Compost Bins / Enclosure

[Glassman]

This is something I want to start this year... compost. Looking for ideas and tips please.

Anyone built / maintain one?

[missdiane]

I only have a small plastic B&Q one, don't get much out of it- teabags and eggshells seem to take ages to break down, so we have stopped putting them in there

Also we were putting chicken poop and the woodshavings from the coop in there,
poop=good
shavings=don't rot

[Wings]

I did manage to get my bins through my local council's refuse/recycle department.

http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/Informatio...

[ShadownINja]

You know you're getting old when you start responding to such threads.

Anyway, http://www.recyclenow.com/home_composting/index.ht...

Learn how it works and you can get free compost for your flowers n st.

That site used to give away very cheap bins. I got one for ~£10.

[ShadownINja]

missdiane said:

shavings=don't rot

How come? I thought the theory was that anything that was once living (grass, vegetables, bits of chicken, ex-wives) would decompose?

[toxgobbler]

Sometimes it need help with a stirring and a bit of water, it likes it damp. You can also add Garotta which helps it along nicely, or even Red Worms. But it's ace when it does work. My rhubarb is fab now.

[Busamav]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

same here , we have 2 side by side .The fronts are removal for turning it over , had my first crop of compost at the weekend for the veg plots.

Found a few things that hadn't composted down , egg shells and tea bags in one of the wifes " swears by them " compostable "plastic" bags .

Tea bags really need tearing open and shells crushing up a tad.

[Steve_W]

Also worth bearing in mind that if you have rats in the vicinity, they like nothing better than digging a nest in the bottom of a nice warm compost heap and tunneling up to all the lovely free food you put out for them.

Of course, an air rifle or terrier can alleviate this problem!

[Glassman]

What about foxes? We have a lot of foxes in out area, do they like compost heaps?

[Steve_W]

Glassman said:

What about foxes? We have a lot of foxes in out area, do they like compost heaps?

No, but when I shoot the rats near ours I leave them and the foxes take the bodies away.

Sometimes it seems like our garden is like a Drive-Thru for hungry foxes!

[Simpo Two]

ShadownINja said:

missdiane said:

shavings=don't rot

How come? I thought the theory was that anything that was once living (grass, vegetables, bits of chicken, ex-wives) would decompose?

It will but wood contains a lot of lignin which take time to break down (see under 'biological function' here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lignin

[missdiane]

ShadownINja said:

missdiane said:

shavings=don't rot

How come? I thought the theory was that anything that was once living (grass, vegetables, bits of chicken, ex-wives) would decompose?

Not tried any ex-wives or chickens, may smell a bit.

I only know about the wood shavings as they are still in bottom of the bin looking quite fresh still

[ShadownINja]

Ah... and ah!

[spikeyhead]

Build yourself a massive one, about four foot wide, eight long and three deep.

When it needs turning over jump up and down on it a lot to compact it.

Turn it over some more.

However, if you follow the advice above, do not, under any circumstances have your keys in a pocket which they can easily fall out of.

[HiRich]

Definitely worth doing - whether to reduce waste or save on bags of manure.

There are two types - the "dalek" or the traditional "pigpen". The latter is better by some margin: gets more water, larger (so it generates more heat, accelerating the decomposition), and it can be turned (ditto). There are pigpen kits, but they are rather expensive for what you get. But you can rattle something off with old pallets, and size them the way you want. If you produce a lot of grass cuttings, I would move further towards the pigpen option. If you are remotely serious, I would recommend the pigpen route. 3' cubes would be fairly handy.

What is smart is to have at least two units running - one filling as one rots down. It can take 6-12 months to fully rot. I would place them a bit away from the house (they don't get particularly smelly, but better safe). Look to have a hard standing in front, so no matter how bad the weather you can just chuck stuff in. But the units themselves should be on earth.
If you go with pigpens, and have trees/wood prunings, I would design in a storage shelf above one pen. You can collect the branches & twigs there for when you have enough for the shredder.

For the compost itself, you want to try to maintain at least 50% 'brown stuff' (wood, paper, carboard, leaves, etc.) which is carbon-rich. The remainder is "green stuff" (obvious, really) which is nitrogen-rich. Things that can go in include:

• Kitchen peelings (keep a little bin in the kitchen for these so you don't have to take them out immediately)
• Fridge leftovers (but be careful with sugars and acids - spread them around a lot)
• Grass cuttings (but you will need to mix them up regularly, otherwise they pancake and stop degrading)
• Shredded wood, paper (good for your shredded bank statements), brown cardboard (also a good cover/insulation in winter), and all the obvious stuff.
• Teabags should be tried, but some are non-degradable plastic. Even the paper ones take a while, and they need to be covered.
• Eggshells can be added, but you'd do better to set them aside. Collect in a bucket to dry, crush and sprinkle as both a lime improver (apply in Autumn for a brassica or root crop) and as a slug deterrent.

Things to avoid are:

• Meat, cooked veg
• They say dairy and bread, but I've not had a problem (except squirrels nicking the crusts)
• Larger pieces of wood
• Dog/cat/fox poop
• Be careful with tap root weeds (e.g. dandelion) and seed heads of weeds (which will survive). Drown them in a bucket of water for a week.
• You must avoid virus & fundus-affected plant matter (blight, mildew, etc.) as both can survive a domestic compost heap and reinfect in a year. Burn, or dump on the Council (their larger heaps get hotter and nuke everything)

Chipped wood will rot, if slower, and is very good indeed for the heap. Not only brown matter, it aerates the heap which the bacteria love - very effective if you add a lot of grass.

Maintenance is easy. Turn it if you can, and try to aerate it, keep it damp if it needs it. For daleks, move some compost from the bottom back onto the top (it's full of bacteria, who can now attack the fresh stuff from above and below). In Winter you might cover a pigpen heap (carboard, tarp, carpet offcut) - for a dalek, shove carboard down the sides.