Natural garden where the beds are compost heaps. How to make warm beds in the country. Different types of beds that warm and make the earth themselves

This note is a response to an unusually interesting (like everything that comes out from the pen of N.I. Kurdyumov!) Article “Nutritious thoughts in anticipation of the harvest”, published in the journal “Herald Gardener”. It is about the invaluable (and invaluable!) role of sugars and amino acids in plant nutrition.

But I'll start from afar.

For many years I have been a compost fanatic. He began excursions for numerous guests with his “chic” compost pit with a volume of 10 cubic meters and with pits, in which a neighbor put organic matter during the season. But over time, he saw the light: amazingly little "rut" remained after the decomposition of the biomass. And where did the lion's share go? And don’t go to the gate - to the sky, to the wells, to the ponds ...

It is necessary: ​​to mow the whole district all summer, to haunt algae in a nearby lake, to grow green manure especially for biomass, to bring and demolish all this into a compost pit. And what for? To employ yourself? To gut the grown biomass? To harm the environment?

If the organics decomposed in the beds, then the "owner" would be spared from the Sisyphean labor: with a cart of organic matter - including from the beds - into the pit, and then, with a handful of "rut", back to the garden. At the same time, decomposition products would have a chance to get to plants.

Having begun to see clearly, I, without hesitation, covered the object of my pride. Biomass began to remain in the garden. No wasted fuss, no loss of energy and nutrients biomass, nor habitat damage.

True, organic matter in the garden decomposes slowly. But there is a low-cost means of "spurring" the process - a conveyor-made EM silo. After waiting for a warm time, we put fresh herbs in a barrel, add a glass or two of EM solution and sweetness, fill it with water, and “the process has begun”.

The silo is ready as soon as the contents of the barrel have foamed, i.e. bacteria multiplied so much that gaseous decomposition products of organic matter began to be released. First of all - carbon dioxide. For thistle, milkweed or chernoshchira, for example, a day or two may be enough, nettles need two or three days, amaranth and blooming sweet clover may need four to five days, and purslane must be held "under the gun" of bacteria for at least a week so that he does not come to life in the garden. We take out the ripened thick (silo) and lay it around vegetative plants. Then we water the decomposed EM silo with water to hide the bacteria from the sun and moisten the mulch substrate (bacteria are comfortable only in a humid environment). And in the barrel with the remaining yushka we put new greens, add sweets, add water ...

This "conveyor" works (with a single filling of the EM solution at the very beginning) all summer long, as long as there are eaters of the "brew" of this kitchen - vegetative plants in the beds. And as long as there is greenery worthy of putting it in a barrel. These can be weeded (non-seed) weeds, weeds from a wasteland, non-marketable zucchini, cucumbers, watermelons, melons (oh!), lettuce and radishes that have begun to shoot, beet tops, carrots ... Last summer, for example, plentifully born plums went into business. And how - skipping! Sweet indeed! From the fact that it is impossible to ensilage, one can mention - offhand - wormwood, ragweed and foliage walnut: there is no need to "enrich" the soil with absinthine and juglone.

The manipulation of the head is determined by the intensity of the flow of greenery. If the greenery does not “support”, then part of the inoculated (populated with bacteria) yushka can be used for watering. When the greens "flow like a river", then this yushka has to be shared with new barrels (in my "hot time" there are up to nine 70-liter barrels - all over the garden). Plants gratefully, without delay, react to EM silage.

There is an important bonus for the gardener too: EM silage is a bioactivator and a BALANCED top dressing so that what is grown remains FOOD (unlike industrial vegetables, which Fukuoka called aqueous solutions nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium ... packed in the shell of a tomato, eggplant, etc.).
Now back to Kurdyumov's article.

Here is a quote from it: “... soluble sugars are the beginning of any microbial food chain. It is the first thing that is eaten when it enters the soil. You don’t even need to digest it - energy in its purest form. Fuse, "gasoline" of any food wave. We're not the only ones craving sweets! Just like microbes and amino acids - take ready-made and build protein. Referring to the old and recent world experience, Nikolai Ivanovich talks about all kinds of sweet top dressing. Even (hold on, readers!) - just about diluted sugar syrup. That's why above the word melon was adorned with an exclamation mark.

I quote further: “It is impossible not to mention the Canadian project RCW - branch wood chips. It started back in the late 70s, and in the early 90s brought to a productive technology that saves depleted soils around the world. Studying how humus is born in forests, scientists have found: main source sustainable humus - thin branches deciduous trees. Why? Because they contain almost an order of magnitude more sugar than the wood of the trunks, plus proteins in a fair amount. In branches, unlike straw, the ideal ratio of nitrogen and carbon! Including other elements, they store 75% of all the nutrients of the forest.”

And one more thing: “At the heart of the farming technique (meaning the RCW project) is the no-till mixing of a 1-2-inch layer of fine wood chips with the top five centimeters of soil. After three or four years, crops on depleted soils grow significantly.”
In the absence of a chopper, I - under the influence of Nikolai Ivanovich's article - began to bring into each barrel a bucket or two of chopped (with leaves) into pieces 2-3 cm long of the annual growth of raspberries, apple trees, grapes, cherries, plums ... The effect was not long in coming: the contents of the barrels began to foam much faster. Elder and maple especially "appeared" to me. And no wonder. “Craftsmen” drive “cursed” from elderberry berries (I remind you: alcohol is formed due to the work of yeast on sugar). And in Canada and the USA, mainly maple honey (syrup) is in use. In any case, the contents of the barrels, in which the maple cut is laid in the evening, foam by morning.

A very important amendment to the EM conveyor ensiling technology! Cheap but angry! I stopped fiddling with my grandmother about a jar of old jam.
Maple is especially interesting because its shoots are found at every step, and its expanded reproduction is evident: in place of cut branches, two, three, five branches a meter long or more grow in 4-5 weeks. Even champions do not know such rapid growth: goat's rue, rumex, pierced-leaved sylph ... When harvesting maple branches, you should not shun those from which you can cut twigs 70-100 cm long for easy support of plants (for example, tomatoes). With two arches stuck into the ground, a hollow is formed (indicated by an arrow in the figure), into which the plant lies. When the plant begins to lean, it is necessary to “give him a shoulder” from the side where the plant is leaning. Did you get to the ground? You can put a couple more bows. No comparison with tying whips to a trellis! Which, by the way, must first be built! Inserting the shackles is faster, safer for plants, does not require finger dexterity, and does not interfere with plant growth in any way. In addition, there is no rise of lashes to the sun - the fruits will be in partial shade and will not bake!

So, harvested maple branches form three fractions - one is more useful than the other:

• greens for ensiling (leaves and green twigs up to 4 mm thick),
• twigs to support plants without coercion,
• rough leftovers.

These leftovers are cut into pieces 4-5 cm long and used as mulch. They will not decompose in one season, will be mixed with the soil at the next shallow tillage and, according to RCW technology, will feed the plants (for real, with sugars and amino acids) with the primary fuel of dynamic fertility.

And a couple of words about the maple cut. In the middle of summer, weeds begin to seed, and the flow of decent greenery for silage is depleted. It's time to reorient the process from grounds to yushka: put a couple of buckets of maple chaff into barrels (the raw materials for it do not dry out) and water the previously decomposed mulch and EM silo with foamy yub. I have sweet (noticeably sweet) stems and leaves of corn and sorghum added to the flow of greens at this time. They grow quite densely throughout the garden as backstage. And just in time for the middle of summer, they need to be thinned out to give the plants partial shade. Just do not uproot, but break out the stems, and then, thanks to wound hormones, stepchildren actively grow - a new raw material for mulch and EM silage.
What an effective imprint Nikolai Ivanovich's article left on garden affairs!

And now - to the compost. Here is another quote from the article: “In the end, God himself ordered to look at the compost with a new eye. And to state: from it, after all, not only ammonia nitrogen and carbon dioxide evaporate. The main thing is that there are no sugars or amino acids left! The very basis of dynamic fertility, its primary fuel, is zero. So Boris Andreevich Bublik is right: composting right on the beds is a special agricultural technique. And not just in the form of mulch or in piles, but right in the soil, in small grooves or pits, under a thin layer of soil. For kitchen waste best place you can't imagine."

I note that the incorporation of organic matter into the soil is remarkably - in time - combined with mulching and laying out the EM silo on the mulch. It is convenient to incorporate organic matter into the soil in spring or autumn, when the beds are free from plants, and lay out silage in the summer, when the beds are occupied. It turned out like a puzzle: organic matter is embedded in the soil in the cold season, and EM silage is fermented by heat (soil bacteria - thermophiles) and is appropriate only if there are plants on the garden bed - eaters of decomposition products! Let me remind you that it is also advisable to pour a silo yushka only on soil covered with mulch and plants.

The article by Nikolai Ivanovich is a golden nail in the coffin of compost made outside the beds and an extremely appropriate hosanna for sweet top dressing and watering.

Here is a recent anecdote. I gave the article to read to a neighbor who comes to the dacha "for the weekend." Killed, poor, until the evening: “Wow! Just yesterday I was cleaning my grandmother's stocks, and threw away three dozen cans of suspicious jam. Can I not understand her: after all, she could have watered her two hundred square meters of the garden sweetly, but she arrived ... with a bag of urea. This story is a wonderful illustration of the final phrase of Nikolai Ivanovich's article: "This is how the sugar cycle turns out in nature, in the head and in the garden!"
How accurate is the imperative of Lilia Zhuravleva (Orsk Club natural farming): To change something in actions, you need to change a lot in your heads. It is high time to remember the definition from Kurdyumov's rarity "Smart Ogorol": "Fertility is the nutritional activity of the soil as a product of the activity of all living organisms inhabiting it." And throw out of your head the scanty idea that the fertility of the soil is the abundance of minerals in it. An extremely dangerous idea - it really allows you to get high yield, only he will have a distant relation to food.

In the spring, one wants to start sowing faster in order to get the harvest as early as possible. The earth is still cold at this time, and the roots of plants need heat first of all. You can speed up ripening and increase the yield by arranging a warm bed, it is very easy to do it yourself. The manufacturing technology does not require large financial costs, but the harvest can be obtained three times per season. Consider how to make a warm bed with step by step instructions decorated with photographs. Watch an example of creating beds in the video to understand what the end result should be.

Advantages of a warm bed

To understand whether it is worth equipping warm beds on your site and spending your own time and effort, you need to understand the advantages of this method.

• A raised warm bed is especially good for wet, cold regions. The soil warms up earlier, it is possible to get a crop at an earlier date. In case of waterlogging, the plants do not get wet. Even stone fruit trees are planted in this way to protect root system from ground water.
• A properly arranged garden bed will last about five years. Then it can be rebuilt, and the resulting fertile land can be used for sowing other plants.

A warm bed allows you to get early harvest vegetables

• Reduced water consumption. Organics retain water, so once or twice a week for watering is enough. And if you equip drip irrigation or at least lay a holey hose for irrigation, then labor costs are minimized.
• When organic matter decomposes, heat is released, which stimulates seed germination. Compost formed as a result of the activity of microorganisms and earthworms is an excellent source of plant nutrition.
• There is no need for a compost heap, all organic matter falls directly onto the bed.
• You can install a warm bed on the street or in a greenhouse - this will bring the same effect. AT open ground it is enough to install arcs and stretch agrofibre to protect plants from frost.
• After precipitation, the crop remains clean, as a layer of mulch covers the soil, and rain splashes do not stain vegetables.
• Weeds germinate with difficulty and in small quantities, they are easily pulled out.
• It does not take up much space, it is convenient to handle, it does not create dirt and mess.

Advice. In autumn, all available small organic matter and leaf litter add to the bed and cover with cardboard to keep warm and useful material were not washed out by rains in the lower layers.

Arrangement rules

With a close approach to groundwater, the bed is raised above the soil. In dry regions, on the contrary, they deepen, making it level with the soil or slightly higher. Raised beds border different materials. Most often they use wood or slate, less often metal. Placed in the middle of the lawn, framed by a blind area of ​​tiles, such a bed pleases the eye and decorates the site. Or they make it in the form of a meter-long hill without sides. In fact, a warm bed is a compost heap, folded in the form of a layer cake according to certain rules.

Neat beds look very nice

1. Coarse organic matter is laid on the lowest layer, which decomposes for a long time: stumps and tree trunks, thick branches. Spilled with urea. The larger the waste, the longer the bed will last. Wood retains moisture well.
2. The next layer is laid with smaller organic matter: corn and sunflower stalks, small shrubs. Paper and kitchen waste, leaves, straw can also be used.
3. To speed up the process of decomposition and heating, semi-rotted manure or compost is laid. From above, sod with grass down, and then a layer of mature compost.
4. After that, the seeds are sown.

The length of the bed can be any, optimal width about a metre. The depth will depend on the composition of the soil and the type of bed chosen. Recessed is made by 40 - 60 cm. The height of the raised bed is up to 1 m.
The air remaining in the cavities between large organics will provide breathing and quick heating of the beds. You can speed up the process by spilling the soil with special bacteria.

Advice. If the soil is initially good, then the need to dig the beds will disappear by itself. Already in the first year, the soil is well loosened to a depth of 20 cm, for the next season it is enough to add compost and plant plants.

The process of making beds

Consider the process of making a recessed bed with a small wooden side from an unnecessary board.

• We knock down the boards to make a rectangle.
• We mark the size of the bed on the ground and dig a trench about 60 cm deep.
• cut turf and upper layer we recline the fertile land in one direction - it will still come in handy.
• Fold the bottom layer over to the other side.
• The sides of the trench can be additionally insulated with expanded polystyrene foam, and closed plastic bottles can be laid on the bottom.

Insulation of the bottom of a warm bed

• We fill the trench with branches, logs. Above we lay smaller material.
• We pour out several wheelbarrows of semi-finished compost - this will be a starter from beneficial microorganisms for processing and heating organic matter.
• We lay fertile soil and sod with grass down.
• From above we fill with compost, a mixture of sand, peat and sawdust with the addition of trace elements.

Filling the garden bed with compost

• Water well and cover with foil. After two weeks, you can plant seeds or seedlings.
• Cover the soil with dark mulch. Light mulch, such as straw or sawdust, is best applied in the summer - it reflects well sunlight and does not allow the roots to overheat.

What plants are planted in a warm garden

A container filled with organics warms up quickly in the spring. Heat-loving vegetables in such a bed can be sown ahead of time, covering with a film for the first time. By correctly calculating the planting time and the distance between plants, you can first grow radishes and greens. Place a trellis in the center, plant cucumbers and tomatoes. After harvesting the radish crop, plant carrots, onions, and beets. In the fall, plant radishes, salads and greens again.

Experienced gardeners who have been using warm beds for more than one year recommend planning plantings in this way:

• in the first year, when the bed is rich in organic matter to the maximum, sow pumpkins, tomatoes and cucumber with zucchini. It is these crops that will give the maximum yield;
• on the next year you can plant the same vegetables again as in the first year;
• for the third season, tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, herbs, beets, beans and carrots are planted.

The film can be attached to the bottom row of the trellis with clothespins. Press the edges loosely with boards. So the bed will turn into a greenhouse. Air will be sucked in from below and exited at the top. If you forget to open the bed during the day, the plants will not burn. And if there are free funds, install a roof over the bed. It will protect tomatoes from phytophthora, and cucumbers from peronospores - these fungi germinate in water droplets on the leaves. Vegetables will stay healthy until frost.

Advice. deep hole and large volume Organics hold moisture well and give off heat. Raised boxes with a small layer of organic matter dry out faster and lose their nutritional value.

Once, having found time and energy, as well as a sufficient amount of high-quality organic matter, and having equipped a warm bed with an irrigation system, you will not only free up time for rest, but also get an early harvest delicious vegetables. If in the open field vegetables ripen a month earlier, then such a construction in a greenhouse will more than justify the invested work.

Warm garden: video

How to make a warm bed: photo

Why do plants thrive in some gardens and barely survive in others? The reason lies in not enough fertile land. Articles about planting or caring for vegetables often talk about adding compost to the soil. As the plant grows, it takes up various nutrients from the soil. When harvesting in the fall, part of the nutrients are taken from the soil with the tops of plants, they also contain substances that are in the ground, thereby depleting the soil even more. According to the laws of nature, everything that is taken out of the soil must be returned back there. Otherwise, the land will become poorer and its natural fertility will inevitably decrease. Soil composting solves this problem.

There are hardly any people who do not know the meaning of this word. Compost is organic fertilizer, which is obtained as a result of the decomposition of organic waste, mainly of plant origin. These include plant waste (tops of plants, weeds, fallen leaves, mowed grass) and food waste (,), etc. It is not recommended to use animal waste, plastic, glass, metal for composting.

The biochemical reactions that occur during the decomposition of waste occur due to rapidly multiplying microorganisms and. The compost heap is a living bioreactor. The main condition for all reactions occurring there is the presence of heat and moisture. The process of obtaining valuable fertilizer is called composting. After the completion of the composting process, a highly nutritious mixture containing minerals and valuable trace elements is obtained, similar to humus. Ripe compost is a homogeneous crumbly material dark brown.

Basic rules for good compost

Most the right way recycling food and plant waste from your site - this is a compost bin. With its help, you can ensure the competent movement of organic waste, and get free fertilizer With high content humus and nutrients.

Compost can be made in the form of a compost heap, in the garden, in bags. Whichever way we decide to make compost, there are certain rules for its preparation. The technology is pretty much the same everywhere.

A compost heap, or rather a compost bin, is a box, a wooden box where all the waste is stored. Following the rules, you will get a good nutrient mixture in 1.5-2 years. So what do you need to know?

1. You can form a compost bin not only in summer, but at any time of the year. The exception will be cold days with frosts. For example, right from the beginning of spring, you can compost all organic matter as it forms. In autumn, during this period, there are especially many different wastes (tops of plants, leaf litter, etc.), which can also be composted. Diseased plants should not be used in compost. It is better to burn them, and use only the ashes from them.
2. When forming a compost heap or bed, the soil under them must be loosened to a depth of about 30 cm. This is necessary in order to create close contact of decaying organic matter with earthworms and other organisms involved in composting.
3. You need to place the compost bin in partial shade, so that it is not constantly under the sun, otherwise it will dry out.
4. For rapid decomposition, it is better to grind all the material. This way the whole composting process will go much faster.
5. For quick decomposition, it is good to add the Baikal-M biological product to the waste.

How to make compost

Any material is used for the walls of the compost bin - boards, bricks, old metal sheets, slate. Remember that the bottom cannot be closed, it must be earthen. There should be slots or openings in the side walls for air circulation. Box dimensions: width - 1.5 m, height no more than 1 m, the length of the box is made depending on the amount of waste. The correct box has 3 compartments:

• The first compartment stores fresh waste;
• In the second - last year's ripening;
• In the 3rd compartment there is compost ready for use.

The composting technology itself is simple. The more diverse the waste that is stacked in layers, the more complete and better the decomposition will go. It is not good to stack only one cut grass, the composting process will not start. Therefore, plant residues that are rich in carbon should be combined with manure or bone meal rich in nitrogen. Therefore, be sure to sprinkle the grass with earth.

The layers in the heap must alternate.

• Shrub branches, hay, tree bark are laid at the bottom;
• 1st layer - a layer of food and plant waste about 15 cm thick;
• 2nd layer - manure, bone flour a layer of about 5 cm;
• Lime is sprinkled on top or, and then a 2 cm layer of earth.

In this sequence, lay out all the waste until they run out. Most last layer- earth, hay, straw or leaves. They protect against drying out.

An important point - the water from the box must be removed, and the air must circulate. Otherwise, the contents of the box will not decompose, but rot.

How to prepare a compost bed

It is better to make a compost bed in the fall, using wooden boxes for this. Their size depends on preferences and the amount of waste. A bed filled with waste will turn out neat. The advantage of this method is that the next year the wooden box can be moved to another place and a new bed can be made there again.

The principle of filling the beds is the same as in the compost bin (compost heap). Branches, tops of plants are laid at the bottom, then various plant wastes are laid in layers. Since the decomposition process requires moisture and heat, the bed is covered from above with a film or oilcloth, preferably black. It is necessary to make holes in the film in which you will plant, for example, zucchini or pumpkin in the spring. If the film is transparent, then cover it with boards or old slate for the winter. And in summer the soil will be covered with plant leaves.

By autumn, a loose homogeneous material of dark brown color and with the smell of forest land is obtained in the garden.

Making compost in bags

How many fallen leaves disappear in autumn? But it will make an excellent nutrient mixture for the garden. Making compost in bags is quite simple.

Autumn fallen leaves are preferable for leaf humus, because raw foliage undergoes a decomposition process faster. So, armed with a rake, we collect fallen leaves from under the trees. For the most part harvested leaves and other winter crops. In the spring, all this will be collected and sent to the compost heap.

There are so many leaves every year that you can make compost in bags. We put the rest of the collected foliage in large bags for household waste. We tie the bags tightly so that moisture does not evaporate from them. Remember that air is needed for better decomposition. Therefore, we pierce the bags filled with foliage with a pitchfork 2-3 times. In plastic bags are created comfortable conditions for processing bacteria. If it got into the bags green grass, then this is good, fungal bacteria will speed up the process. Also, to accelerate decomposition, the Baikal-M preparation can be added to the bags.

Bags of leaves are removed for storage and winter freezing. This, too, will only benefit. Some pests and some pathogens die. And in the spring, this mass can be sent to compost heaps or added to the garden. Or be patient when, in six months or a year, the foliage will turn into humus.

Compost in barrels

Another way to make compost in barrels. Here you can add all the weeded weeds from the garden. As a result, after overheating, you get a nutrient mixture - humus, which can be used to fertilize the beds.

This year, spring is early and since the beginning of April we have been spending a lot of time in the garden - making warm compost beds. In general, such beds are made throughout the year, even in winter, and immediately after the snow melts, they are finalized, covered with a film and “ripen”. Making warm compost beds with your own hands is not so difficult! Try it too!

Compost pile or compost beds: which is better?

I will not be mistaken if I say that on almost every garden plot there is a treasured corner where gardeners throw organic matter - a compost heap. On our site for several years in a row there was also such a place.

Our old compost heap

Our compost heap was located a few meters from the house so that it was not so far to run with a garbage pail. It was the husband’s “sacred duty” to fill the pile, he did a great job with it, only the land, which it is desirable to pour organic garbage, was far in the garden, and the husband was reluctant to drive behind it every time with a wheelbarrow. It is not difficult to imagine what a "flavor" was around our composter - all the surrounding flies flocked to us! In addition, the compost in our heap usually matured in two years, which is a long time by my standards, and for some reason it turned out not enough. All this did not particularly please me ... We did not doubt that compost was needed in the garden, but here's how to optimize the process of obtaining it?

Watching how my husband runs every day to the compost heap with a slop bucket, periodically mixes the compost with a pitchfork so that it “breathes”, and then every spring he delivers the compost with a wheelbarrow to numerous beds located throughout the hectare, I wondered: how do they cope with all this, women who do not have “male power” at their side.

I went to visit my closest neighbor, pensioner Nadezhda Petrovna, who is known in the Ark as a real gardener, always gets beautiful harvest, manages to common territory beds to make and plant, and she copes wonderfully with this alone. Nadezhda Petrovna said that the whole secret is in high compost beds! Why demolish all the organics in one pile, and then from this pile - along the beds, when you can immediately take the bucket to the garden and sprinkle it with earth from the same garden! And really, why?

After weighing all the pros and cons, I decided on my own, without the help of my husband, to make a compost bed. It turned out to be quite affordable and did not require much physical effort. Now there is no more compost heap on our hectare, but a lot of warm compost beds! Filling them is still the same “holy duty” of the husband, but now, when he is too lazy to fill the waste with earth, I am able to do it myself, since the earth is here, on the same bed!

Turning ordinary garden beds into compost

So you have ordinary beds on which you have already grown vegetables. To improve their fertility, we will begin to fertilize the beds with organic waste.

The plants in the compost bed are doing great!

Organic waste includes nitrogenous and carbonaceous materials.

nitrogenous- these are wet (juicy) materials, for example, the remains of vegetables, fruits and other food waste, mowed grass and weeds (although it is better to mulch plantings with them), as well as animal manure, bird droppings, human feces(for some reason, it is this most valuable product of human activity that is most difficult for many people to “accept” as a fertilizer).

To carbonaceous materials include everything dry: hay, straw, paper, cardboard, sawdust, branches, various husks, rags from natural materials(although it is better to collect them separately and use for mulching), eggshell, tea and coffee brewing, etc.

It is believed that in proper compost the optimal ratio of nitrogenous materials to carbon materials is 1:4. We will strive for this ratio in our compost beds.

It is not recommended to put in compost beds heat-treated kitchen waste, bones and meat of animals, animal fat and vegetable oil(To be honest, I don’t really bother, I put any food waste in the compost - both boiled and with oil, but we don’t have meat and bones anyway, we are vegetarians). It is not yet necessary to put diseased plants (especially those affected by cabbage club and late blight), seed heads of weeds, cat and dog feces, uncut wood, perennial weeds, and wool into the compost.

Do you practice separate waste collection?

If you still collect all the garbage in the house, both organic and inorganic, in one bin, then it's time to get rid of this bad habit and more conscious approach to the garbage collection process. Your kitchen should have at least two buckets! In one you will throw away the remnants of food, scraps of paper and cardboard (although we, for example, never throw away paper, but collect it separately for kindling), all dust from the vacuum cleaner - in general, everything that can rot and turn into valuable fertilizer. We collect all the inorganic matter into another bucket - candy wrappers, film, plastic, rubber, etc. The next step in increasing your awareness is the separate collection of inorganic garbage, depending on the material from which it is made (in the Ark, we now practice separate collection of inorganic matter), but now start at least small - collect organic matter in a separate bucket!

Our hut in a makeshift dacha

With a smile, I remember the time when my husband and I lived in a city apartment. About five kilometers from our house there was an abandoned holiday village, gradually turning into a swamp. No one lived there for a long time, the land was overgrown with willows. My husband cleared clearings there and grew chestnut seedlings, which he later planted in the local park. We also organized a small garden there, built a hut and got out “on the ground” almost every week. We had such a peculiar cottage there. So, in order to increase the fertility of the soil, we ourselves made compost right in the apartment! My husband installed a small barrel on the balcony, into which we carried everything. organic waste. To not be on the balcony bad smell, the husband took the tube out of the barrel into the street and put a small fan in the barrel. When the compost was ready, it was taken out in bags to our garden. This I mean that even in urban conditions it would be realistic to engage in composting, there would be a desire.

How many compost beds can be made per season?

But back to our beds. Let's calculate how many beds per season we can make compost. It depends on how much organic waste you get in the course of your life. For example, it takes two weeks to make one small compost bed in my area (that is, during this time our family of four collects enough organic waste to cover the bed with a layer of 15-20 cm). Considering that the beds then have to “ripen” for another 3 weeks, it means that if we start filling the bed with waste right now, then by mid-May we will already have the first ready-made compost bed for planting, for example, corn seeds. In another 2 weeks, by the end of May, another bed will be ready, where pumpkin seedlings can be planted.

Thus, this spring I can only make 2 compost beds, so the rest can be safely planted. The third compost bed can be filled during June after we remove the harvest of early crops from it - radish, lettuce. Then a bed of peas is released. Thus, throughout the spring and throughout the summer, you can gradually increase the fertility of 5-7 beds.

A few more beds will be filled in the fall. Since autumn, we have been preparing the beds closest to the house (I’ll tell you exactly how below) in order to carry out organic waste on them in winter. It turns out that my family can provide about 10 beds with compost during the garden season. And yours?

We make compost beds with our own hands

So, we have chosen the first bed and are ready to gradually fill it with waste. To do this, it is necessary to remove part of the earth from the end of the bed by about half a bayonet of a shovel in depth and about half a meter long. This earth can be poured into unnecessary (cracked) buckets and put away for storage somewhere in the shade. We take out the garbage into the recess that has turned out on the bed and immediately sprinkle it with a small layer of earth, which we take from the same bed from the place where our hole began (it’s convenient to immediately “settle” a separate shovel on the bed so that each time you don’t run after it with a garbage can in hand). Thus, when we fill and sprinkle the first recess with earth, we automatically form the next recess. So we gradually fill the entire garden with organic matter. It is not difficult to guess that to fill the last recess with waste, we use earth from buckets that were waiting in the shade in the shade.

After the compost bed is completely filled, it must be shed very well with a solution of Baikal - EM1 (1 cap of Baikal per 10-liter watering can). A watering can of such a solution leaves for 1 sq.m of the garden.

You can cover the compost bed with black spunbond

Then the bed should be well mulched. You can use straw or hay, cardboard, newspapers, black nonwoven fabric- spunbond, which need to be well fixed in the garden. In the spring, for better heating of the bed, I additionally cover it with a film, in the summer it is no longer necessary to use a film. While the first bed "ripens" for 3-4 weeks, we proceed to the manufacture of the next compost bed.

When the bed is “ripe”, I sprinkle it with ash (0.5 liters per 1 sq. M), I go through a slightly flat cutter and. Be sure to mulch everything, usually with freshly cut grass.

If the beds were filled during the summer, and you no longer plan to grow anything on them this season, then be sure to mulch them so that weed seeds do not fall on the soil.

If there is still time until autumn, you can sow the bed with green manure, but then do not close them up, but leave them like that before winter.

Preparing beds for winter filling

Therefore, in the winter we continue to fill the beds with organic matter. But for this it is necessary to prepare the beds in the fall. It is important to choose the beds closest to the house, in winter it snows so much, you won’t get far into the garden.

In principle, if there is a ready-made bed with high sides that needs to be filled, you can do nothing, just take all the organic waste into it in winter and sprinkle it with snow. But in the spring there must be a place where you can take the land to fill the resulting compost bed with a layer of at least 10 cm. We have a special mountain of fertility (formed when we dug a pond), my husband brings the land from there to such a bed in the spring. 2-3 days before backfilling with earth, it is advisable to walk along the bed with a flat cutter, break frozen clods of organic matter, if any. And then fill it with earth, spill it with a warm solution of Baikal-EM1 and be sure to cover it with a film.

If there is no such storehouse of land, then you can carefully remove the top layer of soil from the garden bed and lay it next to it. For example, on a banner. And in the spring, when the soil thaws, return it to the already filled bed, spill it with the Baikal-EM1 solution and be sure to cover it with a film.

This year, instead of Baikal-EM1, we used for the first time the microbiological fertilizer Siyanie-3 - sprinkled it on the compost and spilled it well with water. I think the effect will be the same as Baikal.

This year we tried to sprinkle the compost bed with Siyanie-3 microbiological fertilizer.
Then they spilled the bed well with water.

Pros and cons of compost beds

I'll start with pluses:

1. Even a retired woman can make a compost bed. There is no need to periodically mix the compost and run around the site with a wheelbarrow (especially if the site is a hectare).

2. The compost bed “ripens” relatively quickly, especially if it is treated with EM preparations. 3-4 weeks after laying the bed, it is ready for use.

3. The compost bed is long-lasting, it can be used for several seasons in a row, planting in the first year plants that like to “eat” (pumpkin, corn, cucumbers, etc.), in the second year root crops (carrots, beets, potatoes), and on third year legumes (beans, peas).

4. In the first year, the compost bed is also warm, so you can plant vegetables in it even with seeds. For example, on such a bed, corn, planted in mid-May with germinated seeds, grows remarkably and ripens.

5. Worms love to settle in the compost bed, which help maintain the structure and fertility of the soil.

Now about minuses:

1. In spring, when the snow melts, covering the compost beds that were filled in winter, they do not look very aesthetically pleasing. Here you have to suffer a little "mess", and as soon as the earth thaws, just finish the garden bed, sprinkling it with earth.

2. The second minus concerns settlements where there are no fences. They love to delve into the unfinished compost bed of the dog, taking away the "sweets". Magpies also feed there, again, until the bed is covered with earth.

Using compost beds is one method. I have been using it for several years now and am very happy with the result. I advise you too!

A rare garden does without a compost heap. And where else to put the grass torn from the beds? If land management is carried out using book methods, then either throw it out of the site, or prepare it from waste.

The happiness of the summer resident, if the land turned out to be virgin, that is, it had not been plowed before, it was not planted on it. These were wastelands and inconveniences. Garbage was taken out by KAMAZ, not every tractor driver agreed to plow, being afraid of a piece of iron in the depths. But what harvests were!

Not everyone received a new plot for use, more often than not one generation grew cabbage there before it. But everyone knew (or rather thought they knew) how to make compost, how to use it. Problems with phytosanitary purity were not immediately discovered, because no one even thought that they had made fertilizer with their own hands. Who has thought about what happens in the compost bin or heap? Nobody! This was not written about in the books.

What is the harm of compost

In the compost, as in the manure heap, rotting processes take place. Would you say that they also exist in nature? True, but is it possible to compare the decomposition of one leaf and a ton of greenery in compost pit? In nature, there are beneficial microorganisms that do not allow pathogens to take over. And there are no natural protectors in the compost bin.

What do they usually put in it? Any garden and kitchen waste. Weed grass, tomato stepchildren, squash lashes, which are usually removed from the garden at the end of fruiting due to the fact that the leaves have turned gray.

Spoiled bread with a moldy smell. Of course, with obvious signs of rot, no one will throw a specially moldy piece there. But are our eyes like a microscope and can see everything at high magnification? While the mycelium develops in a piece of bread, you will not notice it, but it will sprout in a heap!

There are methods that considered suitable for soil disinfection for seedlings:

1. Pour in boiling water.
2. Ignite in the oven.
3. Warm up on a baking sheet or pan.
4. Treat with a solution of potassium permanganate.

Gardeners do this. And what do you get as a result:

• humic acids - the natural fertility of the soil, are destroyed at a temperature of + 45 ... + 55 ° C;
• soil nutrients and capillaries are destroyed, beneficial microorganisms die;
• pathogenic microorganisms are more resistant, especially putrefactive ones.

We draw a conclusion! There is so little sense from such thermal procedures that it is not worth starting them.

Compost in the usual way: laborious and time consuming

So much has already been written about the preparation of compost in heaps, boxes and pits that we will dwell on these methods only for a minute. It's easy to write, but hard to do.

First, calculate how much money it will take to make wooden walls taking into account the decay of wood. How many years is enough? Will he have enough strength to stir up a heavy mass in a box? It is usually understood that this is difficult, therefore another box is installed nearby in order to simply transfer the contents from the first to the second. At the same time, it is necessary to disassemble the boards by about half the height, otherwise not everyone will master the work. And almost a handful of compost will be prepared, and even that one also needs to be spread on the beds. Pulling out of the pit for tedding or throwing into another pit is even harder. And I am a supporter of minimal work in terms of labor intensity and time.

Compost the easy way: learning from nature

You can make your work easier if you go on an excursion into the forest. Best time late summer - early autumn, when mushrooms grow. Where a lot of mushrooms are located in one long pile on the ground, a tree that has fallen several years ago lies under the grass. No one hid it, no one dug a hole for it - it lay on top and itself went under the soil.

In nature, there are mechanisms that regulate the ratio of beneficial and pathogenic microorganisms, because every year everything blooms and turns green. So, the most beneficial thing is to leave all plant waste in place. If you want to make the site beautiful, then it is better to rake them into the beds. This is both, and protection at the same time. We believe that we have learned how to make compost from nature.

How to make compost beds

What is the difference between a bed of plant debris and a compost heap? In the compost heap (pit) everything rots. Not in the trash can. There go almost natural processes: grasses begin to grow, find food earthworms, wood lice, vegetables grow there, releasing special substances from the roots to create convenient forms of nutrients. For beds, this option looks like this: along the ridge in the middle, you need to dig a ditch with a flat cutter, deep enough to put all the greenery in it, which has already outlived its age. From above, with the same flat cutter, throw the soil that was removed from the ditch. Everything, the compost pit is ready.

What is the benefit of such a design? There are few plant residues, there will be no decay processes - they will not have time to break out - earthworms will take everything away and process it. So it will take only one autumn and one winter to get not compost in a pit, but a bed fertilized with compost. The time will come to sow cabbage or plant tomatoes in the ground, and the garden bed is already waiting for you.

You can do a more laborious option. From two adjacent beds, build soil shafts, put vegetable raw materials between them, slightly alternating it with soil. You can put branches, branches, sawdust here, but you must cover them with earth.

On the sides of such rollers, you can grow something, such as dill or lettuce. And in the space between them in the spring sow pumpkins or zucchini, tomatoes will also like it. But here heavy earthworks many times more. There is another simple option: you need to build a mound out of greenery and kitchen waste. How much greenery there is, such a height of a mound will turn out. It can turn out to be of impressive size if the trees froze out in winter, and trunks and gnarled branches had to be removed. This “wealth” needs to be laid at the base of the hill. From above - the tops of potatoes, tomatoes, then pumpkin lashes, sometimes throwing up land for communication, although this is not necessary. You can water and trample, but you won’t trample down to the state of asphalt anyway. The topmost layer is soil.

And immediately we sow or plant, but under each root we must make a wide-mouthed cone with a flat cutter to fill the ground. All! And the compost is being prepared, and the vegetables are growing.

Humates for soil improvement

If you do not use manure and humus, in garden soil new portions of the infection do not fall. The soil itself can improve, but it will take quite a long time. To speed up the process will help - natural compounds, which are the essence of the soil.

What are they doing:

• a huge amount of nutrients (in snow, hoarfrost, soil) is in a form inaccessible to plants. Humates will collect everything together, turn it into a form that is available to plants. At the same time, they will also help you choose the desired element from the entire list, save the gardener from buying and adding them to the soil of the beds;
• reduce the acidity of the soil, thereby freeing it from the wireworm and the most malicious weeds (horsetail, horse sorrel);
• clean the soil from pathogenic microorganisms;
• preserve useful soil microflora, restore the real collective of soil inhabitants;
• do not allow to accumulate harmful substances in plant fruits.

It is important! After all, until now, all smart books say that plant nutrition is mineral, but in fact it is carbon-hydrogen-nitrogen. All these substances plants extract from the air! Nitrogen helps get soil bacteria if not killed mineral fertilizers, manure and compost mixed with ammonia.

Conclusion: the less work we do, the more harvest we get! Tell your gardening friends how you can make it easier to prepare compost that is good for plants and soil.

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