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following on the success of threads such as 'show us your woodpile' and 'show us your garden shed'.. show me your composting solutions..
I've just moved to a house with a bit of garden.. and I've gotten hold of a council issue composting bin.. I'm putting all of our organic kitchen waste in there and waiting to see the results..
At the moment I am sceptical.. what alchemy could turn all these leftovers and banana skins into lush rich compost..? will I have to wait 100 000 years for a decent bit of the good stuff to dig into my tomato patch..?
So.. lets see your composting solutions and preferably the fruits of your labours too...
[url= http://www.wiltshirewildlife.org/ReducingImpact/Waste/homecomposting/EmailForm.aspx ]Tips[/url]
I used to work at The Wildlife Trust (not Wiltshire but there's is better than mine was) - the page here has some pretty useful tips 😀
Links on the right hand side by the way if its not very clear
yunki picture below is of my allotment, two compost heaps, one in front of the polly is added to weekly & turned at the same time, the other to the left under the fruit trees, has 3 tons of cow dodo in & I am buggered if I am turning that every week 😉
Pallets with a plastic linning seem to work for me.
One thing to watch out for with the black pastic bin type, is not to place it anywhere where it gets very damp or water logged, otherwise it tends to rot into a mushy mess, plus using only grass cuttings does not make good compost either!
Mine is ready to use after a year, keep it away from carrots and parsnips mind, your toms will love it though.
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Haven't got a picture (cos they're a bit ugly), but try and have more than one on the go.
We have some old carpet over ours that keeps them warm.
They also entice lots of wildlife in.
well. thanks guys.. having read some of the stuff in the link I'm glad to say that I've learnt to add some dry materials sandwich fashion..
looking good.. I'm pretty confident now..
I've read somewhere though that cooked food is a no no.. I've been chucking our meager scraps in.. (I say meager cos I'm a leftovers man).. will my heap fail because of this..?
More a show us your compost heap harvesting pics. Twenty years of grass cuttings and leaf mould were scattered in huge piles around the garden. There was perhaps 6 tons of it in total. Wheelbarrowing it was out of the question, so we took down a fence and just managed to get in with the 4x4 and trailer.
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Nae vegetables just floowers.
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Only on stw!
... but secretly interested 😀
We made three bays using telegraph poles and scaffolding battens. We rotate material from one bay to the next once one has matured and removed. Pretty much everything goes into it. Grass / plant cuttings, leaf mould, kitchen waste. We cover ours with some undefelt and a tarp to help speed the process.
I've read somewhere though that cooked food is a no no.. I've been chucking our meager scraps in.. (I say meager cos I'm a leftovers man).. will my heap fail because of this..?
Yep I have read that too, but not sure what the reason are.
Saying that, one problem I do get this time of year,is Rats nesting in mine!
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cooked food = rats
keep it nice and no rats.
ours was down from 8ft to about 5ft following serious bramble clearance last summer but i`ve just cut hte lawn and trimmed the pine hedge (100ft!) so its back to about 6.5ft now.
mite take a while before its useful but it'll be good stuff once its cooked.
I just sorted mine out after the winter, have 2 big square plastic bins and one made from pallets. Important to get lots of oxygen in so move the contents about and include things that'll create air pockets such as egg shells - I also have a cylindrical in that has no holes in it and everything turned to silage which isn't what you want. Oh and I think a squirrel had got into one as found a large pile of nibbled nuts inside.