compost

[jtech]

Bought a house a couple of years ago with realy sandy soil and wanted to improve the soil for gardenening with out spending a fortune.
Just was thinking and sometimes thats good and sometimes its not. Mother nature takes pretty good carer of her self. So I thought, how does she fertilize
Cam to the contlusion that she composts? I remembered digging in the forest as a younger lad and the top 6 inches or so looking like compsted material ( it was a while ago)
So I went into the woods, scraped the leaves and pine needles off the top and shuveled the top 4 inches of soil into a wheel barrel for the garden, 8 loads in total. Looked like composted material to me. Hope it's good for the garden?
Does anyone use this material and with what results? Am I making a mistake, if so why?

Thanks in advance

[Arier Blut]

Sir it is a little mistake, but the right idea. The area with the pine needles is the bad idea. They tend to be acidic so anything under them is likely going to have their attributes. No big deal, you just need a little lime to get the ph back right.  The leaves are good too just like the dirt under them. A few more cheaper ideas.

Saw dust or wood chips if they can be had for free. Let them rot for a year and add them to the garden. Shredded white paper can be gotten from businesses, newspapers can be gotten from the local paper. Just till both in in fall. They will rot and give you organic matter. Swamp mud and water weeds are two more good things to add. If you have an evasive water weed. It can be used as a mulch for the rarden then tilled in in fall. It's always good to plant a manure crop in fall and till in the next spring to add organic matter.
Good luck

[Cheesehead]

I found four wood pallets of the same size and in good condition, for free. I nailed three of them together and tied the fourth one to the "opening" to create a container with four walls of equal size. I have set this compost container in the corner of the garden and add compost material almost daily.

Cheese

[greg916]

I stay away from pine needles, except for around my azaleas.

I brought home some clean wooden pallets about 3 years ago. Used angle brackets and hinges to create compost bins much like Cheese has done. They are just starting to show rot. Worked better than I thought, and as they rot, they will only contribute to the pile!!  I put everything in mine except glossy paper and animal products. The exception is fish, which I bury in the pile.  If you turn the pile weekly, you can have compost in 6 months.