Our Compost System
We've used just about every method of composting: sheet composting, the 14-day method, vermicomposting (earthworms), and the make-a-pile-and-leave-it-alone-for-a-year-or-two method, and combinations in between. We still have some piles and bins with compost in them from a year or more ago. We still use and like vermicomposting in bins.
But we've decided that all that pile-building and turning and watering and hauling is too much work. Instead, We compost leaves, garden wastes, grass clippings, animal bedding, and kitchen wastes on the raised beds we use for vegetables and flowers.
When we empty a worm bin, we sprinkle the bedding, castings, and worms (saving some to start the next bin) all along one of the raised beds after we've had a few layers of leaves and waste laid down for ten days or so. The worms we use in our worm bins are Eisenia fetida. This species isn't deep earth-dwelling. They live in the very top layer of soil under the layer of mulch. The difficulty with keeping them in the garden is finding enough leaves and grass clippings and other bedding to keep them happy.
As a result of composting right on the raised beds, we never have to till the soil, never have to turn a compost pile (or move a finished pile to the garden), only sometimes pull weeds, and usually water less frequently. The soil food web develops—bacteria, fungi, nematodes, etc.—and we don't disturb it any more than we have to when we plant our seedlings.
How is this system different than Ruth Stout's mulch, mulch, and more mulch system? Not much, except we actively cultivate the earthworms, and don't use straw for the beds. We do however, sometimes use straw on the pathways between our 2- to 4-foot wide raised beds.
How is this system different than Patricia Lanza's Lasagna Gardening? Not much, except we don't pay much attention to layering. Whatever material we have on hand goes onto the garden beds and is spread out into a 3- to 4-inch (or more) layer as far as it will go. One bed might have shredded leaves or wood chips, another grass clippings. Kithchen and garden wastes are buried here and there for the worms to work on.
In a couple of weeks the bed is ready to be planted. We pull back the top layers of material and plant in the vermicompost-rich soil underneath.
Some have asked about the depletion of nitrogen as the high-carbon materials (leaves, shredded bark, etc.) decompose. The worms take care of that: their castings have a slightly acid pH and plenty of nitrogen. In beds where the worms are not yet well established, I help things along with a sprinkling of blood meal or manure tea.
Begin in the Fall as you harvest crops. Put down the leaves you rake up, and the grass clippings as you mow. As a bed becomes empty, put down the materials. If your soil lacks the earthworms, go buy some (you might want to start a worm bin to more quickly grow the population of worms you'll need, but this isn't necessary). Seeding the worms in the garden directly as you lay down materials is fine.
You can plant into your beds as soon as you've laid down the mulch/compost materials--just pull back the materials and plop a plant into the soil. You can also let the bed(s) over-winter without any crops. In the Spring, pull back the mulch/compost--the soil will be ready.
As the growing season progresses, add mulch as you collect it--leaves, grass clippings, etc. Bury the kitchen wastes in the rows in a new site each time. Choose a row and bury a little each day, moving down the row a foot or two as plantings allow.
No more compost bins or piles are necessary—although we still have some. No more turning or hauling piles. You'll have less weeding and less watering. And worms--plenty of fishin' worms!
