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Compost Corner


Deauville
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Having never been too successful with composting in the past, it's time to ask for advice! Most (95%) of our composting material will be grass cuttings and we know about putting organic matter on it, and about not putting cooked food waste and certain woody stuff and weeds on it but what about wet leaves, sawdust, wood ash (from the poele) etc? The prefered position for it will be a sheltered north facing wall, is this any good or should we try elsewhere? Any advice would be greatly appreciated
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Hi to you both.

I start off with a layer of  thin branches. All the things you mentioned are fine, Deauville, including annual weeds, as long as they have not got seeds. I put twigs in upto the thickness of a pencil. As you say, all uncooked kitchen waste is fine, including eggshells, coffee grinds and filters, tea bags, fruit and veg peels etc etc.

Some people don't put tomatoes or potatoes in, as you can end up with thousands of seedlings in your heap, and wherever you use your compost.

Leaves are fine, but I tend to put them in a separate pile, as they can take much longer than other waste to rot down. This year I had a dry day when I was able to mow the grass, and chop up many of the fallen leaves as well, so they just went straight into one of the main bins.

Grass cuttings are a problem though. They do act as a natural 'activator' but if you put too many on at once,  they go all slimy and horrible.  Put in no more than 6 inches at a time, and then you could put a layer of something else, for instance a good layer of torn and scrunched up newspaper or cardboard, which is very good for compost every now and again. Basically, use layers, and layer grass cuttings in particular, with something completely different.

In dry hot weather, you may need to water your heap/s.

Position has to be best for you in terms of your gardening (distance to where you will need the compost) and aesthetics, if that is an issue for you.

I have three heaps. One is leaves, the other is ongoing (being added to) and the other is 'ready'. In the Spring, I will 'turn' the first two. Some (many) people think life is too short for this, but I think it makes a difference.

 

 

 

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Thanks a lot Tresco.

I went over to my bin yesterday with peelings, eggshells and teabags and I couldn't see much change from last time I'd looked! Apart from the lack of mini flies that is!

I turn the contents using a twisty thingy on a long handle (????? usually advertised on TV to help turn soil over in a border or to help remove weeds easily) but it's nowhere near the wonderful compost Mr Clair's mother used to produce in half the time!!
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Clair, it won't be doing much that's obvious at this time of the year. If it is a foot or so deep, though, put your hand in and feel the warmth.

I think you're using a different turning method to me.

In the Spring, I literally turn the whole pile out, and then replace it so the 'top' becomes the 'bottom'.

I don't meddle with it at all apart from that. By the way, my 'piles' are about a metre wide by 2 metres high, and are contained within structures made out of old pallets, with odd ends of chicken wire to hold the material in while it's loose.

There are other composting fanatics here. I'm sure they'll be along to add further comments.

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I am, frankly, a compost fanatic. I think Tresco's approach is quite the right one, though I would add a few points to it:

- Beware too high a proportion of leaves, sawdust and wood on the heap.

All these need nitrogen to rot down properly and can denude the heap of

this element if present at above 30% or so. Mixing leaves with grass

clippings is an excellent way of incorporating them into the heap as

grass is nitrogen rich and the leaves stop the slime..

- Be sparing with the wood ash. Although an excellent source of potash

(potassium) and phosphous, it has no organic matter in it worth

speaking off, so it does not rot. Worms find ash very drying and will

not properly turn a heap with too much ash in it or where there are

thick layers of it.

- To keep up activation during the winter, chicken manure can be added

freely to the heap. Peeing on it (whilst occasionally hazardous in sub

zero temperatures) is a good idea too.

- In winter particularly it is best to maintain a large heap (say 1m cubed) to keep the digestion going.

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Can I also mention that it's not wise to use too much newspaper or printed paper of any kind (especially off a laser printer) I think this was mentioned before some time ago but most printing these days is done with lasers and this is highly toxic when concentrated in a compost heap. Stuff printed with eco-friendly vegatable dyes are OK but how do you know what is what?.  I used to use a fair bit of printed paper from flyers in my postbox but now it goes in the communal recycler.
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No Clair, that's not too much paper, but I would spread the peelings rather than put them in a clump.

I put a layer of scrunched up newspaper and/or cardboard (preferably corrugugated) every 4 weeks or so, depending on how much other stuff is going in. Old fashioned cardboard egg boxes are good too, broken up into sections.

These things help keep the compost airated and the little worms seem to like them - so the newspaper can't be too toxic. [:)]

I agree with what was said about glossy printed publicity material though. I wouldn't put that in the compost.

 

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Don't do what we did a couple of years ago.

We had had a good garden clear-up and filled the composter with all the garden rubbish, including a lot of 'Coeur de Rat' (quite a pretty plant with long red trails). Compost turned into beautiful soil which I dutifully spread all over the vegetable garden.

A few weeks later we had the most beautiful display of Coeur de Rat which completely covered the veg. garden. It looked so nice that we left it but it did mean no growing of vegetables for that year..........................[:D]

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I think some people try to make composting sound more difficult than it is. I made a traditional wooden bin (2 compartments, slatted fronts which lift out 1 bit at a time - each half is about 1 cubic metre). We put all of our grass clippings (and that's a fair amount!) in to the half we are filling. We also add all types of veggie  (not meat) scraps / waste from the kitchen (stored in a little plastic bin by the back door until it gets full), and also occasionally brown cardboard boxes torn up, and shredded paper. I turn it once a year, and when it is full, we just start filling the second half while the first half 'digests'. No nasty smells, no slime, just good rich crumbly compost. I keep all of our autumn leaves (mainly oak and beech) in a separate mesh leaf bin made from fence posts and chicken wire mesh - they take too long to rot if you just put them in the compost bin. The resulting leaf mould (takes 12 - 18 months) is then mixed with the compost before it is spread on the borders, veg garden etc. If I can do it, anyone can - just don't worry about it!

M

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I'm an avid composter too.

Apart from the stuff already mentioned I also add ripped up toilet and kitchen roll tubes and occasionally a bucket of horse manure from the stables (that's not already sufficiently rotted to use immediately). I poop-scoop after the chickens too sometimes and add their coop bedding (mix of wood shaving and straw with lots of poo) when I've done a partial clean.  The trick I find it to layer up thinly with different matters, not too thick a layer of one thing.  The autumn leaves I add but a small layer at a time with grass clippings and kitchen waste.  I emptied out one of my bins in the autumn after I'd prepared an area of my potager - black gold, georgeous stuff!! The second bin I filled during the autumn with the top half of the first bin that wasn't 'ready' and then lots of autumnal waste (from clearing the potager/leaves/grass clippings), it was sitting a foot proud of the top, covered with a tarp - it's now reduced by about 2' and I will give it a turn in the spring.

I have one black plastic bin, which wasn't enough, so I now have a homemade one from pallets too.

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We have recently started a compost corner, along the lines detailed above.  However, in all the times I have been working in our garden, I have never seen a worm, let alone the little red worms we get in our UK compost heap. 

The soil is fine, with lots of stones.  The local area is full of sandstone outcrops and when we had a new water connection which involved work with a mini-digger, very, very large rocks were brought to the surface.  In fact, the local name for our area means stoney ground in local patois.

Should I expect to see worms?  Do we have especially deep earthworms who never come to the top layers of earth? [:)]

 

 

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Having read all the tips given here by much more experienced composters, I strongly suspect my main problem is lack of material...

My neighbours give their peelings to their chickens and rabbits, there's 'only' two of us, so not that much stuff to feed the compost bin with... I do the shredded egg boxes, toilet rolls, twigs and teabags, but it's probably not enough to start the process.

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A bit of an update on the compost corner.

We've just returned from an overdue visit to our spanking new local recycling centre and they have a huge pile of free compost, just waiting to be collected...

I filled up my plastic bin with some and promised to come back for more!!! [img]http://www.clicksmilies.com/s1106/grinser/grinning-smiley-003.gif[/img]

I've tipped it inside my own compost bin and mixed it with the decaying matter, in the hope this will give it more bulk and get it moving... (not physically though!)
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Sorry don't know that, Cooperlola. Just wanted to add that I had 3 or 4 compost piles going at a time, separated by boards. When I could find the energy I barrowed the oldest onto the potager then turned the next over to the space left, then the one before that etc. So that the material that was on the top of the pile is now on the bottom and will get warmer and rot better. We used lots of veg. waste from the kitchen also chicken droppings together with the soiled straw from the chicken house. Pat.

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We started composting last spring with great results - I was amazed, as I only turned it once! However, even though everything was well composted, we did notice some strange creatures living in it - short, very fat maggoty looking things (about 10 to 20mm long, 10mm round) - our neighbour said to kill them as they eat the roots of the plants - does anyone know what they are? How do we get rid of them? When I turned the compost, there were none of these bugs in it, just loads of worms, then later, no worms, just bugs. Any ideas?
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