Topic: Compost

[Andy H]

I just thought that as I get so much grass, even though I fill a trench all round the plot as a weed suppressant, and
now I have buckets of sawdust(wood turning) I thought I would try and use the wettest and driest things we can compost together to see how they come out.

So...

layer of grass (few inches)
then sawdust and repeat! plus a few other friendly things and not the nasties.
Odd layer of soil for weight.

Will see how it comes out!

[galina]

I presume this is in a compost bin?  Have you turned it?  How is it looking now?  Did the bin get hot?

Guess you have been following the advice to mix 'greens and browns' to the letter.  If the woody bits are still there, you could always add more grass or nettles or other green stuff.

[Andy H]

I think it got quite hot, the full dalek went from full of the above to 1 foot high in a few days!
When I filled first time I put layer of soil in and it went down a third then filled it up again.
Week later it was nearly down to half again, so filled again with grass, sawdust and a few greens..

Filling whole bin in one go does get the heat going as the more you add in one hit
increases the heat a lot.

[Toshofthe Wuffingas]

More on compost heaps:
Not all of us can build up large amounts of compost but I have a fair amount. I fill stout plastic bags with matured compost - I use empty cat litter bags as we have plenty but fertiliser bags etc will do too. Then I use the bags as walls for fresh compost heaps. By the time the heap has built up against the bags which help to insulate the sides, it is stable enough to take the odd bag or two away for use.

[Andy H]

Just thought about making sillage(?)
Cut grass and driven over many time with tractor to squish the air out and fertilizer bags nailed to the sleepers.
Preserved the grass for winter for the cows.
Where air did get in at some edges then it "composted"