Things at the Hiding Place are moving along, but we did encounter an unexpected snafu: Compost! We purchased 20 cubic yards of a topsoil/leaf mixture–that’s a lot of dirt! Most of it is in our hoop house, some of it is in our flower beds, and some is in our one totally outdoor bed.
After getting all of this in beds, we noticed that some of our seeds were germinating (plants starting to show), but not making much progress beyond that. Other things have done okay, but lettuces and greens especially didn’t do much. After some more analysis, we realized that the soil needed amending with nitrogen. In other words, we needed more compost.
Our composting system is still being worked out, so we ordered 4 yards of leafGro compost from
College Park to supplement everything we’ve got started.
Since then, we’ve been working to figure out a way to consistently (and quickly) turn out usable compost for our yard. We have over 500 sq feet of garden space, so we have a big need for compost.
One way to turn out compost quickly is using vermiculture–worm composting. Thanks to a few articles and a helpful video from our friend Sh
ane at the Simple Way, we’ve got a nice bin of worms happily munching away at our kitchen scraps. Over the coming months, we’re going to try and find some other partnerships to help us keep high quality compost accessible when we need it. If you’re looking to get into vermiculture, check out this helpful introductory video. If you’re looking for somewhere you can send your compost, talk to us!
The Hiding Place 