Our soil really sucks. We have a very thin layer (at best) of dirt over a few miles of red clay. Red clay has has two properties when it’s dry it sticks to you. When it’s wet you stick to it.
Solution? Amend the soil The way I’ve done this is to create Raised Beds using concrete blocks. They are pretty inexpensive and they don’t rot like the landscaping timber (Red clay is also very acidic so any organic material, even treated stuff doesn’t last)
I found that if I put folded layers of landscaping fabric under the open blocks (not under the raised bed portion) the creeping Bermuda Grass and other weeds aren’t able to get a permanent foothold in the bed. My wife will also put flowers in the pockets (Marigolds) which some say are beneficial.
We moved to this place to have our Horses at home.
Here they are doing their job. First step to making Compost
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Ponies doing pony stuff
Most of the horse manure ends up in the pastures and we break up the poop pile and spread them around. We’ve been told that this helps keep the unwanted insect population to a minimum. I don’t know if it does but wandering around the pastures with the ponies can be enjoyable.
The horses stay in a paddock area most evenings (or days when it is really hot) which has a shed and water as well as other comforts. The manure in the paddock gets collected daily and put into the compost system;
Compost has been moved to allow new poop in the first (left) bin
In the beginning I made the containers with Pallets (yeah they are free) but they lasted about fifteen minutes and were a pile of rotted crap. The current system is simply steel T posts with steel fencing attached. I put landscape fabric in the bottom of each bin to help with drainage and to make it easier to find the bottom of the pile. My system is nor perfect and composting experts will complain that I use too much of one kind of stuff.
I put all the newly collected poop in the leftmost bin. All of our kitchen scraps as well as safe garden stuff (old tomato plants or any thing that is diseased does NOT go in here.) No protein go in here either. Just green stuff and poo.
It takes about two months to fill the first bin. At that time I move the completed compost from the last bin and use it.
The contents of the second bin gets moved to the now empty third bin.
The first bin is emptied into the second bin.
By the end of the process the completed compost has been cooking for around six months. I don’t do any turning or stirring other than what occurs when moving from bin to bin. I will also dig a deeper spot in the middle of bins two and three so that when it rains, water will collect in the middle of the pile and be less likely to run off.
Here is an example of our Pepper Plants in raised beds
In addition to the heavily composted soil I add a deep layer of old hay (horses again) to keep moisture in place during our hot dry summers.