Composting Advice!

Hello,

I am very new to gardening and composting. I am hoping to have some lovely compost to hopefully help with a planned modest veg patch and flowers in the garden.

I have a large static compost bin which I have been putting lawn cuttings and kitchen scraps into for the past 6 months.

Currently there is a layer of quite wet and dark material about 3 inch thick at the bottom with lots of fresher clippings on top. I do try to add browns in the form of finely torn undyed cardboard and regularly turn what I can.

Is it worth pursuing with this compost or should I invest in one of those rotating bins or even one of the worm composters?

Also what does finished compost look like? And any advice on how to keep things ticking over during the winter months?

Many Thanks

Rick

 

Hi,

Sure you will get many views on composting and my take on it for a start.

What kind of bins do you have, the plastic dalek tpye or a wooded on, open slats or close boarded ?

When you say kitchen scraps, just uncooked veg / fruit peelings or cooked foods ?

Would suggest you do no put in any cooked food, potato peelings or egg shells as seems they really attract vermin.

Much better to have two heaps/bins so you can turn one out and turn the other over into it, if you see what I mean.

You do need to water the heap as you add fresh material if its dryish stuff, but if the lower dark parts are very wet then you need to lower the watering and /or add a waterproof lid if its exposed.
Using a lid/cover over winter also helps keep the heat in the the heap.

As you might see in another thread I recently started in the Pests forum keeping the heaps on a concrete base will help keep vermin from tunneling under the heap.
Though having plenty of cats around does seems to avoid that problem.

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

Adding more crumpled cardboard will help too

 

Thanks for the responses so far!

To clarify:

It is a dalek bin with one of the plastic bases with holes in. This came with the bin and is apparently designed to aid drainage and keep vermin out!

I add mostly grass with some plant trimmings from the garden and from the kitchen it is mostly fruit and veg scraps, tea bags, minimal amounts of potato peel and egg shell. No cooked foods!

I think I'm lacking in browns really. I keep seeing hay is touted as a good brown.

I've also heard of compost accelerators - would they be suitable to use over the winter?

Thanks again!

 

Hi,

If its mainly grass then you might have a problem as it can turn to horrible sludge if not mixed with other stuff.

Cardboard is good as you are doing, they now say add the paper from your shredder, if you use one, and torn up newspapers/magazines, though in years past they used to say not to add such stuff as the inks could be a problem, think the inks are a lot safer now ??

Compost accelerators, well you can do a Bob Flowerdue and pee on it, or add any old nitrogen fertilizer you have spare, though not sure it worth adding during the winter months when the bio activity is bound to be lower.

If you have space and money for a tumbling composter its said to make it very quickly, but a lot of time and effort imho.

Come late Autumn I would leave the exiting heap alone and it should be ready for turning out in spring. You could fasten some insulation around it if you wanted to speed things up / keep it hotter.
Thats when I would start a second bin off but if you do, place some compost with plenty of worms from the other bin into it as a starter culture.

 

I agree with all the above but from my own experience of using the dalek type I would add that I simply take the lid off to get a garden fork in to mix it all around a bit every so often. Can be a bit awkward and not as good as turning properly but taking some of the semi decomposed stuff from further down, bringing it to the top and pushing some of the recently added material down underneath helps get it all breaking down. Certainly worth doing this if you haven't got room for a second heap or bin, or don't want to but a tumbling composter or similar. I add plenty of cardboard. Any parcels or boxes I collapse down and leave next to the compost bin until they it rains. When they are wet it is easy to rip them up into small pieces and add to the heap.

As for your other question what the finished product looks like - it should come out crumbly with none of the contents recognisable as whatever they originally were when you added them to the top. I've attached a pic of some I took out of mine today which gives an idea of how it should look. It wasn't as dry as I'd like but it was pretty good stuff.

 

Usually the compost I make is pretty good. Could be better though. The reason is I dont turn it enough.....when I do I end up with brown, crumbly, well made compost. This year it looks good but it has been turned once a month this summer
Not sure if the type of bin is too important. I have 2. One, a homemade job with 3 concrete sides and the front with removable wooden slats that allow air in. A hinged aluminium lid. Generous size, 8' across, 5' high and prob 5' deep, and very effective. The other is a plastic bin.
My compost looks like Green Fingered Blogger's and I will soon (next month or so) be adding it to my no dig veg patch
I remember Zigs producing some great compost .......impressed by his.
A good mix of green and brown material and avoiding layers of either being too thick, a shovel of garden soil spread occasionally and not letting compost get too dry works for me

 

Thanks for all the advice.

The compost is a bit wet and sludgy at the moment but it has plenty of worms in and beetles and woodlice and a few slugs. I would take this to be a good sign?

Another couple of questions if I may?

Green Fingered Blogger - If the cardboard is wet going in does this not make the compost too wet in the end?

Any dos and don'ts when using the compost for planting?

Thanks again!