Composting

Our neighbor, Vickie, has some old composting bins in the backyard. This week, we created one big new composting pile on the back of our driveway made out of the contents of the old composting bins, and new straw, manure, rotting plants, and ash. My Mom went to a class about composting at Steiner College. There she learned about the different layers, what order they should be put in, what they all do, and how it affects the plants. Right now, the composting pile is about a foot to a foot and a half high and is about seven feet in length. We are waiting to get a giant thermometer that we can stick in the pile to see how hot it is getting.
Once it reaches 130 degrees Fahrenheit, then we know that the pile is working. Once the compost pile goes through different stages, it begins to cool down. Once that happens we have to turn the pile, which means to turn it inside out. We repeat that until the pile is complete decomposed. Once finished, we will use the soil for our garden.

I got to cut up pumpkins with a hoe.

We added all of the plants from our green cans and the old composting bins to the compost pile.

The first layer was made out of straw, and the second from manure.

This is me trying to get the old compost bins open.

These are the holes I made with the pickaxe trying to get the bolt out.