Could I compost my shredded documents? Not loads of them, just a standared household ammount. I don't know if the paper or print might contain noxious chemicals, I do use some newspaper in the compost heap - that can't be much different..can it...? :-\
I do - I also use it as a mulch and will be piling it on my potatoes to help earth them up.
Yep, we always use shredded paper and cardboard in the compost bin and also in the bottom of bean trench and potato trenches to help retain moisture.
Mine has just gone into making my Lasagne bed....Ex, no good, lottery tickets in there too!
Just ensure you do not put staples through the shredder
Thanks, its good to find a use for stuff, I had'nt thought of putting it into the trenches. :)
;D Brilliant for the compost... a form of brown to mix with the green in the composting system.... and what a way to recycle. I use all my shredded documents in the composter. I also put in all the hairs I brush off my dog... and vacuum fluff etc.......
(http://www.leics.gov.uk/compost_bin_01-2.jpg)
and tumble dryer fluff
I hadn't considered it as a surface mulch Amazin, a good wetting to stop it blowing around and it will mat together as it dries?
:-\
In the 1960's long before many of the people who now think composting is fashionable were born. The old men with allotments would keep a years worth of newspapers in their sheds and trench them, in November, into the place where they would plant their onions in Spring.
They would grow and show giant onions as a result.
They used the ashes from the coal fires to dig into clay to break it down.
And they would pee onto their compost heaps to help accelerate the rotting process.
Cardboard was cut into circles to go round the cabbages with a sprinkle of crushed egg shells on top of that.
Dried leaves were collected in sacks in the autumn from nearby woodland and put into a separate container from the ordinary compost to form leaf mould. This they said made the soil richer.
Bacon rind was used in traps to catch vermin. Soap bubbles to kill aphids and a sticky sugar tar mix was made to paint on paper and fix around the trunk of trees to attract and stop crawling creatures getting up them.
Black sewing cotton was threaded with silver milk bottle tops and strung across the cabbages patch to confuse butterflies.
They used tree and hedge pruning to support their peas.
Wire coat hangers from the dry cleaners were carefully shaped into supports for glass to make cloches.
There was always a scarecrow in place too. He became Guy on the 5th of November. No one seems to make scarecrows any more.
Quote from: PurpleHeather on April 24, 2008, 05:45:29There was always a scarecrow in place too. He became Guy on the 5th of November. No one seems to make scarecrows any more.
None on our site I'll agree, but I have a plan for a rotating scarecrowess after the psb massacre. She will not be sacrificed on 5th November though.
Derby in Bloom have just introduced a best Scarecrow section into the Allotments competition!
;D
When I put shredded paper in my potato trench - do I put it at the bottom (if so should I water it before putting potato seeds on top?). Or do I pile the shredded paper on top (water?) then cover with soil? Dimwit here again ::) ::)
twinkletoes
Hi all!
I have huge amounts of shredded paper at work and have added a large quantity to one of my compost bins - problem is - I think I have added too much and it is near the bottom and it doesn't seem to be going down at all. I think that I may need to start peeing in a bucket and carry that up to the lottie to get things lmoving a bit!!
Incidentally, Ishard, I would be wary of putting tumble drier fluff into the compost as if there is any synthetics in your washing the fluff will have synthetic content which will not rot down! It is only stuff that has once lived or had a life that rots down! Sounds a bit like me really! Do you reckon that we are allowed to join our compost when we go!! I doubt it!
Having said that and completely leaving the thread - someone I know recently was buried and they had a woven hazel coffin. That sounds nice doesn't it!
Old Bird
;D
completely off topic but someone on my site has found an old shop mannequin shoved a stick up its bum and uses it as a scarecrow (at first it had no clothes, but then they dressed it in some overalls). It might be effective cos the first time at twilight I saw a "naked person" on the neighbour's plot I nearly had a heart attack!
Also, a fellow a couple of plots down has a model of a head on a stick, fools me everytime. I nearly said hello to it one evening!
antipodes you only need to worry if the head talks back - then you know you spent too long in the shed with the sloe gin ;D ;D
twinkletoes
I also filled the bean trench with shredded paper and put some in the compost bins especially when the daleks get too wet and slimey. ;D ;D ;D