Compost turnover

 kw: projects, spring cleaning, compost piles, yard maintenance, photos, photo essays

It has been several years since I did more with my compost pile than pull back the top layers and dig out a few shovelfuls of older compost to add a little top dressing to our vegetable garden. Time for a complete turnover. I set aside two days for the task, and I decided to document it. Home garden do-it-yourselfers may have suggestions for how I could do things better, and some may learn a thing or two.

The compost pile is about 4x7 (1.2x2 m) feet and it is 3 feet (~1m) deep in this picture, taken at 8:30 am on Friday (4/26/2024). I've just opened the fencing at the near end. Previously I set out two tarps, one on either side. They are plasticized tarps from Harbor Freight; I bought six of them years ago on some special deal. They are better suited to this than cotton or sailcloth tarps.

I used a pitchfork to remove about 8" (20 cm) of the top, mostly dried leaves and some weeds and grass, throwing it on the tarp to the left in this photo. The next layer of similar thickness, slightly rotted material, was then forked onto the other tarp. Time: 10:00.

This material was heavier, so about halfway through the layer I climbed atop the pile to more easily reach and move material to the tarp. My wife took this picture. Time: 10:20.

The next task was to move a suitable amount of better-rotted compost to the vegetable garden.

The garden is 6x12 feet (1.8x3.6 m), and is surrounded by rabbit fencing plus about a foot of chicken wire to keep out the baby bunnies (we seem to get a new rabbit family every year). In the fall we raked up some of the fallen leaves, primarily from a maple tree; oak leaves have tannins that slow the growth of plants. Our back yard has two 150-foot (45+ m) pin oaks and a 90-foot (27 m) maple. This garden is in the side yard, outside the backyard gate.

Before adding compost I raked the leaves in the garden into piles and ran the mower over them. I did my best not to disturb a strawberry plant at the left (a volunteer that invaded from a different garden adjacent) and a daikon radish that has begun to flower. My Japanese wife loves having a few daikon to harvest every year. Time: 10:35.

Here is the garden after the over-wintering leaves have been mowed and spread back over it. Time: 10:40.

I used ramps for car maintenance to span over the chicken wire at the "gate" to the garden; really a section of rabbit wire that can be swung back, but the chicken wire is more permanent. I could then shovel a load into the wheelbarrow and trundle it into the garden. You can see a garden of day lilies that is kind of in the way. I managed… Time 11:00.

At this point 8 wheelbarrow loads have been piled at the end of the garden. I decided that would be enough. It is only about 1/3 of the better-to-fully-rotted compost below the two top layers I'd forked off. Time 11:40.

Spread evenly around, the compost is about 4" (10 cm) thick. That's enough. Time: 12:07.

Here is the remaining compost. You can see that I dug top to bottom, from the front end, to obtain compost at all levels of decomposition. Photo taken right after the prior one.

I laid out two more tarps and began shoveling compost into the wheelbarrow to take to them. I put four barrowsful on each tarp, which came to about half the remaining compost. Time: 1:15 pm, midway through this task. Then I stopped to have lunch.

After lunch I dragged the tarp with the top layer, the youngest stuff, closer to the pile and shoveled most of that in front of the remaining more mature compost. Then I put about half the middle layer stuff from the second tarp on top of it. Time: 2:45, partway through the process just described.

I used a stiff rake to pull some of the compost from the back of the pile over the newer material. Then I dug out the rest of that back third and put it atop the stuff in the front 2/3 of the space. After that I put the rest of the material from the initial two tarps into the hole in back, and used the stiff rake to even out the more finished compost over everything. Time: 3:40.

At that point I called it a day. I folded the two emptied tarps, keeping the dirtier side in, raked up any material from in front of the compost area, and put all the tools and tarps into the wheelbarrow, which I rolled to the back yard. We had dinner and went to a home meeting that evening.

Saturday morning I had meetings until nearly 11:00 am. Then I changed into the dirty clothes from Friday and went out to move the rest of the material from the third and fourth tarps onto the pile.

Here, I have put one of the original tarps partway under #3, and raked about 1/3 of the four wheelbarrow loads onto it. Time: 11:15.

I dragged the tarp to the front of the compost pile, folded it around the compost, manhandled it to the top, and then emptied it into a pile as far back as possible. 

Here a second load of similar size is ready to be pulled atop the pile. But I found it was heavier. I shoveled off about half of it, then lifted the rest and emptied it. After that I dragged tarp #3 over and shoveled part of it off, then hoisted it up and emptied it. Time: 11:25.

Here is the same process beginning for the unloading of #4. You can see how far this was from the compost pile. That daylily garden is such a joy, but here it is in the way! Time: 11:35.

After removing just one portion from #4, I found I could drag it to the compost pile. Here it is ready for some short-range shoveling. Time: 11:45.

Here all the compost is back on the pile. It's time to clean the area in front, close the fence, and even out the top. Time: 11:55.

Aaaaand, all done! The pile is less than half as high as before, in part because the stuff that was on top has been compressed by the overlying, denser compost. Time: 12:05.

After a little more cleanup I put all the tools away and we had lunch. After lunch I unfolded the tarps and washed the dirtier side, then hung them to dry. Two fit on our clothesline, and the other two fit on a fence at the other end of the back yard. Later in the day, when they had dried, I turned them over and washed the other side. They were dry and I could put them back in the garage about dinner time.

Before planting I'll add some fertilizer to boost and balance the nutrients. I did soil testing last year and found that the garden is low in phosphorus and potassium, with just barely adequate nitrogen. The compost will add some of all three, but it takes more to get a strong vegetable garden.

For the next few years, whenever we want some compost, we can peel back part of whatever gets put on this pile after today and dig stuff out. More than half of this pile is pretty well decomposed into humus, and after a few more years, the material below it will have finished decomposing also.