How to make a “warm” bed - the easiest and fastest way. An interesting composting technology - compost on paths. Plant on a warm bed or compost heap.
Good afternoon, dear readers!
Today we will talk about the construction of warm ridges. This summer we used a couple of these beds for , a couple each for peppers and eggplants, and also planted zucchini and pumpkins in pits with organic matter. I must say that we were very pleased with the result.
Do warm bed Just. (And if you use the garden bed - compost heap option given below, then it’s very simple.)
Start off better in autumn. Right now, at this time, a large amount of organic matter is readily available. If you are making such a bed in place of an old one, then remove a layer of soil from it at the soil level and set it aside. In the lowlands this is enough, but in more high places you can dig a trench 15-20 cm deep or on the bayonet of a shovel. Since we planned to make the ridges narrow, the width of such trenches was approximately 40 cm, i.e. slightly less than the width of the ridge.
Yes, you need to place warm beds in a sunny place, otherwise you won’t get enough harvest and nitrates may accumulate in the first year.
For narrow beds, a box made of boards or other material is needed. In our country, for example, croaker is quite cheap, i.e. scraps of log remaining after cutting it. Making boxes is more labor-intensive, but cheaper. You can also take boards or slate from waste. This option is suitable for a period of 1-3 years, if you plan to then move the warm bed to another place.
For stationary warm beds, a box is made of brick, concrete and other more durable and durable materials. I saw a version made from old wooden ones railway sleepers. On such a box you can cultivate the bed while sitting.
The box is filled with organic matter according to composting rules. Branches and any organic debris are placed at the bottom for drainage. If you have severe clay soil, then you can make the trench a little deeper, and pour a layer of sand about five to seven centimeters into its bottom and add branches, etc., to the sand. Larger fractions are added first, then smaller ones. You can also throw old cotton rags in there. Then organic matter is poured in layers - leaves, weeds, straw... - whatever is available. You can also water the layers with infusion of manure and add kitchen peelings from vegetables. We trample everything down layer by layer.
Half a glass of the biological preparation “Siyanie-3” is poured onto each layer to accelerate the decomposition of organic matter. Then all organic matter is spilled with a solution (naturally in non-chlorinated water) of the “Shine-1” preparation. The top of the box is covered with compost or soil with a layer of 10-15 centimeters. In the spring, holes are made in compost or soil and seedlings are planted. Within two to three weeks, along with vegetable seedlings, flower seedlings can also be grown in warm beds.
When organic matter decomposes, heat is released, thanks to which seedlings can be planted for almost a month ahead of schedule. Of course, at the same time we cover the bed with film and lutrasil if necessary. Warmth helps plants survive night frosts and develop faster. When large amounts of organic matter decompose, a lot of carbon dioxide is released and a lot of nutrients are formed. Therefore, the plants develop quickly, the fruits on them are formed three to four weeks earlier than usual. increases sharply, and the fruiting period lasts until late autumn.
In the first year, such beds contain a lot of nitrogenous nutrients, so for the first two years it is not recommended to grow nitrate-accumulating vegetables and greens in a high bed: onions, lettuce, spinach, beets, radishes, dill, parsley. In the first year, crops that require increased nutrition are grown: pumpkin - zucchini, pumpkin, cucumbers, or peppers and eggplants. After a year, you can plant plants with average nutrient consumption: head lettuce, cabbage, celery. In the third year, plants with medium and low nutrient consumption are planted.
Organic matter is packed into a warm bed intended for cucumbers, but there is no need to treat it with “Shine” and cover it with soil. We do this in the spring.
Instead of ridges, you can make holes. We made them 30-40 cm deep and a little larger in diameter internal diameter tires from wheels passenger car. Any garage cooperatives are full of this stuff. The tire was installed on top, dug in slightly and served as a mini-box. We planted seedlings of zucchini and pumpkins in the holes. If it’s warmer, you can plant watermelons and melons this way.
It is good to arrange warm beds along the southern wall of a house or outbuildings. During the day the wall heats up, and at night it gives off heat to the plants. It is good to grow tomatoes in such beds.
Of course, we also mulched such beds with mowed, slightly dried grass. Moreover, after you have mowed the grass, it is a good idea to chop it into pieces. For what? The fact is that soil microorganisms begin processing dead organic matter from the cutting site. Feed the soil animals well, they will multiply and give you a lot of carbon dioxide for your plants.
What to chop with? The fastest and easiest way is to spread the grass on the path and cut it with a special chopper on a long handle. You need to cut it immediately after mowing, before the grass wilts, otherwise you won’t succeed. Such self-sharpening chops can be ordered from us at the Club. But you can just chop up the grass with a hatchet.
If you didn’t have time and the mowed grass has dried out, then there is another way. Stick the tip of the scythe into the turf so that it holds tightly there. You stand over the blade and grab tufts of grass from the pile with your hands, cutting it with a scythe. The blade of the scythe looks, naturally, in the direction away from us. Be careful though! The scythe is very sharp and can easily cut your hands. It is safer to make a stationary cutter, which has a special handle at one end of the knife, and the other end of the knife is hinged on the cutting table.
We watered such beds like ordinary ones, but almost always not only with water, but with herbal infusions with “Shine” preparations or cucumbers, for example, Kurdyumov’s mash, or tank mixtures. Once a week we used “Shine-1”, and the other week – “Shine-2”. Foliar feeding (spraying plants) with “Shining” was done using the same scheme, but in the second half of summer - twice a week. When sprayed, enzymes, amino acids, micro- and macroelements included in the “Shine” preparations are absorbed by plants through the surface of the leaves. Mineral fertilizers were not used in any form at all. As a result of the action of biological products, organic mulch quickly rots and plants receive all the nutrients they need.
But still, regarding watering, I draw the following conclusion - warm beds require more watering than ordinary ones. This is logical - microorganisms live and process dead organic matter only in a humid environment.
All the vegetables that we watered with “Shining” became amazingly tasty. The taste and aroma are rich and very pleasant. This became especially noticeable with the cucumbers; they were even sweet.
And in conclusion, an interesting article on our topic today.
Despite her age, she is a very active promoter of ideas organic farming, although it applies mineral fertilizers. I bring to your attention her article from the St. Petersburg magazine "FloraPrice". From the article I removed only references to the mines used. fertilizers. Instead, it is much better to breed soil animals, for example, by watering the bed with solutions of EM preparations “Shine” or other beneficial soil microorganisms, which will give the plants everything they need for growth and abundant fruiting, and return fertility to the soil.
The main idea of G. Kizima is this. Our summers in the North-West are quite cool, the soil does not warm up enough, and for many plants it is simply cold. Therefore, it makes sense to grow everything garden crops on compost heaps (in fact, on the same warm beds). Such a bed provides the plants with additional warmth for three to four years.
"LAZY" BED or Crop rotation on a compost heap
G. Kizima, gardener
Lay it down next summer compost heap in place of any vegetable bed or directly on virgin soil, especially if you have clay soil. She should be in the sun. The width of the heap is 80-100 cm, the height should also be 80-100 cm by the end of summer, but the length should be what the future bed should be or how much material there will be enough for laying. It can be covered with decorative plantings so as not to become an eyesore.
You will start filling it from one edge, gradually increasing in length and height. On next year start laying a new compost heap next to it, and plant pumpkins or zucchini on the first one. You can also use it for cucumbers. To prevent heat and moisture from leaving the heap, it should be covered with an old film - black or white, but spunbond or lutrasil are not suitable for this purpose. This must be done before the snow melts, otherwise the heap may dry out by the time of sowing.
Before sowing, remove the film and make holes in the heap about the size of a three-liter jar. Then fill them halfway fertile soil, add to each..., water well and sow the seeds. Then cover the pile again with film.
As soon as the seedlings reach the film, cut holes in it and release them outside. If there is a danger of frost, then the plants need to be covered with lutrasil on top. This is where your work ends. No more watering or feeding of the plants is required.
Under the film and powerful foliage of pumpkin crops, the compost will mature in one season. At the end of summer, cut off the fruiting above-ground part and transfer it to the new compost pile that you made over the summer. Leave the remains of the root system in place. The worms will eat them. On next year, having made additional holes in the film and inserted into each of them..., plant seedlings of any cabbage, except for Chinese cabbage and kohlrabi. You will need to feed the cabbage in the second half of summer... You will only need to water it if the weather is hot, dry. Water needs to be poured into the holes in the film under the root, and in very hot weather early in the morning you will have to pour the cabbage directly over the leaves cold water from the well. In autumn, the covering leaves of cabbage and its roots (if there is no clubroot) should be left in the garden bed. The film will have to be removed, leaving it only on the sides of the bed.
Next year, pumpkin crops will move to a new compost heap, cabbage will move to their place, and instead you can plant grown early potato tubers or onions on turnips in the garden bed. Then you can plant beets, ... Beets can also be planted along with cabbage along the edge of the garden bed. She loves to grow on the edge and is friends with cabbage crops. It’s a good idea to plant celery at the ends of the cabbage bed. And rows of onions can be alternated with rows of carrots. But you can also sow a bed of carrots after onions.
Once again, I draw your attention to the fact that as soon as you have removed the film, only the crop is removed from the bed, and all other parts of the plant are left on the bed and in the soil. Moreover, in the fall they also throw leaves or weeded weeds on top. Another year the bed can be used for lettuce, dill, and parsley. These crops do not need fertilizing or watering.
Next year in early spring there you can sow radishes, and after harvesting them at the beginning of summer, plant strawberry tendrils. Strawberries need to be planted thicker than usual, that is, they need to be planted in the middle of the bed in one row at a distance of 15-20 m from each other... To avoid having to do weeding, roll out a roll of paper glued from several layers on both sides of the strawberry newspapers. When the strawberries produce tendrils, make holes in the newspaper to allow them to take root and leave them to overwinter. In the spring, there will be practically no newspapers left, but there will be no room left for weeds to grow, since the strawberries will take up all the free space. Don't do anything to the plantation. It does not need... watering except in very hot and dry weather in spring and early summer... and under a continuous canopy of its own leaves it will retain moisture in the soil. I emphasize again, you don’t need to do anything, let the strawberries grow on their own.
After three to four years, the berry harvest will begin to decline. When you collect it, simply mow the plants themselves with a scythe, or even better, with a Fokin flat cutter, going 2-3 cm deep into the soil. Leave the leaves in the garden bed and start putting compost in this place. Then the whole cycle will repeat again.
This whole scheme should be used on sand. Only under the compost on the sand you need to lay roofing material or old film in several layers to nutrients didn't go through the sand.
If you have perfectly acceptable soil, its fertility will gradually be restored or improved over time if you annually sow the vacated bed with white mustard in late summer and leave all the plant residues after harvesting on it, rather than dragging them into the compost. Then in the spring, just lightly dig up the soil to a depth of 5 cm and immediately sow the bed with seeds cultivated plants. The crop rotation can be left the same as on the compost heap, but before planting each crop, you should add a little “Bogorodskaya zemlyets” into the hole and...
What kind of “Bogorodskaya Zemlya” is this? This is soil saturated with beneficial microorganisms. After all, soil fertility is determined by the number of microorganisms living in it. Most of them die in winter in the top layer of soil. Some part, of course, will survive and begin to reproduce, but they will reach the required numbers only by the end of the season.
If you take a bag of such soil in the fall before frost and put it in the cellar, the microorganisms will be perfectly preserved and multiply over the winter. It is especially good to take such soil from rotted compost. The soil needs to be populated with beneficial microorganisms, and to feed them, systematically add surface layer unrotted organic matter, in particular, the green mass of mown grass or weeds.
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In the spring, you want to start sowing as quickly as possible in order to get the harvest as early as possible. The earth at this time is still cold, and the roots of the plants need warmth 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. Let's look at how to make a warm bed with step by step instructions, decorated with photographs. Watch the 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 setting up warm beds on your site and spending own time and strength, it is necessary to understand the advantages of this method.
- A raised warm bed is especially good for damp, cold regions. The soil warms up earlier, and it is possible to get the harvest earlier. In case of overwatering, the plants do not get wet. Even stone fruit trees are planted this way to protect the root system from groundwater.
- A properly arranged garden bed will last about five years. Then it can be redeveloped, and the resulting fertile land can be used for sowing other plants.
A warm bed allows you to get early harvest vegetables
- Water consumption is reduced. Organic matter retains water, so watering once or twice a week is sufficient. And if you arrange drip irrigation or at least lay a leaky hose for irrigation, then labor costs are reduced to a minimum.
- When organic matter decomposes, heat is released, which stimulates seed germination. The resulting compost 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 is dumped directly onto the garden bed.
- You can install a warm bed outside or in a greenhouse - it will bring the same effect. IN open ground It is enough to install arcs and stretch agrofibre to protect plants from frost.
- After rainfall, the crop remains clean, since a layer of mulch covers the soil, and rain splashes do not stain the vegetables.
- Weeds germinate with difficulty and in small quantities and are easily pulled out.
- Doesn't take up much space, is convenient to handle, doesn't create dirt or clutter.
Advice. In the fall, all available small organic matter and leaf litter add to the garden bed and cover with cardboard to retain heat and useful material were not washed out by rain into lower layers.
Arrangement rules
When groundwater approaches close, the bed is raised above the soil. In dry regions, on the contrary, they deepen it, making it level with the soil or slightly higher. Raised beds bordered different materials. Most often they use wood or slate, less often metal. Placed in the middle of the lawn, framed by a tiled blind area, such a bed pleases the eye and decorates the area. Or they make it in the form of a meter-long hill without sides. Essentially, a warm bed is a compost heap, folded in the form of a layer cake according to certain rules.
Neat beds look very nice
- Coarse organic matter is placed on the lowest layer, which takes a long time to decompose: tree stumps and trunks, thick branches. Spill with urea. The larger the waste, the longer the bed will last. Wood retains moisture well.
- The next layer is laid with smaller organic matter: corn and sunflower stalks, small shrubs. Paper and kitchen waste, leaves, and straw can also be used.
- To speed up the process of decomposition and warming up, lay semi-rotted manure or compost. Top with turf, grass side down, and then a layer of mature compost.
- After this, the seeds are sown.
The length of the bed can be any optimal width about a meter. The depth will depend on the composition of the soil and the type of bed chosen. The depth of the bed is 40 - 60 cm. The height of the raised bed is up to 1 m.
The air remaining in the cavities between large organic matter will provide breathing and rapid heating of the bed. You can speed up the process by sprinkling the soil with special bacteria.
Advice. If the soil is initially good, then the need to dig up the bed will disappear on its own. Already in the first year, the soil is well loosened to a depth of 20 cm, next season Just add compost and plant the plants.
The process of making beds
Let's consider the process of making a deep 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 approximately 60 cm deep.
- We throw the cut turf and the top layer of fertile soil to one side - it will come in handy.
- We fold the bottom layer in the other direction.
- The sides of the trench can be additionally insulated with sheet polystyrene foam, and closed plastic bottles can be placed at the bottom.
Insulating the bottom of a warm bed
- We fill the trench with branches and logs. We place finer material higher.
- We pour out several wheelbarrows of semi-finished compost - this will be a starter of beneficial microorganisms for processing and heating organic matter.
- We lay fertile soil and turf with the grass facing down.
- We fill the top with compost, a mixture of sand, peat and sawdust with the addition of microelements.
Filling the bed with compost
- Water well and cover with film. 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 prevents the roots from overheating.
What plants are planted in a warm bed?
A container filled with organic matter heats up quickly in the spring. Heat-loving vegetables can be sown in such a bed ahead of schedule, covered with 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 and plant cucumbers and tomatoes. After harvesting the radishes, plant carrots, onions, and beets. In the fall, plant radishes, salads and herbs again.
Experienced gardeners who have been using warm beds for many years recommend planning plantings in this way:
- in the first year, when the bed is as rich in organic matter as possible, sow pumpkins, tomatoes and cucumbers with zucchini. It is these crops that will give the maximum yield;
- next year you can plant the same vegetables again as in the first year;
- in 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 down the edges loosely with boards. So the garden bed will turn into a greenhouse. Air will be sucked in from the bottom and come out at the top. If you forget to open the bed during the day, the plants will not burn. And if you have free funds, install a roof over the garden bed. It will protect tomatoes from late blight, and cucumbers from peronospora - these fungi germinate in droplets of water on the leaves. Vegetables will remain healthy until frost.
Advice. A deep hole and a large volume of organic matter retains moisture well and gives off heat. Raised boxes with a small layer of organic matter dry out faster and lose nutritional value.
Once, by finding time and effort, as well as a sufficient amount of high-quality organic matter, and arranging 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 vegetables ripen in open ground a month earlier, then such a structure in a greenhouse will more than justify the investment of effort.
Warm bed: video
How to make a warm bed: photo
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 film and “ripened.” Making warm compost beds with your own hands is not that difficult! Try it too!
Compost heap or compost beds: which is better?
I won’t be mistaken if I say that on almost every garden plot There is a treasured corner where gardeners throw out organic matter - a compost heap. There was also such a place on our site for several years in a row.
Our old compost heap
Our compost heap was located a few meters from the house, so that it would not be so far to run around with a garbage can. Filling the pile was the husband’s “sacred duty”; he did an excellent job with it, but the soil with which it was advisable to pour organic waste was located far away in the garden, and the husband was reluctant to go with a wheelbarrow to get it every time. It’s not hard to imagine what kind of “aroma” there was around our composter - all the surrounding flies flocked to us! In addition, the compost in our pile usually matured in two years, which is a long time by my standards, and for some reason there wasn’t enough of it. All this didn’t make me particularly happy... We had no doubt that compost was necessary in the garden, but how to optimize the process of obtaining it?
Watching how my husband runs every day to the compost heap with a garbage bucket, periodically mixes the compost with a pitchfork so that it “breathes,” and then every spring he delivers compost with a wheelbarrow to numerous beds located throughout the hectare, I began to wonder: how do they cope? with all this, women who do not have “male power” at hand.
I went to visit my closest neighbor, pensioner Nadezhda Petrovna, who is known in Kovcheg as a real gardener, always gets a wonderful harvest, manages to make and plant beds in the common area, and copes wonderfully with this alone. Nadezhda Petrovna told me that the whole secret is in the high compost beds! Why carry all the organic matter into one pile, and then from this pile into the beds, when you can immediately take the bucket to the garden bed and cover it with soil from the same bed! But really, why?
After weighing all the pros and cons, I decided to make a compost bed myself, without the help of my husband. It turned out to be quite accessible and did not require much physical effort. Now there is no more compost heap on our hectare, but there are a lot of warm compost beds! Filling them is still the same “sacred duty” of my husband, but now, when he is too lazy to fill up the waste with soil, I am able to do it myself, fortunately the soil is here, in the same bed!
Converting regular garden beds into compost beds
So, you have ordinary beds in 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 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 them for mulching), eggshell, tea and coffee brewing, etc.
It is believed that in the right compost optimal ratio nitrogenous materials to carbon ones is 1:4. We will strive for this ratio in our compost beds.
It is not recommended to put cooked kitchen waste, bones and meat of animals, animal fat and vegetable oil in compost beds (to be honest, I don’t really bother, I put any food waste in the compost - both boiled and with oil, but meat and bones This doesn’t happen with us anyway, we are vegetarians). It is also not necessary to put diseased plants (especially those affected by clubroot and late blight), seed heads of weeds, cat and dog feces, unshredded wood, perennial weeds, and wool into the compost.
Do you practice separate waste collection?
If you are still collecting all the garbage in your house, both organic and inorganic, in one trash can, then it’s time to get rid of this bad habit and take a more conscious approach to the garbage collection process. You should have at least two buckets in your kitchen! In one you will throw away leftover food, scraps of paper and cardboard (although we, for example, never throw away paper, but collect it separately for kindling), any dust from a vacuum cleaner - in general, everything that can rot and turn into valuable fertilizer. In another bucket we collect all the inorganic waste - candy wrappers, film, plastic, rubber, etc. The next stage of increasing your awareness is the separate collection of inorganic waste depending on the material from which it is made (in the Ark we now practice separate collection of inorganics), but now start at least small - collect organic matter in a separate bucket!
Our hut at a makeshift dacha I remember with a smile 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 had 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 vegetable garden there, built a hut and went “to the ground” almost every week. We had such a unique dacha there. So, in order to increase soil fertility, we made compost ourselves right in the apartment! My husband installed a small barrel on the balcony into which we carried everything organic waste. So that there is no on the balcony unpleasant odor, the husband took the tube out of the barrel outside and installed a small fan in the barrel. When the compost was ready, it was taken out in bags to our garden. What I mean is that even in urban conditions it is possible to do composting, if there is a desire.
How many compost beds can you make in a season?
But let's return to our beds. Let's calculate how many beds we can make compost per season. It depends on how much organic waste you generate during your life. For example, it takes two weeks to make one small compost bed on my property (i.e., it was during this time that our family from four people collects enough organic waste to cover the bed with a layer of 15-20 cm). If we take into account 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, which means the rest can be safely planted. The third compost bed can be filled during June after we have harvested early crops from it - radishes, lettuce. Then the bed from under the peas is cleared. Thus, throughout the spring and all summer, you can gradually increase the fertility of 5-7 beds.
A few more beds will fill in the fall. Starting in the fall, we make sure to prepare the beds closest to the house (I’ll tell you exactly how below) so that we can dispose of organic waste on them in winter. It turns out that my family can provide about 10 beds with compost during the gardening season. And yours?
Making compost beds with your own hands
So, we have chosen the first bed and are ready to gradually fill it with waste. To do this, you need to remove a part of the soil from the end of the bed about half a shovel deep and about half a meter long. This soil can be poured into unnecessary (cracked) buckets and stored somewhere in the shade. We take out the garbage into the hole in the garden bed and immediately sprinkle it with a small layer of soil, which we take from the same bed from the place where our hole began (it is convenient to immediately “settle” a separate shovel in the garden bed so that you don’t have to run after it with a garbage can every time in hand). Thus, when we fill and cover the first depression with earth, we automatically form the next depression. This way we gradually fill the entire garden bed with organic matter. It is not difficult to guess that to fill the last hole with waste we use soil from buckets that were waiting in the shade.
After the compost bed is completely filled, it must be very well watered with Baikal solution - EM1 (1 cap of Baikal per 10-liter watering can). A watering can of this solution is used for 1 sq.m of bed.
You can cover the compost bed with black spunbond Then the bed needs to be well mulched. You can use straw or hay, cardboard, newspapers, black non-woven material- spunbond, which need to be firmly fixed in the garden bed. In the spring, to better warm the bed, I additionally cover it with film; in the summer there is no need to use film. While the first bed “ripens” for 3-4 weeks, we begin making the next compost bed.
When the bed is “ripe”, I sprinkle it with ash (0.5 liters per 1 sq. m), go through it lightly with a flat cutter and. I make 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 in them this season, then be sure to mulch them so that weed seeds do not fall into the soil.
If you still have time before autumn, you can sow the bed with green manure, but then do not cover them, but leave them like that until winter.
Preparing beds for filling them in winter
Therefore, in winter we continue to fill the beds with organic matter. But for this you need to prepare the beds in the fall. It is important to choose the beds closest to the house; in winter there is so much snow that you won’t be able to get far into the garden.
In principle, if you have a ready-made bed with high sides that needs to be filled, you don’t have to do anything, 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 get soil 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), and in the spring my husband brings soil from there to such a bed. 2-3 days before filling with soil, it is advisable to walk through the bed with a flat cutter and break up frozen clods of organic matter, if any remain. And then cover it with earth, pour it with warm Baikal-EM1 solution and be sure to cover it with film.
If there is no such reserve of soil, then you can carefully remove the top layer of soil from the garden bed and place it nearby. For example, on a banner. And in the spring, when the soil thaws, return it to the already filled bed, spill it with Baikal-EM1 solution and be sure to cover it with film.
This year, instead of Baikal-EM1, for the first time we used the microbiological fertilizer Siyanie-3 - we sprinkled it on the compost and watered it well. I think the effect will be the same as that of Lake Baikal.
This year we tried to sprinkle the compost bed with microbiological fertilizer Siyanie-3 
Then we watered the bed well
Pros and cons of compost beds
I'll start with advantages:
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 vegetables (carrots, beets, potatoes), and third year legumes (beans, peas).
4. In the first year, the compost bed is also warm, so you can plant vegetables in it, even seeds. For example, in such a bed, corn planted with sprouted seeds in mid-May grows and ripens remarkably.
5. Worms love to live in the compost bed, which helps maintain the structure and fertility of the soil.
Now about minuses:
1. In the spring, when the snow melts, covering the compost beds that were filled in the winter, they do not look very aesthetically pleasing. Here you have to endure the “mess” a little, and as soon as the ground thaws, just finish the bed by covering it with earth.
2. The second disadvantage concerns settlements where there are no fences. Dogs love to rummage through an unfinished compost bed, snatching away “goodies.” Magpies also feed there, again, until the bed was covered with earth.
Using compost beds is one method. I have been practicing it on my site for several years now and am very pleased with the result. I advise you too!
What is better - compost heaps or mulch on beds and paths? To prove that you are right in such a dilemma is the same as declaring: “it is better to sleep than to be underfed.”
In fact, there is no dilemma if you understand the essence of what I do. I’ll try to formulate this very essence very briefly: the basis of my technology is composting plant residues in paths and beds. I moved the compost pile to a place where it would be accessible to plant roots - in paths and beds. I am fully in favor of composting, but with some reservations. Let's compare two options: composting in paths and composting in compost bins, compost heaps, etc. What is the difference?
- The process of operating a compost heap can be simplified as follows: we collect all organic residues in a heap. We maintain microbiological activity in the heap. We take them out into the beds ready compost. We embed it in the soil of the beds. Operation process compost paths twice as easy. We collect organic residues on the paths. We support microbiological activity in the paths. That's all.
- Compost bins occupy a separate place on the site. Composting in paths requires no additional space at all.
These two points alone show the great advantages of compost paths over a compost heap.
- Lost in heaps during composting carbon dioxide, which is the main building material plants. When composting in paths, carbon dioxide is released in the place where plants are able to use it most fully - in the root zone of crops.
- In compost heaps, most of the organic matter is lost, the heap decreases in volume by 4 times. Nothing is lost in compost trails. During the decomposition of organic matter, it also plays the role of an effective mulch, which retains moisture, evens out temperature fluctuations in the soil, and enhances microbiological activity in the bed and paths.
- The compost pile attracts worms. But only when the temperature in the pile drops does the worms start working in the pile (vermicomposting). In addition, the compost heap will attract worms from the surrounding beds if the same comfortable conditions for worms are not created in the beds as in the heap. The area of the compost paths is much larger than the area of the compost heap (with the same volume of organic material used), which means that more worms are attracted. The worms work there all the time - the temperature in the paths does not rise. And the waste products of the worms are distributed both in the paths and in the beds through the efforts of the worms themselves. And the worms will lay their offspring right there, in the paths.
- Compost paths do not have the disadvantages of a compost heap. The layer of organic matter in them does not exceed the critical volume required to heat the heap. There is no increase in temperature and everything associated with it.
- In compost heaps, when heated, most weed seeds die. Weed seeds do not die in compost paths. But this is only for the good - free green manure, the seeds of which do not need to be purchased and sown. But on paths with a thick layer of organic matter, to my regret, there are few weeds.
- Proponents of compost heaps are forced to take all weeded weeds and post-harvest residues into the heap. If you have compost paths, this is not necessary. We leave everything in place.
- Compost heaps perform one single role - preparing compost. Compost paths, in addition, are a system for automatically adjusting humidity and temperature in the beds, depending on the season.
And here is another argument against the use of composting in paths and beds: “Your proposal to increase humus in the soil by mulching beds and walkways with raw organic matter is equivalent natural process– accumulation of humus in the soil over many years. The gardener wants to increase soil fertility as quickly as possible...” The question shows a clear lack of understanding of the role of paths as small-volume composting sites. All processes that occur in the paths are equivalent to the processes in the compost heap, except for heating. Accordingly, no less humus is formed in the same time. But for me, the accumulation of humus is not an end in itself. Humus is only an important “addition”. In the process of life, the microcosm decomposes organic matter into solutions that it consumes for its nutrition. These same solutions can be absorbed by plants - this is their main nutrition. That part of the solutions that was not absorbed by plants and microbes combines with the mineral part of the soil, forming slightly soluble stable particles - this is humus.
This process in my garden occurs intensively in the paths. If there are compost paths, the decomposition of organic matter on the surface of the bed is not so important, although it is useful. The main thing here is to retain moisture, stabilize the temperature, protect the soil structure from destruction, and create comfortable conditions for the worms. These functions can best be performed by undecomposed organic matter. But my practice shows that even under drought conditions and without watering, organic residues on the surface of the bed decompose, although less intensively than under moist conditions. In addition, these processes can be controlled. If organic matter is crushed, decomposition will go faster. In my practice, I do not grind anything. I simply select the mulch for the crop according to the size of the organic fragments. For example, I mulch tomatoes, cabbage, cucumbers, potatoes with hay, straw, and other large-sized organic matter. Carrots, beets, daikon, radish - foliage, that is, smaller organic matter.
The paths contain various organic matter, both small and large, both quickly decomposing and long-decomposing. This is done deliberately. This heterogeneous structure of composted materials ensures constant aeration. This prevents putrefactive decomposition from occurring. All of the above does not mean that I am against chopping up organic matter for mulch and composting. But my practice proves that you can do without chopping.
This comparative analysis shows that track composting technology is less labor intensive than using compost heaps. And, in addition, it performs many related functions. I conducted this analysis for myself. Just wondering if maybe I'm really doing too much compared to composting in piles? It turns out that my approach is less labor-intensive. Good luck with your gardening endeavors.
Oleg Telepov,
Omsk
