composting with vertical round fencing vs square boxes, vs tumblers?

OhioGardener wrote:Welcome to the forum from Ohio, Chuck!  I haven't used 5 gallon buckets, but it should work as long as there is adequate drainage and the soil is kept moist.

Thank you!!!

I don't know why containers wouldn't work, but if you look at a lot of youtubers, they are all over the place on it.  The only conclusions I could draw from hours and hours of watching people on you tube was 5 gallon buckets work pretty good for plant, and potatoes do better in larger containers.

While the mechanics of gardening are pretty simple, prepare, plant water harvest, everything that goes into raising food is a very complex process. So if you don't follow Mel's process carefully, there are a million ways for things to go wrong, and very few for them to go right.  Mel did all that work for us, made all the mistakes for us. That's why it's important to follow his process as exactly as you can for optimal results. If you are willing to settle for ok results, deviate as you will.

Any thoughts or links to the how to's and why for's of composting techniques?? Tried it once many years ago, failed miserably.

My nick name should be 5 gallon bucket. Horse and cow manure, I could fit 11 five  gallon buckets in the back of our family SUV. of course I made all necessary preparations to eliminate spills, clean up and fumigated after, it still smelled like a new car..lucky for me...