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Garden State Pumpkins

Removal of the woods was simple. 16 ton bulldozer to bury the stumps and grade the clay and rock cheap! HAving a couple of lawn care contractors agree to fill in your property with the fall leaves...they jumped at it...Yikes!!

They spread out the piles as even as possible to take off some slope from the hill which left it 6 foot thick in some places and 2 foot thick in other.The thickest being near the top since the grade from house level down was the worst and still is but better. The clay and rock are down the bottom while the leaves decompose there are plenty of problems. Thought making your own soil would be better then buying someone else's stuff...time will tell...get to innoculate and fertilize the compost yourself so you can put in what you want but it's still very time consuming.
If rototilled alot...I mean alot.you can get a good ten to twelve inch black carpet of humus over the whole thing. problem is the leaves below that level cease to compost. Double digging occasionally will throw more organic less composted leaves in the mix not that you need any more organics but if your trying to grow in this while working it it's the best you can do. Nirogen levels are nearly impossible to keep level. rains seem to deplete them completely and everything yellows up. so you bounce from to much to to little..fruit set is going to be a real tryout...hoping for a good rain to deplete the nitrogen the week before. Holding females will be tough without it. Even keeping female flowers on is tough. While the leaves allowed for plants to root, maintaining plants and running the "landfill" is a little more then bargained for and although I had figured that it would be ready for 2005 I guess you expect to much when the plants start to run...

still trying in NJ!!! Grow em Big!

7/2/2003 10:49:43 AM

Cologne / Germany

I bought a leaf shredder last year. 100 $ worth the investment. Will post a pic tomorrow. I know I had leaves in my garden that didn´t compost over years, especially in lower layers of the piles.
Living in the middle of a maple alley there´s enough good stuff every fall but I don´t expect it to decompose within 5 or 6 months, no chance. But the shreddered stuff is doing great once tilled in. Furthermore it greatly reduces volume - 5% - 10% of the original amount remains, that´s all.

7/2/2003 11:37:05 AM

In the shade - PDX, OR

Hang in there Chuck.

You can also water the heck out of the patch when trying to flush out the Nitrogen. That delicate balance is tough to strike especially since you are working over a new patch manually.

Give us some pictures in the diary - I'd like to see how things are lookin' there for you.

You probably have enough leaves to last you for a while.
However, on a general note I do agree with Floh and will be using a leaf shredder myself in the fall. Logic follows well as those smaller bits are much easier to break down.

Best of Luck to you.
Ceis

7/2/2003 1:06:00 PM

South Hill, Virginia

Chuck,

Why does NJ send all their medical waste and other garbage to Virginia when you have a perfectly good landfill in your back yard. Maybe we can re-route it back to you. The used syringes loosen the soil while the blood and other body fluids will provide you with hydrogen:P

7/2/2003 4:20:17 PM

Garden State Pumpkins

Now Brent you know this is the Garden State!!! Landfill management is governed by an elite group of entrepeneurs (sic) who names all end in a vowel....why even a truckload of grass clippings cost 100 dollars to leave at a site. Carting and freight to these sites is also governed by the county and state government so I'm sure final resting place is awarded to the lowest bidder for the ultimate storage of all products....Virgina must have requested one of our entrepeneurs to take all of the products as a final repose. or they got an offer they couldn't refuse!!! LOL...yikes there goes this thread!!!

7/2/2003 8:45:08 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Message Chaos Theory Eruption Alert!!!

Careful Chuck. You know darn well you needed a permit & a few Judges to preside over your new "landfill". You gotta pay for play boys & dats just the way it is!

7/2/2003 10:04:11 PM

Oz

red wigglers. vance saffels,,englewood tennessee. they will eat leaves and enrich the decom process.

8/18/2003 1:03:21 PM

Tacoma, WA

I see that someone else has a hunch that landfills are managed by the mafia.....and friends. :>)

Stan

8/27/2003 8:27:44 PM