Hill and Dale Composting
By: Virgil L. Jones, Master Gardener

Most gardeners compost their garden wastes, glass clippings, leaves, etc., using various methods, ranging from expensive devices purchased through mail order sources to piling up material in the yard or enclosing it in fencing; however, there is another method which has proven to be very successful, especially if you are gardening on a larger scale. It is relatively easy and uses newspapers and other compostable materials. This method is one I call "Hill and Dale" composting, and I learned it while living in the Dallas, Texas, area where much of the soil is black gumbo, which grows plants very well provided the soil is loosened up with lots of compost. Using this method can reduce the amount of time and work to build and turn a conventional compost pile.

Here is the way "Hill and Dale" composting is done: Either using a garden tiller with a furrowing attachment or a shovel and rake, make hills about 9" to 12" high approximately 3 ft. apart (like sweet potato hills) in the garden. In the trenches (or dales) spread several layers of newspapers along the bottom and sides of the dales-- not more than 5 or 6 layers--otherwise moisture will not penetrate. Then spread hay, straw, sawdust, leaves, grass clippings (not bermuda or other grass that spreads by runners), and some well rotted manure (cow, horse, sheep, goat, rabbit, chicken), ending up the hay, straw, sawdust, leaves or grass clippings on top for a clean walkway. Fill the dales with this material until it is level with the tops of the hills. Then plant your garden on the hills, leaving the dales as walkways between the rows.

Because you use these walkways when working the garden, they soon become packed down leaving a weed-free, dry path to get into the garden, even during periods of excess moisture. As the paths become tramped down from use, additonal grass clippings and other compost material can be added. The only weeding then necessary is to pull out an occasional weed growing in the rows on the hills. You can even eliminate weeding among plants you set out, such as tomatoes, cabbage, peppers, etc., if you will add a few layers of newspapers along the top of the hills, tucking them under the newspapers from the adjoining dales.

Then, when setting out plants, simply make a hole large enough to accomodate the plant. While you are setting out plants, you might also place a stick about as big around as your little finger next to the plant, and this can prevent cutworm damage. Presumably, the cutworm wraps itself around the stem while it cuts--why, I don't know. I have planted my tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc., using this method and have lost but very few plants to cutworms. Other people place a cardboard collar around their plants, inserting them into the soil two or three inches, and this method also works very well.

During late winter or early next spring, when the ground is workable, follow the same procedure, except where this year there was a hill, it becomes a dale; in other words, each year you alternate the hills and the dales. By turning the soil each year, what is left of your material in the dales rapidly breaks down into a rich, composted material that will lighten heavy clay soils and help retain moisture in sandy soils, as well as supply plenty of rich humus.

This method works very well if you are gardening on a slope because you can make the hills and dales parallel with the contour of the slope, thus preventing the soil from eroding due to heavy rainfall.

Spreading newspapers can get to be a chore and rather hard on the back for "Old Thymers" such as myself, so I learned from a friend her method of dealing with this problem. In winter, when she was perhaps watching TV, she takes about 6 layers of newspapers, and either lengthwise or crosswise of the papers, depending on which width of paper will work best, staples them together end to end, so that she makes a strip as long as needed. These are then rolled up, and when the time comes to spread in the garden, all that is necessary is to unroll these strips. If the day is rather windy, briefly dip these rolls of newspaper in a bucket of water before unrolling to prevent the papers from being blown about. One word of caution: Use only the black and white printed newspaper. Some color and slick magazine sections contain toxic chemicals in the dyes, while most black ink is made from soybean derivatives.

I successfully used this method of composting when operating my herb farm.