Compost Corner!

[bario1]

Only trouble is they're a pain to tear up into smaller pieces for the compost bins.

I snip them into smaller rings with a pair of kitchen scissors.

[Baldy]

This afternoon had a bit of a bash at the shrubs and brambles in the back garden. Quite a lot of stuff chopped down.
My Council will start charging �35 p.a. for a fortnightly green waste 'service' - I'm now considering 3 options

1. pay the council
2. buy a second hand garden shredder
3. buy an incinerator

What to do? I'm leaning towards option 2 as I can then compost compost compost on the plot... option 3 will probably annoy the neighbours and Mrs Balders, and as I get on with the neighbours I probably don't want to do that...
So I'll not have more than �50 to spend so electric and second hand any shredder would be.
Any advice about what to look for.

Also cut the grass - the heat a bag of grass cuttings can produce is pretty impressive - I might have to stick one of my kids' ear thermometers in the pile next time I cut the grass...

[1Bee]

I'd love a shredder, all that lovely compost...

The ants have moved in to my 2nd dalek again. I'm conflicted about evicting them again, they do such a lovely job of processing the compost. There have clearly been colonies in the second half of the allotment for generations....

[AmateurOne]

Shocking that we pay council TAX and then have to pay TAX to do something good like composting

[Snoop Puss]

Well, I scythed down a load of grassy stuff the other day and it's been raining on and off since. It's under cover, but a bit pointless trying to turn it into a hay-like mulch. Any reason why I shouldn't bung the lot into a compost bin as is (with nothing or very little in the way of browns)? The pile is roughly about 80 cm x 80 cm x 80 cm.

[Baldy]

Everything breaks down


Eventually...

[Snoop Puss]

^Right, in it goes then. There will be plenty more in a few days' time.

[bikermike]

cardboard is a brown - got any of that you can put in?
What I dent to do for the mowing season is to keep back the chipped wisteria-prunings and add them as I put in grass.

Grass also sinks down in volume very quickly, so it's not going to take over your storage facility.

[ESBkevin]

I bag up hedge trimmings once shredded and also have a bag of sawdust as well as some coffee grounds at present. Now I've started (finally) to mow the grass I can add elements to the grass in layers and wet with liguid gold. Then just walk away and leave it. I sometimes do turn it to fully mix it, but otherwise it just happens.

[Snoop Puss]

No cardboard, no nothing. I've bunged in the compost bins whatever I can get in them and spread out the rest this morning in the hope that the forecast drizzle doesn't happen.

[rary]

This afternoon had a bit of a bash at the shrubs and brambles in the back garden. Quite a lot of stuff chopped down.
My Council will start charging �35 p.a. for a fortnightly green waste 'service' - I'm now considering 3 options

1. pay the council
2. buy a second hand garden shredder
3. buy an incinerator

What to do? I'm leaning towards option 2 as I can then compost compost compost on the plot... option 3 will probably annoy the neighbours and Mrs Balders, and as I get on with the neighbours I probably don't want to do that...
So I'll not have more than �50 to spend so electric and second hand any shredder would be.
Any advice about what to look for.

Also cut the grass - the heat a bag of grass cuttings can produce is pretty impressive - I might have to stick one of my kids' ear thermometers in the pile next time I cut the grass...

If the material that you have s not too thick you could run over it with the lawnmower, just remember to keep the blades sharp

[rary]

^Right, in it goes then. There will be plenty more in a few days' time.

That the way I do it Snoop, when I started gardening everything went onto a compost heap, and it was left to rot, when you wanted some compost you just dug into it till you got what you wanted, there was no mention of greens and browns (not that I disagree with the reasons for using them) I just think that everything gets so technical nowadays, just do what you want or need to do and forget about the technicalities and enjoy gardening

[Snoop Puss]

^Thanks, Rary.

[bikermike]

If the material that you have s not too thick you could run over it with the lawnmower, just remember to keep the blades sharp

This may seem a daft question, but how do you do this?
I have a rotary(?) mower (ie one big blade that rotates around a vertical axis). It cuts the sticky-up bits of grass. How do you get an edge of the cardboard to stick up to meet the blade?
I can imagine it working with an old-style cylinder mower, but not a rotary.

(And DAMHIK, if you turn the mower on upside down and try to feed cardboard in, it cuts it and fires it into orbit...)

[rary]

I have a Bosch rotary mower and I just through the cardboard down and mow over it and it cuts it up no bother