This year I tried something new with my zuccini plantings. A couple of
years ago, my mother showed me where she had planted beets, beans, and
chard on the top of her compost heap. They grew like mad. So, I
thought, "What a great idea" and this spring, I planted three zuccini
seedlings on the top of last year's (and this spring's) compost heap.

Amazingly, all three plants grew well and produced well. Why was this
amazing? It turns out that my mother had planted her crops on a mature
compost pile, not one with green compost on top (I was misled by the
grass mulch on top). I guess my plants managed to get their roots down
below the spring compostables to the rich stuff from last year.

Anyway, it's a great extension to my garden. Saves on garden space.

Argo
http://greenrealm.blogspot.com

Argo wrote:
This year I tried something new with my zuccini plantings. A couple of
years ago, my mother showed me where she had planted beets, beans, and
chard on the top of her compost heap. They grew like mad. So, I
thought, "What a great idea" and this spring, I planted three zuccini
seedlings on the top of last year's (and this spring's) compost heap.

Amazingly, all three plants grew well and produced well. Why was this
amazing? It turns out that my mother had planted her crops on a mature
compost pile, not one with green compost on top (I was misled by the
grass mulch on top). I guess my plants managed to get their roots down
below the spring compostables to the rich stuff from last year.

Anyway, it's a great extension to my garden. Saves on garden space.

Isn't the point of a compost pile to add it into your regular garden
soil? It's not like your goal is to create some fantastic undisurbed
archaeological midden with 30 years worth of layers on it. It would have
been an even more sensible extension of your garden space to just dig up
a new bed and turn your old compost into it.

DrLith wrote:

Argo wrote:

This year I tried something new with my zuccini plantings. A couple of
years ago, my mother showed me where she had planted beets, beans, and
chard on the top of her compost heap. They grew like mad. So, I
thought, "What a great idea" and this spring, I planted three zuccini
seedlings on the top of last year's (and this spring's) compost heap.

Amazingly, all three plants grew well and produced well. Why was this
amazing? It turns out that my mother had planted her crops on a mature
compost pile, not one with green compost on top (I was misled by the
grass mulch on top). I guess my plants managed to get their roots down
below the spring compostables to the rich stuff from last year.

Anyway, it's a great extension to my garden. Saves on garden space.


Isn't the point of a compost pile to add it into your regular garden
soil? It's not like your goal is to create some fantastic undisurbed
archaeological midden with 30 years worth of layers on it. It would have
been an even more sensible extension of your garden space to just dig up
a new bed and turn your old compost into it.

I don't know... I often make a compost area and then just leave it
there. For example, my current compost pile is is an 8 x8 foot area
where there was a worn out strawberry patch before. This is my 2nd year
piling compostables in there. I actually did plant 2 zucchini plants
into the pile this season. I have continued to add in buckets full of
kitchen waste by pulling back the covering in the corners and then
covering it back up over what I added. When frost kills the zucchinis,
I'll leave the plants where they are, pile on other frosted plants such
as the tomatoes and cover it over with fall leaves.
Next season I will start composting in another corner of the garden.
I'll, no doubt, plant something in the old pile one more time and then
the next spring I'll till that area in and it will be a normal (but
richer) area of the garden again.

Steve

Argo wrote:

This year I tried something new with my zuccini plantings. A couple of
years ago, my mother showed me where she had planted beets, beans, and
chard on the top of her compost heap. They grew like mad. So, I
thought, "What a great idea" and this spring, I planted three zuccini
seedlings on the top of last year's (and this spring's) compost heap.

Amazingly, all three plants grew well and produced well. Why was this
amazing? It turns out that my mother had planted her crops on a mature
compost pile, not one with green compost on top.......................

You can get away with that with things like zucchini, pumpkins and other
squash. I do it all the time. As you see in my other post, I did it this
year with zucchini, as you did.
I have sometimes had trouble with the plants getting dry and wilting,
especially when they are still young. Over come this by pulling back the
dryer surface layers and planting into the moist, nearly finished
compost down deeper. This will be like planting down in a hole but the
plants will soon be so big that it's not noticeable. There is another
thing I have done if it is a very long way down to either finished
compost or the old soil at the bottom of the pile. I'll pull back the
unfinished compost to expose an area of 18 inches or so of soil. I'll
shovel in a few scoops of soil from elsewhere and plant it that. The
roots will still dig into and under the compost pile and grow a nice big
plant that uses the otherwise wasted space of the compost pile. I like it.

Steve

I didnt plant them on purpose, but I had a bunch of watermelon seeds sprout
that had been added to the compost pile one year. Dont know how they turned
out, because we sold the place and moved before they had time to ripen.
Dwayne


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