Composting in a garden bed

If you have already read the article on how we attempted composting in a bucket, you will know that we restarted the project and that the original material was dumped into the garden bed. Well, we have decided to start a new project. We've decided to try to compost in the garden bed itself. Keeping the compost limited to a small layer, we are hoping the elements will help us to break the material down that much faster. Now, like all our other projects, this is strictly an experiment. For all I know, this could be completely counter-productive. However, that is the entire point of experimentation. I've looked online and I can't find anything that says a compost pile can't be a thin layer.  Contrary, I can't find anything that says it has to be thick and deep either. I do know that a lot of people say that the pile should be a lasagna of layers. However, I also found a video on YouTube where a guy is at a conference and he says that composting should be limited to just leaves or just grass and that food scraps are unnecessary and should be saved for your vermicomposting efforts. So, I am getting the distinct impression that composting is as much of an art as it is based on science. Hence my desire to do this experiment.

Background Information

Before we go any further, I think it is important to get some background information out of the way. The first thing you should do is go back and read our article about composting in a bucket. As you read that article, you will notice a section labeled "Experiment 1 Updates". That refers to this article that you are reading right now.

UPDATE: November 23, 2015 

As of yesterday, the soil quality has improved a bit, as it is darker and a bit looser. However, it still needs more time. One of the things I had done, and I am not sure if this was a good idea or not, was to take the improved soil and cut the area in half. I scooped up the improved soil from the right side of the bed and dropped it on top of the improved soil on the left side of the bed. I put in a board to separate the left and right and added more low quality dirt on the right and recovered both sides with organic matter. I figure I can make the right side a starter area and the left can be the finishing off area.  At least, this is what I am hoping for.

I am going to start turning the soil on the left every week in an effort to keep it loose and to keep it oxygenated. Also, it allows the bottom layers access to the breaking down/broken down organic material.

UPDATE: November 25, 2015 

This morning, at around 7 AM, I was putting the plants outside and I found some pretty large dalandan peels. (It is similar to an orange, but it is the size of and same color as a lime.) I took a few minutes to pick them up and rip them into much smaller pieces so they break down faster.  I also took a few minutes to turn the compost material and to aerate the soil a bit.

This afternoon, while cleaning out the refrigerator, a bag of vegetable scraps was found in the crisper drawer. I vaguely remember someone telling me they were putting them in there, but that was sometime last week. Anyway, they were pretty gross, but I dumped them in the right side of the bed.

A couple of hours later, I decided to aerate a spot in the left bed to plant a turnip top in the hopes that it will grow. I don't have great hopes for it, but I did mix some of the composted material in with the soil.

UPDATE: December 2, 2015 

OK, well, the material in the garden is composting nicely. In my last update I mentioned that I dropped a bag of vegetable scraps in the garden. Well, most of that is gone already. I don't know if there are worms in there I haven't seen or if the ants carried it away. Personally, I don't see the latter as being the case, but who knows?

The Ant Invasion: Round 2

Yes. I have a new colony of ants out there and I am not happy about it. What you have to understand is these are not those harmless black ants we get in the states. Oh no. That would be too easy. Nope. We have those small red ants that bite or sting and hurt like the dickens.

A few weeks ago I had destroyed a nest between the right garden bed and the water meter cage. They were nestled in under the concrete. I discovered them when I was tilling the soil. Once I realized what I had unleashed I ran inside and got the bug spray and just kept digging and spraying until I had them all taken out. Well, I thought I did. Later on that night I found the ones with wings crawling up the wall trying to get onto my front porch. I pulled out the spray again and attacked them and the nest again.

Ever since then I have been occasionally finding more of the winged ones and, of course, the little normal ones. I have been leaving the little ones alone, while doing my best to take out the ones with wings. I don't know much about ants, but the way I figure it the winged ones are either queens or they are similar to those red guards who were always around the Emperor in Star Wars. LOL LOL

At any rate, getting back on topic, the new colony was right on the border of the left and right beds up against the external wall of my house. Instead of digging I just flooded them out. As of this afternoon, the entrance is still muddy and there is a killing field of ant corpses just sitting there. Tomorrow should be interesting, to say the least.

UPDATE: December 4, 2015

Here is a nice shot of where the second ant colony USED TO BE.  Those green leaves are just there to keep the moisture in.

UPDATE: December 8, 2015

I finally covered the hole back over today. I guess that colony is truly wiped out.  On a lighter note, the right side bed is composting nicely. I turn it every morning and then water it to keep it nice and moist. Usually, the top layer dries out, but the lower bits are still OK. The soil is even starting to look nicer, so I am encouraged.

UPDATE: December 16, 2015

We are expecting a typhoon, so I thought it would be a good idea to turn the compost and try to protect the bed so that it does not become saturated.  What I did was I trimmed the two bush/trees out in front of the house and I used the leafy branches to cover the right side compost bed.

Before covering it I decided to loosen the soil. So, using a hand (gardening) fork I lifted the soil and turned it a bit. In the process of doing that I noticed that the vast majority of the leaf material I was composting was already gone. This was definitely a pleasant surprise and the soil was nice and loose and rich looking.

At this point I have two choices.

1. I can use the composted soil now.
2. I can add more material to the soil and allow that to compost and enrich the soil even more.

I am extremely tempted to try to enrich the soil further, but I am in desperate need of soil. I have decided to transplant the Miracle Seedling out of the garden bed and into a container. I want to move it to the rooftop garden so it gets more sun. Sitting out front it is starting to grow horizontally towards the street. It is supposed to be a tree, so this is obviously a very bad development. The rooftop garden gets plenty of direct sunlight, so I am hoping that putting it up there will make it grow vertically instead.

I also need soil for the green tomato project. I have one plant which will need to be up-planted soon and that is going to require a ton of rich soil. I want to plant it deep so the stem grows more roots. This should make the tomato plant healthier and also allow me to water it very deeply for water retention purposes.  This is something I learned from Ray at the Praxxus 55712 YouTube Channel.

As a result, I am going to strip out this newly composted soil, add in some dead soil and more shredded leaves that I have been letting decompose in a bucket in the garage.