Hi, I'm a newbie called Dave, I'm hoping to get an allotment soon.
I'm starting off with making some compost in my garden.
Just a couple of quickies!
I know most vegetable matter can be composted,
but what about paper if it's shredded?
I know some slugs will eat it, but will it decompose properly.
Will the ink (and chalk in the paper) have any detrimental effect on the plants?
I'm cutting a load of ivy off my fences too, is that any good to put in,
or would the stems be too thick?
or should I just put the leaves in?
Thanks.
Hi there!
Here's a really helpful page for you to trawl through, which answers most if not all of your 'what can I compost?' queries...
http://www.bristol-city.gov.uk/ccm/content/Environment-Planning/Rubbish-waste-and-recycling/composting---frequently-asked-questions.en;jsessionid=EF7559B952DCE3986E86052FE2572580
Hi Dave and welcome as you said veggie peels, tea bags, nettles, shredded paper,leaves,egg shells,coffee grounds,urine,dead flowers,straw,sawdust,twigs and woody clippings nothing too thick or bulky,hedge clippings, cut grass the list goes on. Make sure you get a good mixture not too much of the same. No diseased plants or perennial weeds like couch grass dandelions or thistles. :D :D :D
The only thing to avoid is too citrus peel as I understand it amkes the compost to acidic. On the postive side - urine is always a useful addition to speed decomposition.
I put all my citrus peel in, I can't bear to waste anything, maybe it's not too much as it doesn't seem to have bothered our plants :)
Citrus peel is fine
I wouldn't put ivy in only because it would happily root and grow (at least, that's what I think). Other than that, I bung it all in, including natural fibres like old wool jumpers - so long as they are 100% wool.
Hi Dave and welcome I started like you - whilst waiting for my allotment (got week or so before Xmas) I started off with my compost only thing I do not put in is citrus peel.
Any way good luck with your composting :) :)
BB
::)
Would you put in citrus peel MT?
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
This may be a stupid question but I was wondering could a compost bin be put in a backyard on stone. Someone was asking me the other day as they only have a small front garden. I wasn't sure how well it would work so thought i would ask.
Claire
You need open soil underneath a compost bin, really.
Partly to let any liquid drain away and partly to let all the worms and soil bugs up into the compost.
Perhaps if it's flagstones, one could be lifted?
The only practical place for my 2 compost bins is on a patio slab area by my shed. This works fine, and the compost is always full of nice worms after a short while. ;D
cj :)
Thanks!
I thought that was probably the case my compost bins are on soil at my allotment. Perhaps i will just compost her stuff for her.
Claire
Just a thought -- how about a worm bin... if it's not going to have to cope with huge quantities of stuff? They are enclosed at the bottom.
You can buy them fitted with a waterbutt-type tap for running off excess liquid, which can then be used diluted as plant food.
Hope that's some help :)
I hadn't thought of that. Its a good idea.
Claire
I put citrus peel on. I don't think, unless you were putting on carrier bag fulls every day, the 'normal' amount a household would get through in a week would really affect a compost heap at all. EVERYTHING natural goes on mine - hamster cage cleanings, grass, kitchen waste, shredded paper, teabags and coffee grounds, hedge prunings, allotment waste like weeds and 'stuff', leaves, natural fibres like wool, shreddings from garden clearances that I do, rotting apples from the apple trees, fish pond gunk when we clean it out, hair when I cut the kids and my darlings barnets, fish bones before cooking, contents of the hoover, egg shells, sticks, twigs, the lot. The only thing natural that I won't be putting on again are shells. The bigger shell take an age to do anything, and some break and are like shards of glass!
EJ, you're always right, if only everyone would listen to the voice of reason :'(
Citrus peel is never an issue in compost heaps it does not make the compost acidic the acid is neutralised during the composting process. The only time it can be seen as a problem is in a wormery where you are relying on the worms eating it rather than the thermophilic reaction and the aerobic bacteria you get in a healthy compost heap breaking it down. Worms are not keen on stronger tasting foods like citrus, onions, garlic, chilli's etc... but once those items have decomposed a bit the worms will eat them quite happily it just means you may have bits of citrus or onion sitting untouched in your wormery for a few weeks before they are eaten.
Ivy can be composted without any regrowth. The year before last I stripped the ivy (including thousands of ripe berries containing seeds) from a three storey house shredded & composted it, then last spring the compost was used in my garden there is not a single sign of ivy trying to grow there was about 100 square foot of brambles composted at the same time they haven't regrown either.
Compost bins on concrete slabs work fine just chuck a shovelful of garden soil in to add the necessary bacteria when you start them off. They usually dry out faster than ones directly on the ground so you will need to water the heap more often but thats about the only difference.
While on the subject of compost all cooked foods, meat, fish and bones, roadkill and anyone you catch stealing from your plot can be added to a heap just bury these items to avoid bad odours yes lots of people say it will attract vermin but rats are just as likely to go after the worms or raw foods in a slow heap as they are to go for cooked foods, meat etc...
All diseased plant material should be burn't first then the ash can be added to the heap.
The only natural things I would avoid adding to my compost heaps is fecal material from meat eating animals like cats or dogs although they can safely be added to a humanure pile where they will have sufficient time for the pathogens to die off before the compost is used.
Thanks for all the replies, I must get round to building it now. :D
I didn't feel like building a compost bin, so I had a trawl round the garden centres and most of them were £30-£40+
I had a look on google and found out that most councils subsidise the purchasing of compost bins. :D
My one does, and I can get one for £7 with free delivery. :o
Type your postcode into the following link to find out if yours does.
http://www.recyclenow.com/home_composting/in_your_area/in_your_area.html (http://www.recyclenow.com/home_composting/in_your_area/in_your_area.html)
I also found that Phillipa Forrester (off the telly) uses one, so that's even more incentive to buy one. :D
I had three of them dalek bins off the council £6 each with a freecaddie and a roll of bio gradeable caddie bags, love a bargain. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Does any body compost their cardboard boxes ie toothpaste, and breakfast cereal boxes? I put my egg boxes on and toilet roll tubes are getting saved to start my peas of in but have never thought of cardboard with shiny coatings.
Someone posted a link to a Bristol council composting web page (exciting I know lol)and they say it is OK. http://tinyurl.com/yzv8us
Anyone any thoughts?
Gary
well, we do, I don't seem to be able to send stuff to landfill, ours are not very shiny, we put pill boxes, all our cardboard, really, don't know if we're doing right ? ??? ??? ;D
Read the link Gary still not sure about putting in shinys, do put in other paper did you read on where they put slugs in the compost thats a question I was going to post. :-\ :-\ :-\
I read about the slugs also. Like it says at least you know where they are and they are not eating what they shouldn't be eating, and anything that once lived can be composted.
I do draw the line at beer THAT'S MINE.
Gary
Shiny card & paper is fine sometimes it is shiny because it is coated with plastic if that's the case you just take out the plastic after the compost is finished same goes for the liners in the tetra-pak cartons.
I put slugs in my heaps they usually melt into a gooey mess within a minute or 2, once composted they do a bit of good for a change.
Beer I wouldn't waste on the compost heap but all the lees from my homebrew do go in.
I was worried about the dyes in coloured cardboard, and so didnt compost them. After reading this , I'll start composting them. It all helps ease the pressure on my rubbish bin. I recycle as much as I can, compost my waste and still have loads of rubbish. I blame the manufactureres for all the layers of packaging on everything.
Heard yesterday that M and S are using maize to make their 'plastic' containers. That is definately a good idea, as they could be composted, whereas in my area, they normally cant be recycled.
cj :)
Quote from: gary on January 15, 2007, 20:27:36
Does any body compost their cardboard boxes ie toothpaste, and breakfast cereal boxes? I put my egg boxes on and toilet roll tubes are getting saved to start my peas of in but have never thought of cardboard with shiny coatings.
For the last four months (since we got a paper shredder) everything shreddable is shredded! Then most of it goes on two experimental beds on the plot, layered with raw kitchen waste (lasagne-style). These beds won't be used for roots for at least two years. Just 'muddling through' - thought I'd cover with 6" of soil in March and plant spuds or squash - what do you think?
sounds great to me, ss, I bet you'd get good squash type things from them :)
I dig in loads of shredded paper from a cross cut shredder (easier to dig in than strip cut) it helps a lot with moisture retention & I mulch with corrugated card that has been through a garden shredder a couple of times. My main crop each year is tobacco which requires an awful lot of water but even during the heatwave last year I hardly had any watering to do. At the end of the growing season the worms have eaten most of the paper & any mulch still visible is dug in so the worms can eat it through the winter.
CJ
The inks on coloured paper & card are all soy based these days so there is no problem composting them. The compostable plastics are more of a pain they require very high temperatures for the composting process to start I have added them to my heaps many times but I only get 60-70% to break down properly despite the effort I put into keeping my compost heaps active.
BaccyMan, your gardening sounds more and more fascinating every time you say a little more about it - thank you :D A printer told me the same thing six months ago, but I still felt a little nervous (well he would, wouldn't he?) so thank you for the reassurance :)
I got a x-cut shredder as the Which? report said that the shreddings were more 'handleable' for composting/mulching. Also good for packing roots for seed swops!
Baccy tell us more about the tobacco you grow. :D :D :D
Quote from: cornykev on January 16, 2007, 15:24:53
Baccy tell us more about the tobacco you grow. :D :D :D
What would you like to know about? growing, curing, manufacturing (making it smokable), flavouring, the legal situation on it, the differences between homegrown vs shop bought, or another aspect. I can probably answer any question you can come up with although I think it would be better to start a new thread for this as it doesn't have much to do with composting.
I have just bought a dog po loo which is basically a wormery dedicated to the output of my two labrador's.
So far so good, it doesn't smell...which I thought it would! and the worms all seem to be fit and healthy. You only add dog waste and in small quantities to begin with and gradually build up as thw worm community grows. You can use the output after a year but I will use it on boarders I think, rather than food crops. I really wanted to avoid putting it in the bin and it going to land fill. The only thing to remember is to leave it a week after the dogs are wormed for obvious reasons!!!!!!!
sorry i don t do links but google csimba and look on his site/forum for Jim Beam,world authority on composting dog poo and very funny man.Some of the stuff is deleted now but its very readable and there s photos.Whole site is interesting anyway.
Jim will compost anything that stays still long enough he puts a lot of work into his composting & is not afraid of trying new methods two cents JB's pictoral guide to composting pet waste can be found here;
http://csimba.com/jimbeam/jimspage.html
If you want to discuss it with him try here;
http://www.csimba.com/compost/viewtopic.php?t=22&sid=54d9c6f5ea66b20650064dfeeff6fa78
or here;
http://pub30.bravenet.com/forum/2544104454/