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Composting on top of red clay soil
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Posted by
shadestorm 7 (
My Page) on
Sun, May 20, 12 at 20:18
I have been composting for for a few years, but up until recently I really knew nothing about it. Previously I just threw all my kitchen scraps into 5 gallon buckets on the side of my house. Last fall I started a pile on the ground. after I discovered this site a couple of weeks ago I started working hard on that pile getting my ratios right and turning it daily.
The dirt underneath the pile was red dirt,so until today didn't realize that my compost was breaking down into red dirt it's self. It was until I was flipping the pile today that I realized that under what thought was the original dirt there were scraps of things I had thrown in around Christmas time last year. Cranberries corncobs ect. (apparently cranberries don't compost well.) Is this normal for compost to breakdown into red dirt when it has been sitting on red clay? It is better quality than the red clay, but still has the red color only darker. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Composting on top of red clay soil
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| Compost is black when it breaks down even you compost red foods. I don't think the compost turned into red clay it is just incorporated itself with your native soil. The first time I composted, I bought a bin and I thought my compost turned into my native soil which is brown because I never turned it or added browns. I just put kitchen stuff in there and it was like nothing happened. I was so mad. |
RE: Composting on top of red clay soil
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| Thank you. I did notice chunks of black in with the red. I was just surprised how far underneath the lay of red dirt the items were. |
RE: Composting on top of red clay soil
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| Worms can move your compost around. |
RE: Composting on top of red clay soil
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| shadestorm, you've discovered the secret to effortless improvement of poor soil: build a compost pile on it for a few years. ;-] |
RE: Composting on top of red clay soil
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| It befuddles me when folks think it's necessary to outwit nature, and ignore all she offers so effortlessly, and we even do things to defy her and give her an attidude so that she packs her bags and goes... anybody with red clay soil- make compost, there's your garden bed in a few years...go on a kudzu hunting mission, and appreciate the diamond in the rough you have...which the Japanese pay top dollar to transfer into sacred gardens...becuase it is indeed, superior...with the right percent of carbon... Mackel |
RE: Composting on top of red clay soil
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| I am not sure what you mean about trying to outwit nature. I pretty much soil ignorant, but trying to learn, that is why I am here. I know as it stands at the moment, you can't get a shovel into the dirt around my house with out soaking it first. Even weeds aren't fond of it, hence the reason I do raised beds. |
RE: Composting on top of red clay soil
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| You're doing just fine, make compost. That comment was meant for a general audience, and I'm glad to meet you. Mackel |
RE: Composting on top of red clay soil
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| Dangit Mackel I curse kudzu every single day and you have the nerve to sing it's praises???!!!! I have a house that sits near an active freight train line. The only thing that separates me from the tracks is a small 10ft wide stand of running bamboo, an asphalt alley about 20ft wide (complete with a poured concrete curb) and 10 ft of red clay populated with native weeds and the occasional carpet of tall fescue. This morning I'll wander out and snap a picture of the kudzu attacking the bamboo and eyeing my house, it'll bring a tear to your eye! |
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