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Hey everybody, I'm Christy from Gardenerd and today we're talking about compost. And
specifically about harvesting compost because if you're going to be preparing a bed for
fall planting or spring planting it's a good idea to add compost. That's what we do. So
most of the time people have those bins, they're one piece units and the little door on the
bottom where they harvest compost out of the bottom. It's kinda hard to do. What I recommend
is if you have a friend, you can shimmy the bin off, set it down next to it and then scoop
all the unfinished stuff into that because all the finished stuff is going to be at the
bottom. It's just gonna be easier to access. Now what I have here is a three bin stacking
system. These are three frames that stack on top of themselves, and we just take off
the two and then we have finished compost at the bottom. Now what you see here is a
lot of material that has yet to be broken down including these lovely compostable forks,
which I have to tell you, these are three years old. They've been in an oxygen-rich
environment breaking down with water and constant turning and monitoring and they're still pretty
much...you could still eat off of these if you wanted to. Though I wouldn't. So I don't
recommend compostable cutlery. What I do recommend to people is that they bring their own knives,
forks and spoons and plates to parties, and have a conversation piece like that. But back
to compost. So the top of the layer is not really ready yet, but if you dig down here
you can see there is some really good quality finished compost mixed in with this. So we're
going to sift it out, and I do that with a big Rubbermaid bin like this and this homemade
sifter. I used recycled lumber and we got a gopher basket. This is actually available
in most stores where it's sewn together on three sides and usually people bury it in
the ground to keep gophers from eating the root systems of their roses and bulbs and
things like that. But flat, which is the way it's sold has this double layer of mesh, which
is kind of great for getting out the big pieces. So we're going to use that to sift. What I
do to get this from here to here is usually use a digging fork. This is a good quality
digging fork, but when...because it penetrates the soil really well. You lift it up, but
because this is a little too dry I'm going to use a spade for this. And let me get this
bag out of the way. Another compostable bag that totally doesn't compost. So here we go.
Scoop a little bit of the soil, of this compost, into here. You can already hear the good stuff
falling through. And then come down here and shake. So the rest, what's left, goes back
into bin number 1 to keep breaking down. So what we're finished with...you can still see
some pieces in here and oh grubs, goodie goodie! This is a June beetle grub or a fig beetle
grub. These guys love to procreate in our compost bin, so whenever we harvest compost
I have a bucket nearby to pull them out and then we feed them to the chickens. So then
because I am a Gardenerd, I actually sift it again into another bin. So I've got the
smaller screen that is a lovely nursery flat and I take the existing compost that we just
sifted once and dump it into here and then sift. And as you can see, just the fine stuff
comes through. And all of these pieces go back in bin number one. So what you're left
with is really, really beautiful good quality compost for your beds for spring or fall planting.
To find out more about composting or harvesting compost or bed prep, go to Gardenerd.com and
if you like this video, like, subscribe and share it with your friends. Happy Gardening!