I'm new to composting. Just need a little advice please?

I've just had a major cutback/pruning session in the garden where I've employed a shredder and so far have collected 5 near full plastic rubble bags of the garden waste. I wonder if that's considered a lot for one collection....

There is still a little more to do, and quite a large amount of garden waste out there which is too small to be shredded, but can be put in my garden waste bin. Or could I use this as compost aswell?

I've read on a site that I need to get the balance of brown to green right, and that for poisonous/evergreen plants they would be best composted separately. I have Cherry Laurel, Oleander and a Euphorbia of some sort. Should I think twice of mixing them with the present shredded material?

 

You can certainly shred the laurel and compost it with the rest of the material, and I assume the others will be OK as well. Laurel leaves are much quicker to rot once they have been shredded.
Plant that are poisonous to people will rot down.
Evergreens will compost, although conifer material tends to be very slow.
Your 'small' waste should be perfectly good to compost.
Don't put anything with weed seeds on it in the compost heap.

 

Would this include Ivy aswell then? You see I may have put some twines and leaves of some Ivy off the wall, into the bags. Although, I wouldn't say a considerable amount, as it wasn't something I was actively cutting back. It hasn't been able to grow that well, because of other plants that were growing in front of it, such as that large rose bush.

p.s for any future pics of my garden, I shall upload them at a size of 800 x 600, and a few at a time, so as not to confuse.

 

I'm looking at a 220L composter from Homebase fairly cheap at £29.99. But I have 5 nearly full rubble bags of shredded branches, leaves, flowers etc. If anyone's seen what a rubble bag looks like full or near full, would a 220L composter be large enough to hold all this? Help would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers John. I've just asked my Dad to pick up a couple of these bins, while's he's out. Just in case it's fills more than the one. There is other material to be composted. It just needs to be shredded down.

I can see that my council provide subsidised composters for £5 aswell. Will check the capacity of them now actually.

 

Ahh well he didn't get them in the end. Although I have spoken to my council and they're now in the processing of sending me a form I to have to fill in and send back with the dough to get a subsidised composter:D

From today's prune/cutback, I have collected 6 rubble bags worth of shredded garden matter. I doubt I'll compost the rest as it's mostly "brown" matter.

You'll be able to the see what I mean by this photo of a mostly "brown" heap.



Here are a few other pics of the garden after the prune:







And here's a mate of mine who's gladly helped me out:



The blackcurrant has taken on a new position on the podium:D

The clematis is pruned right way way back. I wonder there's any reason it shouldn't survive, because of this prune back. The roots on every plant we've trimmed are still intact.

 

Ok, so I've just bought a 450L composter from Homebase, for quite a cheap price. I'm sure there are better designs, but what the hell. Along with my shopping spree, I bought some Hozelock "Water Storing Gel", which I sprinkled generously at soil level, before I put my shredded material in and some Miracle-Gro "Compost Maker" nuggets (?) 50g per 10cm high layer, as per instructions.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I "activated" the water storing gel as I forgot to follow some of the instructions in a rush to set it all up tonight. I was supposed to "mix thoroughly with compost at root level" and "water thoroughly one hour apart". I'm guessing it shouldn't be a problem as the heap is quite moist. Has anyone used the stuff?

Anyway before I planted the composter on earth I made sure to dig the area up. To loosen the soil, remove some nearby plants and most roots of plants from the area where I was to place the composter. I suppose this would be a good thing.

And the great thing I was able to do, was "nearly" fill the composter with all 12!! rubble bags worth of shredded material, with about 15/20cm in height to the lid, spare:D For air circulation I suppose....

I have noticed though with all the "compost maker" I added to the compost, it did smell quite chemical. Would that be a "nitrogen" or "ammonia" smell? And I did notice not long after I completed this exercise, very small flies started to circulate the area. Is this likely to be a problem?

Thanks again for any help people:D

P.S, I shall include a pic soon. God I'm sad, lol.

 

I would guess that given the woody nature of the shreddings you've put in the compsot bins it will probably take a couple of years to break down into good friable compost.
I'm not sure about the water retaining gel you mention. The only use we've made of it is mixed with potting compost in containers, but it shouldn't do any harm in a compost heap and will help keep things mosit and 'cooking'.
Oleander by the way, is a very toxic plant - even the smoke from burning it is toxic. Probably ok when composted and added to the soil though.

 

Earthman

Dave is right - the water storing gel is normally used in the type of compost you put in hanging baskets rather than in the compost you make in a bin. No matter - it won't do any harm. By putting such a large quantity of material in the composter at one time, you stand a chance of getting it to warm up even though your material is pretty fibrous.

Don't worry about those little flies - their probably fruit flies of the genus Drosophila. It's a bit unusual if you don't get fruit flies when the temperature rises. Just be careful how you lift the lid of your bin or you'll get a mouthfull!

 

Ok, so I've just noticed that black ants are already coming to my composter. I guess I'm going to give it a good bucket of water or two?

It's nearly 450L of mostly brown material, but I thought the leaves of these branches (e.g. lots of laurel, buddleia etc) would give the green/brown balance. The heap was quite moist when I first put it all in. I thought it'd be perfect. I'd still say it was humid in there, but ants are already being attracted:(

If I leave it as it is, would it still break down, or can ants really destroy the process? Or is removing them by watering just for aesthetic purposes?

And if I water the heap, how can I expect it to keep warm? It's just going to cool it right down, no? Any tips here would be much appreciated.

Thanks again, Earthman

 

I wouldn't worry about the ants, they won't interfere with the basic process. Even if you could kill this lot, others would soon turn up. I wouldn't add water at this stage - just wait a week or two and see if the green stuff is enough to get it going. Better still, do you have or can you get any grass cuttings? Mixing them in would help considerably.

 

Ooops! I've literally just added a bucket of water, and started to turn the heap vigorously. I couldn't reach the bottom, but definately mixed the centre up and the sides aswell.

As soon as I started to turned the top layer I noticed everything was largely of a grey colour, and the steam!!! I practically choked. It's like a sauna in there! And only after 4 days. Well, it's definately moist now, and I don't think I'll be adding any more water in a hurry.

Plus, most leaves in there after adding the water and giving a vigorous turn now look brown, the laurel especially has lost all the green in the leaves. In fact probably the majority of leaves have lost all the chlorophyll in them.

Is this a sign of a heap on the right path? Will the 1 bucket of water start attracting unwanted insects? Like I said earlier, there is no fruit, raw vegetables, meat or dairy in this pile. It's pure garden waste.

 

Sounds like your heap has made a good start. One bucket of water isn't going to do any harm if you've got enough heat to generate steam! And don't worry about insects of any type. A compost heap is just an accelerated form of natural decomposition. All manner of insects will get in there and do their thing. You can leave them to it.