Kiwi's SFG Adventure

So I noticed during a recent heavy rain event that there was a small lake next to my compost winter storage bin  



I'd sat the pallets on bricks when I made it, which hopefully helped keep some of the water out of my compost, but it was clear that once the weather cleared I had quite a job on my hands.

Today was the day.  I laid a tarp in front of the bin, manually pulled all of the compost (halfway up the bin) out onto it, laid bricks over the bottom, and used my fish bin to get the material back into the bin.  What a job!

I was distressed to see how wet the material in the bottom half (my first tumbler batch) was: I'm not sure whether this was simply because that material wasn't protected by the tarp that you see in the above photo, or whether there has been leaching downwards from the second batch material, which I put there about a week ago.  In any case we definitely have some anaerobic decomposition going on in there...

I know I should have mixed in some dry leaves as I put the material back in there, but at the moment I have my hands full just doing the bare necessities, so I'm just going to cross my fingers and hope it's still useful come spring.

I'm so sorry this happened to your compost. The only good thing is that you found out now instead of when you came back in the spring. The rain has shown you that area is prone to standing water.

You are already correcting getting the compost above the high water level. May I make a suggestion about the top cover? I originally tried to cover my bin with a blue tarp against the rain. The tarp filled up with water like yours does. Water is heavy stuff and I got wet every time I tried to dump the water! I had to lay sections of fence boards across the top and then cover with the tarp to prevent pooling water. [Eventually I had husband made a plywood cover for it with hinges for opening, but that's another odessey.]

sanderson wrote:You are already correcting getting the compost above the high water level.  May I make a suggestion about the top cover?  I originally tried to cover my bin with a blue tarp against the rain.  The tarp filled up with water like yours does.   Water is heavy stuff and I got wet every time I tried to dump the water!  I had to lay sections of fence boards across the top and then cover with the tarp to prevent pooling water. [Eventually I had husband made a plywood cover for it with hinges for opening, but that's another odessey.] 

Thank you!!!!!  I was standing there looking at it yesterday (having hand-pumped it dry as the first step to the job) and thinking, What on earth can I do to prevent this happening again?  I was trying to think of a way to angle the surface towards the back, couldn't come up with anything so decided to just put up with pumping it.

I'm not the handiest of people....

I put my third batch of compost into the tumbler two days ago.  It's too dry, so I'm gradually correcting with added water.  This morning when I opened the hatches to measure the temp it was steaming!  This on a cold (for us) morning.  Difference of 40°C between ambient and internal.  Seems the added bubblewrap insulation is having the desired effect

KiwiSFGnewbie wrote:I'm not the handiest of people....

I think you are quite handy and innovative.

Finally managed to remember to take some photos of the insulated tumbler this morning, duh...



The handle assembly poses quite a challenge for insulation; currently I just pull the two pieces off each time I need to rotate the drum, but they're not very securely installed and the next storm front will surely pull them off.  Currently thinking of one big piece with a hole for the handle to poke through (since of course it won't always be in the position shown), which I'll orient to suit the handle; I'll still have to pull it off for rotations, but hopefully I can figure out a way of securing it that will stay on better than two little pieces of duct tape!!

The garden is winding down as we progress into winter here.  Last winter I looked carefully at where to site it, even going as far as checking where the house's shadow sat on the lawn at midday around the 20th of June.....and now I find that, yes the garden gets sunlight in the middle of the day but by 3pm it's in shade!!!   Oh well.  I want the garden out the back of the house, so I guess I'm going to have to accept that it's not going to grow as much stuff in winter as I'd hoped.

Anyhoo.  My beans have finally stopped producing, making their season nearly 4 months long, from what I've read this is really not bad for a determinate variety!   From 3 and a half plants (one stopped producing much earlier than the others) I've taken nearly 100 beans, half a kilo (1.1 pounds) so I'm pretty happy.  To a bean they've been utterly delicious, crisp and sweet and juicy.

The two tomato plants continue to gradually ripen their fruit, although the leaves are now looking really quite sad so I might not get the final 5 off them.  Again, for a determinate variety they've had quite a season -- 2 months long, 23 fruit so far and just under a kilo in total.  The texture hasn't been all I could have hoped for, but they're free, and they're mine

The carrots continue to grow, and those which were hit by a slugfest about 3 weeks ago have regrown to some extent although I suspect the shorter sunlight hours are affecting them a fair bit.




The other day I tried to find out what the roots were like, and gently dug down around the stems of a couple of them.  Couldn't get to anything carrot-like, so I'm starting to wonder if they're like my beetroot over summer -- just the green part is growing and there's nothing for me!  My earliest sowing was on the 15th of March -- surely something ought to be visible under the surface by now???

I also have one surviving pea plant, which actually has a pod on it that's gradually filling out   There's also one or two flowers on it.



I need to pull everything out and get the cover crop sown later this month, so I expect I won't be eating a lot more from the garden, but whatever I get is a bonus

Just my observations:

There carrots look like they are doing fine.  I plant mine before winter (September here/March there) and harvest 4+ months later.  You could leave them there for winter.

Regarding slugs, Sluggo PLUS is hard to find here in the States, even online!   I sprinkle it when I sow or set out tender starts.  https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t23938-sluggo-plus#307731

You can pick the tomatoes at the last minute and ripen on the counter.  If they are blushing it should work.

Peas are a cool weather crop.  You can sow bush peas (what you are calling "determinate") for the winter.

Kudos on the bush beans.  

Regarding your prior post on the tumbler, you don't have to insulate it.  The heat is generated by the microbes.  My tumbler was located in year around shade and reached internal temps up to 150-160*F.

sanderson wrote:Just my observations:

There carrots look like they are doing fine.  I plant mine before winter (September here/March there) and harvest 4+ months later.  You could leave them there for winter.

I guess there's no harm leaving them there till late October, although would they be worth eating by then?  Also, I worry about slugfests while I'm away.  The garden has to be 100% able to look after itself from mid July to the end of October.  The slugfest happened to the third square in my photo yesterday (counting going away from the camera) which were sown on the same day as the fourth square, so the plants were not little when they were hit.  I couldn't believe the difference from one day to the next!  I scatter Quash (our version of Sluggo) religiously before rains, and always around new sowings.

Well, I guess if I left them in place and they did get hit by slugs, I'm no worse off than if I pull them before I go away!

Regarding your prior post on the tumbler, you don't have to insulate it.  The heat is generated by the microbes.  My tumbler was located in year around shade and reached internal temps up to 150-160*F.

Then I definitely am doing something wrong.  I've never seen temps like that!  Below is my morning temps for the three batches I've made in the tumbler (the third one has been in there a week now):




I got really excited with the initial temps for this current batch, but now I'm down at fairly mediocre temps, despite the insulation.  I was convinced the difference between batches 1 and 2 was that the weather was cooler during batch 2 than batch 1, but now I have to wonder.

My greens are always put through the food processor, and my browns are either pine sawdust or shredded leaves.  Oh, and there's coffee grounds too, which I always hand-crumble before putting in.  I check and adjust the moisture every morning and afternoon when a batch is "young", until a hand squeeze produces just a drop or two coming out between my fingers.  Drum rotation only 5 turns per day unless the mix needs water in the afternoon too, then I give it another 5 turns just to help the water distribute better.

Could it be as simple as volume?  The tumbler's max is 245 litres = 64.7 gallons and of course that's split between the two compartments.  What size is yours?
Thank you as always for your pointers and tips, sanderson

Mine was an 80-gallon single chamber. Just my thought - don't turn unless it gets over 160*F and you need to dry and cool it off a bit, or the temp has dropped like 10-20*F. But then again, your original compost looked really good.

Maybe OG will toss in his 2 cents.

OK, sure, I can try that.  I just feel like I'm not "doing" enough if I don't turn it!   (I was brought up very much in the protestant work ethic)  This morning it was at same temps as last night (~107°F which I saw somewhere is about the bottom of the 'sanitising' range if kept there for long enough), so will cross fingers that it rises over the next few days

Bummer.  The temps stayed the same, and have dropped in recent days   So, I've gone back to daily 5 rotations, since at least that's spreading out the material that still has bacteria in it.

I'm starting to wonder if my particular temperature profile is due to the tiny size of my material when I build a batch???  Or maybe the fact that it all goes in on a single day???  So, I get huge activity initially but then the bugs have done much of their work in a very short space of time??  Does that sound reasonable?

I needed to build batches quickly this autumn, but next summer/autumn I'll have much more time and can put them together more gradually, and the material can even be in bigger pieces if you folks think that's a better idea.  Sure, prepping with the food processor is easier and quicker than chopping by hand, but if I'm not doing 20 or 30 gallons worth on a single day my wrists and arms can probably cope!

Composting continues at a slower pace even at "body" temps through the action of mesophilic microbes.  Your compost did reach good thermophilic organisms temps.  When the temps get back to mesophilic temps there is still activity as long as there are moisture and oxygen.

Back in the day when I composted, I built the 3'x3'x3' cage within 24-36 hours. I never added new materials to the cage as that starts the count-down all over again.  It was a major operation collecting all of the material (except fall leaves that were stored).  The bedding straw had to be mowed.  A run to the college horse stables for manure.  Over the weeks of composting the volume dropped to around 1/2.

This is the kitchen scene of me chopping the produce culls after visiting the evening Farmer's Market. You can see the size of the produce after chopping.


Collecting Starbuck's coffee grounds and then dancing on them bags to break up the pucks.




Staging all of the ingredients to start building.