Dirt Free

by agriffen in Living > Gardening

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Dirt Free

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I had a small garden bed that was not producing. When I tore it up I saw that it was full of pine tree roots that had eaten all the good stuff and made the PH of the soil off. Now I have a wheel barrow full of used up dirt to do something with. I also container garden, so every year I am paying money for DIRT! Even the organic compost is so UN-impressive, full of rocks and bark, I have plenty of those already. I want to recycle the dirt instead,free yummy dirt to use each year.

Supplies:

perforated pipe. I found it is cheaper then the other pipe, and already has holes!

Barrel , garbage can , whatever you have lying around

Drill plus bit

Small container

Bricks, Rocks, 4x4, ect.

Dirt

Worms

Food scraps

Paper or leaves

Pipe

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Cut the pipe to fit the barrel or container. It is best if all the holes are covered with dirt to keep bugs out and worms in .

Install

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Drill some drain holes in the bottom of container .Place pipe in center of the container. Fill with used up soil.

Catch Water

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Place the container up on 4x4, brick, rocks ect. Insert a water catcher, mine is the container salad greens come in. You can pour this water back in the container, or when it starts getting compost you can air-rate it for tea for your plants.

Worms, Food.

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Place worms in pipe. I dug some up and used those. Then layer shredded paper or dried leaves with veggie scraps until full, replenish it when needed. Give the dirt some water till damp.

Cover

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Cover the opening to keep smelly bugs out. Next year remove the dirt and switch it with the used up dirt from last years container's. And repeat . Good bye $$compost and bags of dirt!