Sonoma Mountain Institute

We built three new compost piles last week. All three piles share the same ingredient base of wood chips, fresh cut greens, and alfalfa, but each with slightly different proportions and differing additional ingredients. All three have been heating up nicely, and have been turned at least once so far.

The BLUE pile was created on 2/4/08. It has the least diversity of materials.
C-020408-BLU

• 50% aged wood chips
• 35% fresh greens
• 15% alfalfa (1/3-1/2 old bale)

The YELLOW pile was created on 2/5/08.
C-020508-YEL

• 40% aged wood chips
• 20% fresh greens
• 15% rice straw (~1/3 bale)
• 10% aged, dried, brown grass
• 15% alfalfa (1/3-1/2 old bale)

The PINK pile was created on 2/7/08.
C-020708-PINK

• 35% aged wood chips
• 20% fresh greens
• 20% aged, dried, brown grass
• 5% aged, shredded cardboard
• 20% alfalfa (<1/2 new bale)

*Some notes about ingredients: Some of the sections of the wood chip pile