I dug a trench for next years beans yesterday so I decided it was time to empty the compost bin. I have been filling it up for months. I was very disappointed to find there was only about a foot of compost (very sticky) in the bottom. I have filled it up lots of times. Though have raided it a couple of time for some mulching. Seems I need to feed it a lot more.
Did find a couple mice. Seemed amazingly tame. They just sat and looked at me. :D Would have liked to squash them like I do the slugs but they looked so cute I could not do it. But they have been eating my sweet corn. :(
mouse traps Digeroo. Where there's 2 there'll soon be dozens soon. :o :o
Quote from: taurus on October 31, 2009, 08:44:45
mouse traps Digeroo. Where there's 2 there'll soon be dozens soon. :o :o
Not if mice can have civil partnerships too there wont.
There has been a beautiful red kite over the site on several occassions so hopefully it will do the job for me.
At least if your compost is breaking down quickly it means you are putting the right stuff in!
Compost always shrinks enormously as so much of the volume of a plant is gas (each cell has a massive bubble in the middle) and water.
Arnt plants 95% water ?
When they rot they produce 'soup' out the bottom of the heap. My wormery does.
Diagram of a plant cell here: http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/01942/plcells/thinkquest/plant_cell.jpg . The vacuole is gas, the rest is, you're right, 90-odd percent water.
I just have kept on filling and filling it up. Put in lots of comfrey must be even more water and air than most.
Just very disappointed with just how little I have. With the manure still showing signs of pockets of contamination wanted enough for my beans. Only had enough for one small row. Hopefully I will have some more ready by next May.
But this is the exciting thing about compost! It gets more and more dense and nutricious and shrinks away to something that really improves the soil.
I have just tipped over a dalek - the top was still rather fibrous, so that goes back onto my heap or into the newly emptied dalek. The rest has made a wonderful mulch into which I have just planted lots of shallots.
It seems to me that the theory about daleks - that soft loose compost can be scooped out of the bottom - is rubbish. I have only ever pushed them over after a year or so, put the best bits onto the soil, and re-composted the rest.
I leave them a year, shove them over, and spread the lot. The half rotted stuff disappears along with the rest.
We have had several daleks on the allotments ever since the council decided to deliver them free and we got the world and his friend to get one for us for the allotment.
We fill them, sit, stand and jump on them to make room for more (7at the last count) every time we go yet next time we do a strip of anything they are always half full. Only after a week some times.
In the end, we find that we put them where we need more soil. Then next time that bed needs digging we do a dalek wiggle. The top bit becomes the base for the next accumulation.
Wonnerfull innit
Mine are always full in summer. The level starts dropping about this time of year.