Todays little project... Keep 'em off the lawn!

[Xerxses]

Thanks for the info guys,been really helpful.

 

Was the rotivator to break up the compacted soil or to remove the top layer of turf.if so couldnt a spade just do this to reduce the risk of severed roots.

 

Jake:thumbup1:

 

Bit of both, but mainly to break up the turf. A spade would have done it in a day or so.... we are talking about an area of roughly 100 m3... And old Bertha likes to wreck lawns from time to time...!

 

The whole job took a day including everything; Flaming the grass, probing for roots, fetching machines and cardboard, chipping the brash and rotivate the whole area, mulch and then tidy up the area (got a hand from a collegue in the last hour as I was running late due to a collegues last day and we got cake!) Not a bad days work I'd say!!!!

[Xerxses]

If you are aiming to attract worms I may have a suggestion for you to experiment with in your mulch.

 

I was once a 'worm farmer' in Oz, where we grew them on a large scale for use in grey water filters.

 

I still have the compost 'recipe' and pics of how we did it on the lap top, so can look it up later once I've done a few other wee jobs.

 

Sounds interesting! Always good to have a few cards up my sleeve...

 

Can you also explain more about the grey water filters? My company is also involved in water management.... always interesting to learn about new methods. Cheers!

[Albedo]

Sounds interesting! Always good to have a few cards up my sleeve...

 

Can you also explain more about the grey water filters? My company is also involved in water management.... always interesting to learn about new methods. Cheers!

 

Will do mate... I wrote the process report for the whole thing as well as driving the tractor a lot which was much more fun.

 

I will need to do some revision and looking up what I've got and today is a bit busy working on a load of other paperwork, now I'm awake enough to remember:001_smile:. I will make a start looking it all up this evening.

[Xerxses]

Will do mate... I wrote the process report for the whole thing as well as driving the tractor a lot which was much more fun.

 

I will need to do some revision and looking up what I've got and today is a bit busy working on a load of other paperwork, now I'm awake enough to remember:001_smile:. I will make a start looking it all up this evening.

 

Cheers! I think I recall a previous thread where you said something about your wormgrowing career, think it was a thread about turning woodchip into sellable soil or something... I have a few photos that I could add to that thread but cant remember what the thread was called.

[Albedo]

Thats well remembered.....I like saying 'worm farmer'

 

You get some funny looks even in rural Queensland:001_smile:

 

I'm late for doing a quote now:001_smile:

[Xerxses]

Thats well remembered.....I like saying 'worm farmer'

 

You get some funny looks even in rural Queensland:001_smile:

 

I'm late for doing a quote now:001_smile:

 

Think thats wy i rememberd, Wormfarmer is a great thing to have on ones CV. In Ireland i had them in buckets with cardboard and oatflakes... (Experimenting with different ways of farming them... only small scale though!)

[Xerxses]

Cheers! I think I recall a previous thread where you said something about your wormgrowing career, think it was a thread about turning woodchip into sellable soil or something... I have a few photos that I could add to that thread but cant remember what the thread was called.

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/landscaping/20632-how-do-i-make-soil.html

 

Will add later on photos as I forgot the camera at work...

[Albedo]

I have been a bit busy today but, found my report...all 36 pages of it on the composting and vermiculture side. I'm reading and revising it to come up with something useful to you, but not had much time today.

 

Difficult to know which bits to post at the moment other than to say that you need a bacterial rather than fungal dominated compost for worm feed. I do have a recipe of sorts and am working on summarising it. (the problem being that the recipe changes according to various parameters)

 

With regard to the grey water filter side. I have some info but I was more on the vermiculture side of things. I have to remember as well that I was paid as an employee to do this stuff and some of it is commercially sensitive to the company concerned. Not a problem on the composting side but it could be on the filter side.

 

The filter was just 4 boxes with various fibrous materials in and the worms. By controlling the residence time of the grey water in the filter, the worms munch the impurities and clean water comes out the other end.

 

I will try to come up with something more useful and I won't forget but have another project on at the moment with a deadline next week:001_smile:

[Xerxses]

I have been a bit busy today but, found my report...all 36 pages of it on the composting and vermiculture side. I'm reading and revising it to come up with something useful to you, but not had much time today.

 

Difficult to know which bits to post at the moment other than to say that you need a bacterial rather than fungal dominated compost for worm feed. I do have a recipe of sorts and am working on summarising it. (the problem being that the recipe changes according to various parameters)

 

With regard to the grey water filter side. I have some info but I was more on the vermiculture side of things. I have to remember as well that I was paid as an employee to do this stuff and some of it is commercially sensitive to the company concerned. Not a problem on the composting side but it could be on the filter side.

 

The filter was just 4 boxes with various fibrous materials in and the worms. By controlling the residence time of the grey water in the filter, the worms munch the impurities and clean water comes out the other end.

 

I will try to come up with something more useful and I won't forget but have another project on at the moment with a deadline next week:001_smile:

 

Cheers! Sounds like an interesting read...

[Albedo]

I don't want to build it up too much

 

Its just green waste and cow poo, cardboard and a weird thing called zeolite mainly for ph control also molasses as there is an Oz tropical element. This (Oz) affects moisture and temperature too.

 

Its about giving a bacterial dominated compost within fine parameters of moisture, ph, temperature, Carbon /Nitrogen balance etc to get the worms happy and breeding like crazy. The C/N balance being of particular importance both in composting and in presenting to the wee worms as feed.

 

I know you already know lots of this

 

I will try to come up with something that will be good for sticking in a mulch to promote the worms for aeration purposes.