I must admit that I have not been the best composter or steward of my garden’s soil. At times, I’m a lazy gardener; I’ll admit it. I have been making an effort to be less lazy in the past couple of years. While lazy gardening can produce some bounty, it doesn’t produce the best bounty.

This fall Ethan and I cleaned up plants and dug leaves into the vegetable beds, along with some compost from my one, overflowing bin. For the past few springs, I’ve added raised beds for growing vegetables and new dirt with local, organic compost. My own compost building has been ignored.

For my February challenge, I’ve been researching plans for building some new compost bins out of repurposed materials. We’ve chosen the space in the yard and we’ll be building two new bins when working outside doesn’t render one frozen or soaked. While we don’t have the space in our yard for a three-bin system, we are planning on building two bins to make turning the compost easier. We’re also still looking for a source for used wooden pallets that need to be put to good use.

The location we’ve chosen for our new bins is at the side of our house, out of the way of future landscaping projects, wheelbarrow accessible, and near a downspout. We’ll divert the downspout so that it waters the bins. (Why add new water when the weather and our roof can water for us?).

Another soil task I am planning on in the spring is testing my soil. I have no idea if the soil I grow in is balanced, if there is enough nitrogen in it, or if it is horribly acidic. It’s time I figured that out.

If you’re looking at building some compost bins of your own, check out the designs from these sources: The Lazy Homesteader, Curbly, DigitalSeed, and Compost Bin Plans.

While I love the idea of making my own fertilizer, as suggested by the Urban Farm Handbook folks, I’m not sure I can take that on right now for the sheer bulk storage needed. Perhaps this shall be a project for next year…

How are you building better soil this year?

 

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