An Honest Conversation About Deep Compost Mulch

Hey all, in today's video, Josh Sattin joined me to chat about Deep Compost Mulching also known as No Dig and some of the old, new, and growing complications within that system from rising prices in compost to poor compost quality and more.

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[maureenodonnell]

I am a gardener in SW Colorado, elevation of 7000 feet, where the climate is arid and the soil hard clay.. I started no dig gardening last year as my soil is hard dry clay with little organic matter. I had to purchase compost for my veggie and flower beds and have found that it is not totally broken down which had made growing difficult with little available nitrogen in the beginnings of the growing season. I now prepare my beds at least 9 months prior to planting by sheet mulching with cardboard and lasagna layers of manures, carbon material and home made compost. I have also found that the compost layers, once broken down create a wonderful soil but does not hold water well. Mulching with hay, straw and wood chips has been a good solution for moisture retention in my garden beds. Thanks for your great video.

[joetabone]

Community supported composting! We are a very small farm, but access all of our compost material from the local community. In time I think this can be a model that redirects local waste to growers to maintain fertility for their communities food production. Keep it local!

[JanesGrowingGarden]

Really interesting chat. I have an allotment over here in the UK and have been converting it from a barren almost sterile land which had been almost stripped bare of any nutrients to more of a no dig system. Although we try to compost as much as we can I found that during the winter, however much I'd save my food scraps with all good intentions, I just wasn't taking them up there on a regular basis. I've recently started the Bokashi bin system which I'm finding a bit easier as it only needs emptying once every couple of weeks. Also over here we are able to get municipal compost - that is green waste that is regularly collected by local councils and composted - then sold back at a fraction of the cost of shop bought. Of course the nutrient value can't be guaranteed but it certainly helps to add bulk and structure. Although it is an ongoing process the payback is priceless - we now have worms returning which tells us we're doing the right thing!

[farmerjones]

I did an experiment with autumn leaves. In 2016 I shredded 20 bags of found (roadside) leaves. Wet with only rain water and storage in ventilated black bags inside ventilated trashcan. After 5 years I have the absolute 💯 best mult use leaf mold. The 20 bags condensed to 2 5 gallon buckets. Magic.

[riccobonelli]

Great discussion. I agree, creativity can go a long way. I source horse manure from a local stable, saw dust from my neighbor's wood shop (untreated wood), I grow cover crops and sorghum Sudan Grass (for my green material), I'm always searching the green waste bins in my neighborhood for leaves and stuff, and there's always wood chips. I can make about 15 to 20 yards of compost a year if I push it. Which is enough for my backyard garden.

[boeyman]

Great topic! I've stopped bringing in compost, and am working with only what my trees give me - leaves and needles. It started with fear of contaminated compost, and turned into a wonderful experiment. I'm not sure that compost is ultimately the answer - I think TREES are the answer!

[annburge]

I'm writing from Chihuahua Mexico, drylands, many years of drought, 2mm rainfall per year. Anything burnable is usually burnt for warning houses because of poverty, if it's edible by animals it's fed to them... it's hard to access any carbon materials and one has to pay. I can buy cardboard and sawdust. I've learnt to compost weeds such as nightshades, tumbleweed, torritos by soaking them in barrels to rot the seeds and then adding them to sawdust, and adding the chicken bedding. It's not how much compost one needs but how to make it go along way with compost tea, compost ports in sawdust mulch.... I've also grow many more so called weeds for food than common vegetables such as malva, prickly pear, amaranth, pumpkin leaves, dandelion leaves, carrot tops, onion tops, purslane, rocket, dock, mulberry leaves, parsley, corrianda... plants that can grow by themselves in the grass in the tree wells

[aenorist]

I mean, supply and demand also means that production will go up, spurred by higher prices.
Which is exactly what we want. Less organic material into landfill, more people making livings off composting, supporting more farms.

[scottrichard]

We have been doing the deep compost method for 8 years. We added 1000 yards of compost per year on 3 acres. It has changed everything. It took several years for it to settle down . We made our own compost pile, rented large tractor to turn it. I spent 10, 000 or more a year.

[aenorist]

If you get that much sun and intense rain, would agroforestry of some sort not make sense?
Partial shade helps against burning plants, partial canopy breaks a lot of the erosive force of the rain (if its in the splash, the runoff is another issue, though that gets mitigated at least a little bit too by water caught in the trees).

[simmonsjn]

dude jesse has aged like 10 years over the last 18 when looking at his videos! I just discovered his vids and Have been watching the old ones. They are great! Thanks Jesse and Josh!!!

[rubytuby]

My garden is a compost pile. Every fall I fill my garden with free leaves 2ft deep, by spring they are 7 inches deep. I plant my garden and by that fall there’s only 2 or 3 in. Of leaves left. Then I just repeat the process.

[jossduncanweir]

Great conversation guys, lets have more of this type of content. Two highly experienced growers sharing their experiences and knowledge is awesone. Thanks.

[EDLaw-woit]

That was a great discussion and very helpful for this old new gardener. I am struggling with the compost situation both trying to make it an getting enough for my 300 ‘ garden I will order your book later today. Y’all havagudun.

[ronaldcrunkilton]

Good job guys on discussing issues related to practical use of deep bed compost. Long overdue. Unless you are raising and selling high value foliage crops in a sellers market purchasing compost is just not an economical option. Making your own weed free compost in large enough quantities is just not feasible for most of us. Even on our sizable hobby farm where we grow and make hay for several kinds of large animals it’s no simple task to compost

[jordansahs]

We’re camping all summer while we renovated a farm house☺️. We’re using paper plates and composting our plates and food waste. This is helping us presence water for our current situation and helping us build up a carbon and Nitrogen supply for the future years.

[waywardcajunfarms]

Great talks! Love when yall come together and tackle to unspoken issues!

[browntownorganics]

Great one guys! Your videos keep getting better!!

[arrowone]

I set a no till set up this year. I have unlimited supply of wood chips coming in. We have a 100x400 area set up now over a foot deep. I had over 3 or 400 hundred yards that set over a year in my field. Im hoping to get at least an acre or more to plant on by next season. With having a thick clay base in our soil, I could not get anything to grow. But now that section is growing fantastic.

[SimplisticFarms]

This is a great conversation with a lot of reality 👍👨‍🌾🤙✌