What are your top tips for composting?

[veggiechicken]

P. S. CAVEAT: Just because I do it doesn't necessarily make it a good idea.

Ditto May have to add that to my signature.

[Jay-ell]

P. S. CAVEAT: Just because I do it doesn't necessarily make it a good idea.

[Jay-ell]

At this time of year I'll mulch everything. Sit still too long and you'd get covered in a centimeter or two.

Alow of my strawberries are under the fruit trees so mulch one, mulch all but there's another bed of strawbs by themselves which will need to be mulched as well.

[annie8]

So do you mulch strawberries and raspberries with grass cuttings at this time of year. Could do that myself.

[Jay-ell]

One of the reasons why I have a compost pile is to use up the grass I can't fit in elsewhere

Compost Fairy dropped off 6 bags of grass today. Looks like a heavy mulching session next time I'm down the plot (Sunday).

That's going to be the raspberries, black currants, figs, apples, pears, plums, cherry, honeyberries, golden currants, red currants, kiwi, Gooseberries, Strawberries, perennial kale

AAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH.

[mrbadexample]

This is basically composting in place using the materials as a mulch - I don't have to add browns and just top it up every now and then.

That's what my uncle Bob does, to the extent that he has completely foregone the compost heap. He has one big vegetable patch where he plants pretty much at random, and everything compostable just gets thrown straight on top. He swears he never had anything good out of his dalek. Mind you, he's the same bloke whose gloves don't keep his hands any warmer.

I'm going to start using the grass clippings on the beds though I think.

[Jay-ell]

love that compost pile.
I bet those corrugated metal sheets were tough to bend

They were already that way when I took over the
New Territories all I had to do was grind off the bolts and welds to dismantle them (and dig them up). Two bins came from the old fire pit and the third was a kind of shelter thing.

Site Secretary offered to get rid of them for me (to his plot)

[MyWifesBrassicas]

I've been developing my system over the last year or two.

I have the Compost Fairy. He's a jobbing gardener going about the housing estates - mostly grass cutting and general tidy ups of gardens and is more than happy to get rid of the garden waste by filling up bags and dropping them at mine.

During autumn/winter there is a lot of woody materials as people want their shrubs tidied or their hedges pruned. These get shredded and stored over winter till needed in daleks.

I started the pile in autumn as there were still quite a bit of greens to go in - clearing out the old crops and still some grass clippings coming in. This was turned a couple of times and let to sit over winter.

During spring/summer there's mostly grass clippings. A lot of these go straight on the beds as a mulch and this has really improved the beds. It keeps the weeds down, the moisture in, breaks down to a compost and adds nutrients direct to the soil in the beds - no compost run off being wasted by seeping into the ground.

This is basically composting in place using the materials as a mulch - I don't have to add browns and just top it up every now and then.

Excess grass goes into the compost bin, layering with some of the browns I've stored since winter. Some of the shredded stuff is still reasonable big so it can take a while to break down.

As there is a lot of browns in my compost at the moment I turned it over yesterday adding 4.5 bags of grass cuttings between the older material (for comparison 1.5 bags of grass cuttings fill a 100l water butt when hammered in with a tree stake - so 4.5 bags is a lot of grass). This was the first turn this year and it had compacted down a lot, some broken down but most not (and I can't be bothered to sieve it) so I'm only adding greens at the moment to encourage the browns to break down.

Last year I built a 3 bat area out of corrugated steel arches. One was for manure (almost empty now) One for compost and the third to allow me to turn the compost and manure.

This is what it looked like yesterday after turning and adding the grass before I pulled the tarp over it. You can just see the structures - ugly but working. The biggest problem with these is that the iron sheet doesn't breathe but as I turn it once every month or two it's not such a big problem.

A heap that size needs to be turned once in a while to be able to add moisture as turning the hose on it doesn't seep all the way to the centre.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]86687[/ATTACH]

love that compost pile.
I bet those corrugated metal sheets were tough to bend

[MyWifesBrassicas]

Hi,

I built a set of large wooden bins (with a wire mesh front) I think they'll hold about a ton each.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma90_zSqlXU

I did this video update of my tunnel but near the end is a section on the compost bins that might be of interest. all the materials came from the local agricultural supplies outlet so each fencing board was £1.50 and the posts about £5 or so. So in total about £75 for materials.

The new compost bin bit starts at 6 minutes if you want to skip the rest.

I hope this is of use

I watched your youtube video, really enjoyed it, thanks
nice compost setup

[Jay-ell]

I've been developing my system over the last year or two.

I have the Compost Fairy. He's a jobbing gardener going about the housing estates - mostly grass cutting and general tidy ups of gardens and is more than happy to get rid of the garden waste by filling up bags and dropping them at mine.

During autumn/winter there is a lot of woody materials as people want their shrubs tidied or their hedges pruned. These get shredded and stored over winter till needed in daleks.

I started the pile in autumn as there were still quite a bit of greens to go in - clearing out the old crops and still some grass clippings coming in. This was turned a couple of times and let to sit over winter.

During spring/summer there's mostly grass clippings. A lot of these go straight on the beds as a mulch and this has really improved the beds. It keeps the weeds down, the moisture in, breaks down to a compost and adds nutrients direct to the soil in the beds - no compost run off being wasted by seeping into the ground.

This is basically composting in place using the materials as a mulch - I don't have to add browns and just top it up every now and then.

Excess grass goes into the compost bin, layering with some of the browns I've stored since winter. Some of the shredded stuff is still reasonable big so it can take a while to break down.

As there is a lot of browns in my compost at the moment I turned it over yesterday adding 4.5 bags of grass cuttings between the older material (for comparison 1.5 bags of grass cuttings fill a 100l water butt when hammered in with a tree stake - so 4.5 bags is a lot of grass). This was the first turn this year and it had compacted down a lot, some broken down but most not (and I can't be bothered to sieve it) so I'm only adding greens at the moment to encourage the browns to break down.

Last year I built a 3 bat area out of corrugated steel arches. One was for manure (almost empty now) One for compost and the third to allow me to turn the compost and manure.

This is what it looked like yesterday after turning and adding the grass before I pulled the tarp over it. You can just see the structures - ugly but working. The biggest problem with these is that the iron sheet doesn't breathe but as I turn it once every month or two it's not such a big problem.

A heap that size needs to be turned once in a while to be able to add moisture as turning the hose on it doesn't seep all the way to the centre.

[Bacchus]

Hi Bacchus,

What design of housing system have you chosen?

Hi,

I built a set of large wooden bins (with a wire mesh front) I think they'll hold about a ton each.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma90_zSqlXU

I did this video update of my tunnel but near the end is a section on the compost bins that might be of interest. all the materials came from the local agricultural supplies outlet so each fencing board was £1.50 and the posts about £5 or so. So in total about £75 for materials.

The new compost bin bit starts at 6 minutes if you want to skip the rest.

I hope this is of use

[bikermike]

Hi BM,

That kind of volume will soon mount up to a very substantial compost heap, I might take that idea

Not as much as you'd think, I struggle to fill a bin made out of pallets (it's mainly grass clippings or leaves depending on season, so rots down fast). Makes good compost though, if you leave it long enough (I have cheated a bit this year and used stuff before it's as good as it could be).

Annoyingly, there are other neighbours who would let me, but I've only got two hands (so I can only pull two bins) and I don't want to be tipping stuff from bin to bin by the houses so I don't make mess. If I just keep to the two, I can take them every week and it keeps it more predictable. That's not to say I haven't eyed up full bins on the way home...

[Stan79]

Top tips?

1) Have one more compost bin than you think you need... it will soon fill up.
2) Four wooden pallets stood up on their sides and screwed, tied or zip-tied together at the corners make great compost bins.
3) If you want good quality compost, quickly - buy it.
4) If you want good quality compost for free - be patient. It takes a while unless you want to spend time and energy on it that you could better spend weeding, sowing or drinking tea.

We have quite a bit of land so generate a lot of garden waste. I find greens massively outweigh the amount of browns the garden generates so as above, cardboard, newspaper, shredded paper, etc all goes into the mix. I have four DIY pallet compost bins in a line (13 pallets total). Two are currently full of usable compost that's been at least a year in the making - it needs to be sieved if you want it to look pretty. I tend to throw it onto the beds in bucket loads if i'm trying to build up the amount of soil on a bed and then sieve a top layer a couple of cm thick on top so it looks neat and gives a more uniform surface to plant seeds into.

And the other two bins are filling up with this seasons waste. I reckon it takes a year to breakdown enough to be able to use it as i just let it sit and decompose by itself with the occasional watering. If i turn them at all it's when i need to use some and just turn the top few fork fulls into another bin so i can get down to the well rotted stuff underneath.

We are on fairly heavy clay but after a year or two of adding home made compost, the soil is developing really nicely!

[MyWifesBrassicas]

1) doing it is better than not doing it - even if you just pile up your prunings and clippings in a corner you will get something sooner or later
2) the bigger the heap the better - I asked my neighbours on each side and take their green bins to my heap - that adds about 1 wheelie bin full (mainly grass clippings) every week in spring/summer, and coffee grounds from my local café every so often (they drop them round every so often)
It will never be as pretty or uniform as bought stuff (unless you sieve it etc), but it will work.

Hi BM,

That kind of volume will soon mount up to a very substantial compost heap, I might take that idea

[MyWifesBrassicas]

I try to ensure
1. there is at least 40% brown material - usually cardboard or fine sawdust.
2 the heap is big enough to get 60C plus temperature in the middle
3 turn the heap after 2-3 months. I use a fork to really mix it up.
4. leave for another 8 months or so.
5. I bung everything into it except cooked food and citrus fruit with thick skins.

I've built myself a better housing system for this recently, so fingers crossed it works OK - but I'm fairly confident it will. I might build a third bay next year after I move some gooseberry bushes in the winter.

Hi Bacchus,

What design of housing system have you chosen?