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  • #1

    composting advice

    Hi all,

    Looking to put compost bins on the allotment, but wondering what I can and can't put in them!

    My mum gets rid of a bag of guineapig waste every week; made up of newspaper, hay, sawdust, shredded paper, and guineapig poo and pee. As they're herbivores can it go in the compost bin? Will sawdust break down?

    Thanks!

    Sam
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  • #2
    Yup, all sounds just fine to me.
    K's Garden blog the story of the creation of our garden

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    • #3
      You can compost almost anything except perennial weed roots and weeds in flower and of course plastic. I never put food waste on the heaps but veg peelings are OK. You just need that you have a good balance of green and brown waste that is fresh green stuff some grass clippings but not too many and balanced with the guinea pig waste and dead vegetation, that is the brown stuff. If you have the time to chop it all up it will rot much quicker and woody stuff and dead leaves will take longer. Keep it all damp and turn it if possible. I only turn my heaps once but then they are meter cubes. If you can turn it ore often then it will produce compost quicker
      Gardening requires a lot of water - most of it in the form of perspiration. Lou Erickson, critic and poet

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      • #4
        Guineapig and rabbit cleanings are brilliant for compost

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        • #5
          You want to add materials that contain carbon and nitrogen. Brown materials are carbon, sawdust, straw, leaves, pine needles, wood chips, newspaper, corn stalks, peanut shells, cardboard etc. Green materials are nitrogen, manure, veg scraps, coffee grounds, alfalfa, garden and grass waste, weeds and hay etc. You want a ratio of 30:1 (C:N)

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          • #6
            Would be ideal for a compost, would be particularly useful mixed in with grass cuttings if you have a lawn. Sawdust will be fine it is organic afterall and not likely to have been treated with anything you need to worry about if it is for pet use.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Veggielot View Post
              would be particularly useful mixed in with grass cuttings if you have a lawn
              Although beware not to compost lawn clippings if a selective weedkiller is used on the lawn, the most common chemicals now contain persistent herbicides that will survive for 18 months of more in a compost heap and then kill plants when spread on the garden Not even supposed to put such lawn clippings in council compost bins ...
              K's Garden blog the story of the creation of our garden

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              • #8
                I've been going off the list provided here:

                Making compost | Recycle Now

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                • #9
                  Compost everything
                  All gardeners know better than other gardeners." -- Chinese Proverb.

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                  • #10
                    Thanks everyone, really useful replies!

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                    • #11
                      A ratio of 30:1 C to N, is that right? maybe that's why I've never gotten any compost!!! I think I've been doing it the other way round!
                      The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men gang aft agley

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