Compost heap vs rubbish heap

[jonny211]

Our site rep has given me a friendly warning about what I call my compost heap. I took on two plots that had been overgrown for some years and dumped the accumulated grass weeds etc at the back of one of them, the heap is about 4ft hight, 5ft wide and 8ft long.

Now is this a compost heap, or is it a rubbish heap? The latter may get me a letter from the council when they come to inspect it in late July.

There's nowhere else to put green waste, but the council do provide a single 6yd skip in spring which needless to say is filled in about half and hour!

What do you think?

[edit] agh, wrong forum!
Jon

[jonny211]

[Baccy Man]

Sounds like a compost heap to me.

[Deb P]

I suppose the thing to do is make it look more like a compost heap than a rubbish heap...................make it a neat shape, dump a bit of manure/spent compost on top and plant a few courgettes/squash............instant fix! ;D

[Unwashed]

Compost heaps rot down to almost nothing, and then you use what's left as a mulch.  What you have is a big pile of soil.  I've inherited this kind of rubbish twice.  Do like your site rep says.

[Kea]

Get some pallets and build a row of compost boxes and put this in them and cover.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Cover it with black plastic till next year, and spread the remains. Meanwhile it'll look better. I've had bigger piles than that.

[Old bird]

Sounds to me as a mix of the two!!

I would - as has been suggested - get some pallets and make an attempt at looking like a compost heap - can you burn bigger twiggy bits?  Because that would be the ideal - get rid of the thicker coarser rubbish and get some rotting down going!

Old Bird

[jonny211]

I've started to clear 'the hill' of nettles and will cover it with some plastic as advised... hopefully the council won't notice. This is the one part of the plot that remains untamed but hopefully this coming winter I'll get round to it.

[amphibian]

I've had bigger piles than that.

[Sparkly]

We inherited a 'compost heap' from the previous owner that was  7ft high x 7ft x 30ft. To be honest it was a complete nightmare. By this time it was a heap of soil that had bindweed and allsorts growing in it; along with whole panes of window glass. It did provide lots of good quality material to fill raised beds (after getting the weed roots/rubbish out), but I wasn't too pleased about it at the time. It was that big that it had fallen over and covered the path that should have been across the plot. It was that steep that the first thing we did was the channel out a path and lay slabs down as it was too dangerous to be walking it across it in winter weather carrying stuff. The thing about having a system like this is that is just gets bigger and bigger without you realising it and eventually it an eyesore and just a heap of soil.  I would suggest building a compost area out of pallets and moving an non-rotted material into this. You can spread any rotted material on beds as you empty them over the next few months. I know yours is not as big as the one we had to deal with, but moving it now will prevent it becoming a real issue later on.

[lewic]

along with whole panes of window glass.

I can never understand why some councils ban sheds, bonfires, scaffold poles etc but allow glass onsite..

Suggest getting a garden incinerator for woody/perennial weeds, if you are allowed. Burning things is very therapeutic! And second what others have said about getting pallets/manure/squashes to make it look like a proper compost bin rather than a heap.