Allotment Stuff > The Basics

Turning compost

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pumkinlover:
I just wondered is anyone does this?
Apart from television gardening presenters that is? It's not that I dispute the reasoning  behind it but if I did turn my compost I wouldn't have the energy to do anything else!  That said I get a lot of compost due to the rabbits so although it takes a long time to turn into the desired result and I have about 20 daleks and tardis's  I just wait.

Palustris:
I turn the heap about every two months or so. Mainly because most of the material going into it is grass cuttings (courtesy of our green keeper neighbour) and leaves from the leaf mould heap. It takes about 2 hours or so to turn it. I keep one empty bay and move the material into it as a way of re-mixing. It would be nice to be able to turn a heap every week as those with machinery and or workers can do.

Obelixx:
OH turns ours but not often.  We have a mix of 1 metre cube boxes provided by the local council, slighly bigger ones made from wooden pallets, a 3m long by 1m wide one with concrete walls on 3 sides left by previous owners and a similar sized loose heap next to it.   They get turned when full and it takes about a year for them to cook well and be ready for use, largely because there isn't enough rain to dampen them thru the recent spring and summer heatwaves and droughts.

Paulh:
I've never managed to get compost bins to work hot and "properly", they sit brewing anaerobically which is fine except it doesn't kill the weed seeds. I have one bin on the go at any time which I top up until I've got too much garden, kitchen and allotment material to hand, so I start the next one. Grass cuttings, shredded paper and torn cardboard boxes will go in when to hand.

By autumn I have at the back of my plot four or more Daleks whose contents are of various maturities. Usually the contents of the oldest one or two (which were started the previous autumn) are ready to be spread on the plot. The ones that aren't quite yet ready I will move into a smaller Dalek sited on the part of the plot where I will spread it in the spring: the further six months maturing usually works well. I just have to lift off the bin and spread it around.

Any rawer vintages I combine into one Dalek that will stand at the back until the next autumn (unless I have a need for compost before then and find the contents ready). Then I start filling up the Daleks again with all the sweetcorn, squash, bean and potato haulms that autumn offers.

During the year I may from time to time combine a couple of the maturing Daleks if I need an empty one to fill, but otherwise the contents don't get turned.

JanG:
I just wait on the whole. The only time a heap gets turned is when it looks like the bottom half or so is ready to use but the top layer not so ready. Then the relatively uncomposted matter gets turned into an empty bay and the composted material used until it creates an empty bay which another heap can be turned into. So once in its life it gets turned and it only takes a few minutes to fork the material over to the next bay.

Like Paulh, our compost never heats up enough to kill weed seeds. Before composting, I try to separate out the weeds which have flowers or seeds but in practice a lot of weeding is hastily done and mixed up rather, so our compost is good stuff but does create nice beds of weeds.

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