u/bangbangtangwangfang

My wife is going to start spreading lime in the chicken coop and run to prevent mites. Generally good move, wholeheartedly approve!

However, the used bedding and rakings from their run makes up maybe 5-10% of my compost feedstock. I plan to scale back significantly next year, so it could make up more like 50%.

Lime is generally bad for microscopic life (hence why it's good for preventing mites in chickens). This is generally bad for compost.

Does it make sense to try and neutralize the lime? I could probably just dump a gallon of white vinegar on it and call it a day, but wondering if this is a known challenge and anyone has literature references. Or just general knowledge

I'm in the PNW just south of Portland Oregon, zone 8b.

I plan to convert a large area of turf to wildflowers. My game plan is to smother with tarps for about a month, does in compost, and yeet seeds all over the area. Ideally I would like to do this in the fall.

Timing wise, I am thinking to tarp in early August and sow mid September. Should I do earlier or later? If earlier, should I irrigate aggressively to start the seedlings?

I'm also thinking to overseed again in early apring

I have a spring box at the bottom of a gully, maybe 30ft elevation. Trying to set up a lift pump to a tank for irrigation. The box is only about 5ft deep.

I bought one of the dreaded vevor 4" 1hp well pumps, and it wouldn't pump up the hill. It's rated for ~200fr of head, and plumbed with 1.25" PVC. It is pumping, I disconnected the piping and it dumps plenty of water out, just won't build pressure beyond maybe 10ft of head.

Thinking it was a bad pump, we grabbed a 1.5hp vevor, and it won't pump water at all. It does vibrate a bit so pretty sure it is actually running.

Given these are cheap, I'm wondering if I managed to get 2 crap pumps in a row? Or am I missing something about a minimum submersion depth (this doesn't make sense to me).

I was thinking since it's just being used to transfer to a tank, cheaping out would be fine. It's fairly easy to get in and replace the pump, although troubleshooting is turning into a real pain in the ass. Given this is a budget project and fairly easy replacement, I would love to go the cheap route, but if they crap out all the time maybe not worth it.

Any advice on sanity checking my setup or troubleshooting in general would be very much appreciated

Prithee, forsooth, I come to thee as an apostate of the organic. At this point I just want to be pragmatic.

So here's my question; does it make sense to just toss fertilizer directly into the compost pile?

I'm asking this because my friend moved states and gifted me all these "specialty" fertilizer blends like "rose food" "orchid food" etc. I'm pretty well sold that for fertilizer, you want a multiple of 3-1-2, or even 3-0-2 to avoid phosphate loading, so I'm not actually going to use them (their all these weird ratios). And I don't like the idea of dropping them at the transfer station for disposal.

So I've arrived at this solution. What if I just dissolve it, soak a butt load of wood chips in it, and add it to the compost? Or sawdust if I can get it. It should make the bacteria population explode and give a nice thermal bloom.

Other than it being entirely antithetical to organic principles (hence, heresy), am I missing anything for why this is a bad idea?

Feels like taking the middle man out of the piss supply in some ways.