Matt,

I haven't tried it, but it is not that different from the 'Ruth Stout no-work gardening method' or the long-used 'sheet composting' method or the more-recently jazzily renamed 'lasagna gardening' method, all of which involve bed-building using deep mulch or the layering of compost ingredients, etc. As far as I know, the burlap layer on top is really the only way interbay is different.

If you want the leaves to decompose over the next few months, it is imperative that you shred them or chop them up first. If you leave them intact they will break down much more slowly and generally if they are not chopped or shredded, they'll pack down and stick to one another and not break down much at all. I wouldn't put down a layer composed only of leaves--I'd mix in whatever else I had, including grass clippings and whatever else is handy like garden debris from this year and a few handfuls of finished compost or compost starter.

The use of blood meal opens up a whole different can of worms, Matt, and I'd be cautious about using it if you happen to live in a rural area with lots of roaming wildlife. Blood meal (and bone meal) often attracts scavening wildlife like skunks, possums, etc. It also attracts vultures which will circle the area endlessly for a couple of days looking for the source of the blood they are smelling. If you're concerned about scavenging wildlife being an issue, use cottonseed meal or some other source of nitrogen. If your interbay beds can be accessed by your own dogs or cats, they may tear up the burlap and make a mess while trying to find the source of the blood smell too.

I shred/chop leaves every fall and pile them up in combination with grass clippings, dead plants from the garden and other compostables like kitchen scraps and straw bedding/manure from the chicken coop and they are mostly decomposed by spring without the addition of any blood meal. As long as you keep them damp, but not soaking wet, the shredded/chopped leaves will break down reasonably quickly. I don't turn the piles at all because sometimes venomous snakes crawl into these piles. (It works to my advantage to start the piles only after a hard freeze has occurred since fewer snakes are out after that point.)

Good luck with your use of the interbay mulching technique. I hope you'll keep us posted on how it all works out for you.

Dawn

Matt,
I agree with what Dawn stated. I've never experienced any trouble using either blood or bone meal. First most of the time I work it in the topsoil. The only place I ever apply and not work it in is on the asparagus beds. And there I cover with leaves and then either grass clippings or straw. And the grass clippings are usually decomposing and have an odor of their own. I use cottonessed meal, alfalfa meal or pellets, soybean meal and corn meal or gluten also. With corn gluten add it several months before planting seeds or use where you are going to transplant and want to keep seed germination down. If appled and then you plant seeds in a short time it can hurt germination greatly. I also use it as a side dress after my sweet corn ect is up six inches tall or so. I tend to switch around with all of the above and have had great results. This year used very little of anything as the soil tests showed I was real high in all areas. Without a good soil test sometimes it is hard to know if you are doing the right thing. Jay

My cats love blood meal, so I have to store it well out of their reach.

Dawn, do you use all dead plant material, or do you toss those that died of say soil borne diseases, etc.?

Susan, I have two separate compost piles....one for 'good' materials and one for 'bad' materials and I rotate between the two.

I routinely add everthing except diseased plants to the 'good' pile from spring through fall. That one breaks down pretty quickly and gets used pretty quickly.

Any diseased plants go on the 'bad' pile and I only use that compost in ornamental shrub beds. I let the 'bad' pile decompose a lot longer before I use the compost so it can really heat up and kill the disease pathogens.

The 'good' compost pile is the active one right now. I add stuff to it through the end of November and then stop adding to it. I'll use compost from it in the spring time before planting. I don't put any diseased plants on it at any time of the.

From November through March or so, only the 'bad' pile gets new compost stuff added to it, and it gets the diseased plants year-round.

I just do it this way because I have room for two piles. You can add diseased plants to your regular compost pile if you so choose, especially if you turn it often, and the heat of the decomposition process will kill most disease pathogens. I do not turn my piles often during the warm season because snakes tend to hang out in them, so that's why I put diseased plants in a separate pile.

If I had a serious disease, like late blight of tomatoes, I wouldn't put those plants on any pile....I'd double bag them and dispose of them that way. Having said that, I've never had late blight here....and there are not many plant diseases that cause as much concern here as it would cause.

Dawn

Thanks for the replies. I'll definitely chop up the leaves now, though i'll have to figure out a way of doing this. I know most people use their lawn mower, but we recently gave up our gas powered mower for a human powered reel mower. The only grass we have is our garden paths, so it's not to hard to mow these with the reel mower.

Which brings me to my next thing...The reason I was leaning toward blood meal is because i'm pretty short on green ingredients now. We don't really have any grass clippings or other yard waste. We do have kitchen scraps, but not enough to do the job i think. We live pretty close to downtown OKC, so wild animals aren't too big of a concern. Any other ideas for green ingredients?

Thanks,
Matt

Just remembered something I heard on this gardening podcast called "Greendays Gardening Panel." A guy on the show said that he shreds his leaves by putting all of them in a large trash can and chopping them up with his weed eater; using it kind of like an immersion blender. Worth a try I guess....

Matt, You can use anything that is a source of nitrogen. We use not only grass clippings, but bales of hay (often, our ranching friends give us old spoiled hay but sometimes we buy a bale or two for mulch) or straw, and then, for us, there's never a shortage of materials because we have 15 acres of land. You could use alfalfa hay or pellets (sold as rabbit food in 50-lb. bags at feed stores), alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, composted cotton burrs, etc. There's tons of options. Kitchen waste alone, if you prepare lots of fruits and veggies, would likely give you plenty of options.

If I were doing interbay, I'd likely put less manure in a layer on the bottom and instead put a larger layer of chopped or shredded leaves, then a thin layer of manure, then a larger layer of shredded leaves and whatever yard or garden waste I had, and then a thinner layer of manure, etc. I suspect that the reason for the larger layer of manure on the ground is to attract earthworms, but it isn't necessary. If you put any manure and shredded leaves on the ground, the earthworms and other decomposers will appear. That's all that lasagna gardening is--just a layering of the different ingredients used. More and thinner layers of manure interspersed with larger, thicker layers of leaves would give you quicker decomposition. There's nothing wrong with using blood meal---but you just need to be aware that carnivores are attracted to the smell. That may or may not be an issue at your home. It definitely is an issue at ours though because we're very rural and have very high levels of wildlife.

You also can watch your local Craigslist or Freecycle websites because sometimes people offer free or cheap material there....like used stable bedding or animal manure or spoiled hay....stuff that is often yours for the taking if you'll come haul it off.

Scardanelli, I've done it and it works. I don't do it with leaves I rake in the yard....just run over them with the lawnmower and pick them up with the grass catcher. I like to do it with leaves raked up in the woods because they are often mixed in with sticks and twigs and I don't like to run over them with the mower. When you use the weedeater in the trash can, be sure to wear safety glasses or goggles (especially important for me because I'm not very tall at all) because the stuff swirls around and can drift up into your eyes. If you have severe allergies or asthma too, you might want to wear a mask to keep you from inhaling all the dust and tiny particles.

Our leaf blower/vac also shreds the leaves as it picks them up when in the vacuum mode, but there again, it is harder to use in the woods where there are lots of twigs and sticks that it cannot handle. We have a large chipper/shredder too, but I only use that for big, big bunches of leaves because it is big and bulky and a pain in the whatever to pull out of the barn and use.

Finally, y'all, if you have neighbors who routinely bag their clippings and leaves and place them curbside for pickup, ask if you can have them instead for your compost pile!

Dawn

There is another option for city dwellers, Starbucks!

Go to starbucks regular, and pick up their used coffee grounds. ucg

All starbucks bag their ucg and have them sitting in a basket somewhere in their store, usually with a sign: Free Coffee Grounds for the Garden!

Moni

Moni beat me to it...coffee grounds!

I have also used alfalfa meal or just alfalfa pellets.

Lisa