Compost Corner!

[bikermike]

I shall have to give it another go, it's always possible that I am just over-thinking it...

[jonahjonah]

We liberated the mostly composted material at the bottom of one of the sides of the compost heap. Still some twiggy browns in it, but I'm using it for mulching so I don't much mind.

The top of that side of the heap was turned in the process. I wetted it with weed tea (which I currently have in greater abundance than fresh water) as it was stacked back. I think the slightly more active approach is working well. It's still not hot, but things seem to be breaking down a bit quicker.

Any bugs I should be happy or concerned to see in the heap? I noticed worms, wood lice, centipedes, and some beetles.

[mrbadexample]

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

I agree. I don't worry about greens and browns either particularly - my own tips would be:

1. Chop everything as small as you can be bothered. The smaller you chop, the quicker it breaks down.
2. Don't put too much of the same thing (e.g. grass cuttings) in all at once. If you have a lot of something, feed it in bit by bit and try to mix it up with something different.

3. (Optional) If you can turn it, do. If you have a little tiller like a Mantis, they do a smashing job.

[Cadalot]

Just like the plant in the Little Shop of Horrors my Dalek needs feeding



Two very large sacks of grass were picked up from my Sister-In-Laws front garden Saturday morning and taken to the allotment and were decanted in alternate layers with shredded paper that has been living in the food bins with lids waiting for the arrival of grass cuttings.



Finally a layer of comfrey has been added to the top layer of grass of the alternating sandwich construction of greens and browns and watered in. Not cut up as small as usual but I was in a hurry.



Result one very happy Dalek and Plot Holder

[Snoop Puss]

^Cadalot, what are the little bits of coloured paper? Glossy mag pages? Are the inks OK? Do you put in ordinary newspaper?

[Cadalot]

^Cadalot, what are the little bits of coloured paper? Glossy mag pages? Are the inks OK? Do you put in ordinary newspaper?

I never put in anything glossy, but mat coloured thin cardboard that goes through the shredder goes in and cardboard boxes get cut up into small squares.

[Snoop Puss]

^Thanks. I've never added anything with coloured inks. If I can add newspapers - most of which have coloured ink somewhere on the page these days - that would make a lot of difference. I have a huge amount of greens and very little in the way of browns.

[AmateurOne]

Hi All,

Upon setting up new raised beds I ended up with far too much horse manure. Rather than “wasting it” I’ve filled up one of the modules in my New Zealand compost bin. Initially I thought it would be ok to leave until needed however with an abundance of general cuttings and grass Ive now filled the two other modules. Question is should I mix this with the two other modules material or would I be ok adding direct to my beds given they have veg growing now?

[nickdub]

Hi All,

Upon setting up new raised beds I ended up with far too much horse manure. Rather than “wasting it” I’ve filled up one of the modules in my New Zealand compost bin. Initially I thought it would be ok to leave until needed however with an abundance of general cuttings and grass Ive now filled the two other modules. Question is should I mix this with the two other modules material or would I be ok adding direct to my beds given they have veg growing now?

Adding manure as a mulch to the beds can be OK, but it does depend on the size and age of the crop. Something like rhubarb or blackcurrants can use any amount of it at this time of year - other things like brassica seedlings or root veg would be best left without any - and there's a whole range of possibles in between these two extremes.

[AmateurOne]

Adding manure as a mulch to the beds can be OK, but it does depend on the size and age of the crop. Something like rhubarb or blackcurrants can use any amount of it at this time of year - other things like brassica seedlings or root veg would be best left without any - and there's a whole range of possibles in between these two extremes.

Thanks. Seemed like a good idea keeping the muck at the time then boom the garden compost generation has caught me out.

[nickdub]

Thanks. Seemed like a good idea keeping the muck at the time then boom the garden compost generation has caught me out.

If all else fails you can always build a few small heaps of it and grow a courgette or pumpkin on top of each one - its what I used to do with the free cow manure I used to be able to get by the wheelbarrow load, when the local farmer had a milking herd. Use soil to fill the planting hole at the top of course - bit like creating your own volcano :-)

[AmateurOne]

If all else fails you can always build a few small heaps of it and grow a courgette or pumpkin on top of each one - its what I used to do with the free cow manure I used to be able to get by the wheelbarrow load, when the local farmer had a milking herd. Use soil to fill the planting hole at the top of course - bit like creating your own volcano :-)

That's a great idea. I have just the spot I could set up three such heaps. Thanks Nick

[nickdub]

That's a great idea. I have just the spot I could set up three such heaps. Thanks Nick

You're very welcome - happy gardening :-)

[1Bee]

I'm really looking forward to the weekend.... I'm owed some time on the plot, and I'm going to have a focused, un-distracted, at-my-own-pace session setting up one of my compost bays as an active heap. I've got some shredded paper and cardboard in hand, and a bunch of potato tops, grass to cut, broad beans and peas to take down and chop up. I have plenty of comfrey, and the plot in general needs a good hack, so lots of greens to get hold of. I'm going to be in seventh heaven.

[Jay-ell]

I've been using three daleks and three cube plastic compost bins. I find that they don't hold enough mass to hold in the heat for long enough to kill everything off so I do get weed seeds in the compost.

I shred anything that's woody and also shred bean vines, sprout stems etc so that they break down quicker. Green things I sometimes attack with shears, a strimmer or occasionally a lawn mower depending on how big they are and how bothered I am to do it.

I've been bokashiing my kitchen waste and add the fermented bins to the pile as well (except for the two that I kept for when I prepared my pumpkins which were buried underneath their hills) getting it somewhere into the middle.

When I have a glut of greens but not enough browns I use newspaper and cardboard torn up or scrunched up.

At the beginning of June I dismantled my 4' by 8' fire pit (as I've bun most of the scrap wood) which was made out of 4 arcs of corrugated iron and used the bits to build 2 compost bins 5' by 4'.

When I started the heap in the bin I laid down some unshredded woody bits as everywhere says this improves drainage and airflow. Then I added layers of shredded hedge trimmings, grass, garden waste.

I've been adding whatever I had to it over the last couple of months but with the hot weather there's been very few grass cuttings available and most of them were used for mulching the beds. I get the garden waste dropped off by my Compost Fairy - a jobbing gardener who cuts the grasses and trims the hedges of the area I live. This some it's been more of the latter than the former so my heap has a lot of brown (although the hedge cuttings did have leaves so not as brown rich as it could have been).

I've just turned the pile for the first time today and added a couple of bags of grass cuttings to it. I didn't realise how much I had in the compost bin in 2 months - it's now a heap that's 4' high with a base circumference of 4'-5'. Although it hasn't maintained any heat as it's building was pretty slow there's quite a bit already broken down (although not well enough to call it compost).

I wont bother with the twiggy stuff at the bottom as all it does is make it a pain to turn/use the compost and the "air gaps" get filled with green and compost as soon as the pile gets high enough to sink under it's own weight.

I also dismantled and rebuilt another structure to make a third identical bin. Now I have a large pile of horse manure in the third bin Which I sarted last month.

I suppose that the next things I should look at is incorporating all the stuff that hasn't broken down in the other 6 bins into the heap. I also want to go over the area the fire pit was on as this will have several years ashes and char from the burning which should be sufficiently charged with bacterial life now and will soup up the compost a bit. Just have to get out the nails, screws, bolts etc first. I've a big magnet and 2 compost bags knocking around somewhere just for that.