Compost Pile Too Hard to Turn Over

Question from Mara:
When I try to turn the dirt over in my compost pile, the pitch fork just gets stuck, and I can’t turn the soil. It seems like there are small roots keeping the dirt from being loose. I have to pull really hard to get it up. I started the pile last summer, and it’s always been hard to turn.

I also would like to know if horse manure is safe to put in the pile and use in a veggie garden at any point?

Answer from Pat:
First about manure, specifically horse manure. I am a strong believer in the use of manure in gardens, including in the vegetable garden. Be sure to have your tetanus shot up to date when using manure. Use aged manure and get it from a good stable or owner. Horse manure is better than cow manure since it has less salt. Yes it will heat up your compost, but you must do something to avoid tree roots. They can be a difficult problem as you will see below. (Please see my remarks on manure in my organic book. Page 452 in the index lists many places where it is discussed. Also please see the chart on this website under Fertilizers. Go to this heading then click on “Generic Fertilizers and Soil Amendments.” Also see page 29 in the book.)

When compost is too hard to turn it may be too dry, too filled with hard woody materials, or else one is not as young and strong as one once was. Hate to tell you this, but it happened to me.—Read on!

You do not say where you live, but having had many a compost pile in my life, let me share some thoughts. In rainy climates compost piles are usually quite easy to manage. In California they easily dry out, and also several other problems can occur. I once had a compost pile near the area where I was then raising vegetables, which was in a hot spot shielded from the ocean wind behind my carport. That is, fifty years ago it was a hot spot. Now it is mainly full shade. To the east of this spot there was a steep bank that is still there. I hollowed out a space next to the bank and threw my compost in there. I piled in everything from the vegetable garden, in fact all the clippings and leaves from the whole garden went there. I had a small lawn in front of the house in those days. I put the grass clippings into the compost too. It got hot, I tossed and turned it, once in a while I wetted it down with the hose, and after a few weeks I got great compost.

This compost pile was successful for several years and was easy to maintain. It was in shade against the bank and got some runoff so it stayed evenly moist. Then one day tragedy struck. I went to get some finished compost and found that instead of the sweet smelling earthy stuff I was used to, it had dried out completely and was nothing but a mass of wiry roots. Seemingly overnight it had become full of roots. I had hardly noticed the Torrey pines on my neighbor’s property above me on the bank. They had just been saplings when we built our house in 1956. Now suddenly they were giants. So—yes—tree roots put the kibosh on that compost pile. I tried lining it with plastic but it didn’t work so I moved the pile to another place at the other end of the garden. It was inconvenient but soon I had to move the vegetable garden too, and then willy-nilly, within a few years that compost pile got tree roots in it too. Then rats and mice found it, so I was flumoxed. Next I built a three-bin structure set onto paving stones with a thick sheet of plastic beneath the paving stones. It cost me $500 to build. My late husband, Lou said “My God what will you do next!” But roots couldn’t get in. Wire surrounded it and it even had a lid on top of each bin so rats couldn’t invade it either. But by then my knees started giving out, and it was bad for my back too. I could no longer toss and turn it.

My next system was to dig the stuff from the kitchen straight into the garden soil. I did that until I could no longer do that either. (I was thrown from horseback several times during my wild and adventuresome youth so I am pretty gimpy.) Now I have an enclosed system called a Solar Green Cone. It works like a dream. Also, to take the extra stuff when the Green Cone occasionally fills up, and I also have cut the bottom off a plastic trash can and have buried it up to one foot from the top in soil with the lid held tightly on top held by a bungy cord. I now compost everything from the kitchen in these two structures. Animals can’t get at the compost, and I do not ever put anything down the garbage disposal. This saves a huge amount of water and makes me feel good that I am recycling organic stuff back into the ground. Unfortunately I have never succeeded in teaching my gardener how to compost and I don’t think he likes the idea one bit. Thus now I sadly send all our clippings to the public composting recycle center for garden waste so at least I know it becomes mulch that people including myself can use.

I have written quite a lot about composting in my books, and I have never ever lost my huge enthusiasm for compost piles. I wish I could still have a proper one. Perhaps by reading of my experiences you might find a way to carry on. For more information and a lot more inspiration, please see the entries under compost in the index on page 448 of my organic book and also please read the chapter called “Romancing the Compost Pile” in my 1996 memoir, entitled “All My Edens: A Gardener’s Memoir” published by Chronicle Books. A final word also which is that people can now compost in enclosed drums that they can rotate. The one thing that is most important is having two of them so while you fill one the other one cooks. (Three is even better.) Also, it is extremely important to follow directions exactly. One has to be pretty scientific about it in order to make good compost in a rotating drum.