Question Where to compost?

ConnWin

Active Member
Joined
Sep 23, 2024
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17
Location
Kyoto
Climate
Temperate (all seasons)
Hi all, as I’ve posted elsewhere, I’ve been preparing a small field opposite my house in Kyoto Japan. It’s going very slowly, due to it being winter and me working full time.
As I’ve been seeing neighbours cutting and pruning trees, collecting autumn leaves etc, I’ve asked them to pile them up in my field, so have started to get a decent pile going.
However, as I’ve been preparing the soil I’ve noticed it’s really not great. Not seen any bugs or worms still.
I’ve have to use a little handheld rotavator to mix up the soil a bit but ideally from next year I don’t want to dig.
So my question is this, would it be better to get the pile into a compost bay as soon as possible to get it composting, to hopefully spread on top of the beds next year?
Or would it be better to dig it into the beds now?
They aren’t raised beds and I currently have no means to make raised beds, so would just have to dig and bury the material.
Pictures for reference.
Thanks in advance.

Where to compost?


Where to compost?
 
Just to add because I forgot, I’m also having 100kg of horse and rice husk compost being delivered tomorrow that I was planning on either putting on the bed in the previous photo, or at least mixing it in.
 
Have you considered trying Hügelkultur? Mark has a video on it:

Essentially you're composting in place, growing plants in the stuff you're composting while it composts. It's not ideal for everyone though as it probably needs more space than other methods.

I'm no expert, but compost needs some warmth to properly decompose. It can generate some of its own heat, but one of the reasons for boxing it in is to preserve the heat to speed up the process. If it's just an open pile like in your photo, and it's winter, it's probably going to lose too much heat to compost quickly. Your pile also looks like it could be a bit dry in the middle. Compost shouldn't be wet, but it shouldn't be very dry either, otherwise decomposition stops. This is another reason why people box it in or put it in containers - to stop the edges from contacting air and drying out, halting the composting process in those spots.

There are good videos on YouTube about different ways of making compost, so if you're unsure, have a look and see if you can find someone from a similar climate to you, to get some ideas about what works best in your area.
 
Thanks for the reply.
I can’t do the hugel style unfortunately because I don’t have the materials or resources to make a raised bed. Though I hope to in the coming years.

The current pile in the picture is just where I’m currently keeping weeds and cuttings and compostable stuff because I don’t currently have a compost bay.
That’s why I’m asking which is better. Would it be better to set up a bay, or to bury it in the bed (though not raised, so would have to dig)?
I should hopefully have some pallets next week Tuesday to set up compost bays. And that’s kind of what I’m leaning towards.

I’m currently ready through Charles Dowding’s excellent book appropriately named “Compost” for general guidance for how to do it though have been amateurishly doing it for the last 4 years or so already.
 
You don't need a raised bed for Hugel, you can just pile it up on the ground but that's where it takes up a bit more space.

You can put it in a hole (not bury it but put it in the hole) which would act the same as any other compost bay, but it's a lot of work, you'd have to dig the compost out afterwards (since the top layers won't fully compost so you'd have to remove them to get to the compost underneath) and you may have issues with drainage if it rains and the hole fills up with water.

Given that it takes months to compost, a week waiting for the pallets probably won't make much difference in the long run. In the meantime I'd probably just make a pile as big as I can, so that at least the stuff in the middle stands a chance of beginning to compost until the bays are ready.

You could also consider leaving the greens out to dry a bit more, since good compost has more brown material than green, so drying out the greens will turn them into brown material so you can have a more ideal mix later.
 
I'm sadly inexperienced at composting. Some people build it where you don't notice potential smell as much, others where it's more accessible to them for daily dumpings.

I feel like composting generally is trial and error anyway. In Mark's videos regarding composting we often see what materials break down faster than others and how he uses it. I know he likes to sometimes sift out anything too big and puts it back into the compost pile to break down further.

I think thsi video also has some very useful information:
 
So I shoddily set up a small bay yesterday.
I threw a load of food waste and cut weeds and tree cuttings and shredded paper in.
It’s not the ideal size but I’m working with very limited materials and don’t want to buy stuff in if I can help it.

Where to compost?


I lined the sides with cardboard and have put a cardboard layer on top for now to keep some heat in. Don’t know if I need to add water as the brown materials were quite dry.
Think I might at least try to cut them up with the sheets today or tomorrow to at least make the pieces smaller.
I’ve got more materials to make another bay so will be working on that next week. Will try to make that one a bit taller and sturdier.
 
Anything is better than nothing. I reckon you've got a good start going!
I believe people like to keep their compost moist, but not wet. Having moisture in the compost can aid with the breakdown. Some items that compost down really fast (or are harmless either way) can go straight in the garden. I love adding banana peels and egg shells straight into the garden. I also like using cardboard as mulch as I have easy access to it - plus it's free. It helps trap moisture in the soil and protect against weeds.
 
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