The tree trimmers were out in full force last week. On a whim, I walked down the street where they were shredding the tree limbs and asked where they were going to dump them. The guy said he’d dump them anywhere I wanted them, if I wanted them. I told him sure, and met them in the front yard. We have an unofficial drive through the front woods to be able to get to the front of the house with the truck if necessary.
They got there and dumped a huge pile of chipped tree parts in the drivethrough. So the next day they returned with another load looking like lost puppies. They were so ‘pitiful’ looking for a place to dump the shreds. So I said sure dump them beside the others. Now I have two huge dump truck piles of shreds.
My friend Frank just happens to know someone who has a goat farm, so I figured- hmmm, fresh green chippings, goat manure, brown leaves falling all around us. Exactly the recipe for making great compost. The bigger the pile, the hotter it gets, and the faster everything breaks down.
So today Frank and I spent the day mucking out the goat pens collecting some really stinky, but wonderful goat poop. We hauled two truckloads home, them started layering the shreds with the goat poo. By tomorrow the pile will have a layer of fallen leaves. We’ll let it cook for about a week, then turn it.
But we figured out that we didn’t have enough goat poo, so we have to make another trip to the goat farm. Not my favorite gardening chore, but oh the rewards are so worth it! By next summer, Frank and I will have a huge pile of soil amendments that will make other gardeners drool.
And yes, my neighbors think I’m a crazy little old lady, but what’s the point of getting old if you can’t be eccentric? And no, the goat poo doesn’t smell because it’s covered with the tree shreds. However, in the mornings my yard looks like a smoldering inferno because this stuff gets HOT! Just Mother Nature’s way of making sure all the weed seeds are killed and all the insect pests are incinerated. Bless her heart, don’t you just love her?