Ed Stone’s Rotational Composting

Reader Contribution by Staff
1 / 2
2 / 2

Minnesota gardener Ed Stone has developed a super-simple passive composting system for improving the soil in his permanent beds. I suggest calling it rotational composting, because each bed takes a turn as the primary composting site. Ed’s system combines the benefits of double-dug intensive beds with passive composting. Here’s how it works.

• First, six or more permanent beds are created. Ed uses twelve beds for his diversified vegetable garden.

• Kitchen and garden waste is collected in two or more barrels, bins, or stationary composters. The wet kitchen waste is layered with mulch or leaves to promote decomposition and discourage pests, but the bins are treated as collection points for organic waste, not primary composting sites.

•Each year, one bed is designated as the compost bed. Ed plants potatoes in that plot. When the potatoes come out in August, he begins removing soil along with the potatoes. The soil is loaded into a lawn trailer and hauled to two piles, keeping the top and bottom soil separate. When the bed is excavated to 26 inches, he spreads a layer of the previous topsoil. Then he dumps in the summer’s collection of collected compostables, then more topsoil, then vines, leaves, apples, or whatever autumn brings. When all the previous topsoil is in, he leaves the bed until spring.

Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368