I've been saying this for years: "growing soil is more important than growing plants". The idea is validated by a lot of literature and it all seems really nice in paper but doing it in the flesh is a whole different story.
There's plenty of ways to grow soil, from a chop and drop approach to different kinds of composting. Since i live far from town and can't buy as many fruits or veggies as I'd like, chop and drop seemed the best way because i didn't get enough kitchen scraps for a good compost.
Chop and drop consists of cutting the grass or plants that you consider that aren't what you want in your garden and just leaving them on the ground to decompose. It's great because its easy and low effort but has the problem that it is very slow!
I begin building a compost pile mainly to experiment getting heat from it, but seeing as it was quickly producing quality soil, it became clear to me that it was worth putting the effort into it. When I started my journey into the land i wanted to find effortless ways to do everything, but i learnt little by little that that I'll probably starve before i get any results that way haha
The pile has heated at times but as it doesn't have enough material and there have been frosts, it has cooled back down and it has been mainly the worms who have done the job, though very nicely. This pile also has my own human waste added to it so i plan to use it on plants that fruit high above ground. Either way, when moving it around, i have found absolutely no trace of my wastes or bad smells, so it has been well processed by the microorganisms.
It must help that i consume a lot of ferments which keeps my gut flora super active. It is so much that no matter how much i eat can simply not get fat, so there's a tip for those trying to lose weight.
My greenhouse isn't ready but it is closed enough to keep heat inside and i have finished building a compost bin in it so it's finally time to carry what material i (we) have produced into a warmer environment that will help it thrive.
The dead tree stump was left there in the middle to act as thermal mass, moisture regulator and hopefully it will gift some mushrooms!
Another image of some formed soil from the compost. The camera doesn't do it justice but it's looking great. Since i want this pile to be ongoing, i won't be able to harvest s big load of soil in one sit, but rather just allow it to slowly feed the surrounding soil and "radiate" it's goodness. If it gets too hot after winter I'll begin removing material and probably use it to feed areas i haven't currently seeded, unless it looks mature.
For now the routine is to feed it a bag of leaves and a bag of grass everyday as a minimum. If i have time left in the day i will try give it more so i can fill it to the top quickly. The bin turned out rather large so it will take some time. The people i have seen do hot compost in the winter say you have to be aggressive in gathering material to feed it when there's frost or snow and you can't get any, so i hope to be able to keep up with it.
In any case, there should be horse and cow manure nearby to keep it going in the winter, though I'm already adding some as this speeds up the heating.
The size ended up being about 3.42 ft both diameter and height so its good with the 3x3x3 rule at least. I'll let you know how it goes.
Thanks for reading me, have a great day and happy gardening 🌿