Allotments 4 All

i have a dream...its about a lovely pallet edged three bay compost system. its admired by all and sundry. monty don comes and fondles the end product; sniffs its aroma and crumbles it between his fingers.  i spread it lovingly over freshly turned soil and everything in the garden is rosy...

...in reality my compost situation is a horrible nightmare which i have been ignoring as best i can for some time and up to which i must now face.  :-[ :-[ :-[
when i first got my plot i tore out the pallet compost area and put in two plastic things form the council.  :-[ :-[ :-[

i didnt know untill it was too late (i.e they were full) thats some weeds can go in...good weeds and some weeds cant..bad weeds. so i realised eventually that i was doing it all wrong and didnt know what to do. so i do what i ususally do in such instances and ignored the problem :-[ :P ::)
but of course i still have weeds piling up and nopwhere to put them so i have (this is hard to admit but hey maybe you need a laugh) just piled everything up in front of the plastic darleks. mostly perenial weeds and woody stuff and the good weeds i have been squashing ito the top of the darlecs.  :o :o :-[

i hang my head in shame.

so thats my project for the winter.  a lovely threee bay pallet edged composting system.  ;D

what would you do if you werent as dumb as me?
would you take the whole lot off site and pretend it never happened and start anew (this is my favoured option - preferably under cover of darkness)
or would you sort through the compost bins and try and make it good (there's spiders in there and earwigs and ants and alsorts !!!).

:-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[

There is no such thing as a bad weed for the compost bin - especially sealed plastic ones.  All my weeds go in despite me continually being told not too.  My Dad was lecturing me today about twitch roots but if it is in long enough - it's fine.  I have just found that I need six bins as I cook mine for two years.

I use all weeds like redclanger. I put the perrenials in drums/baths filled with water prior to going on heap after they have rotted.

We have a Non compost heap which is where all the dock, twitch, nettle roots and so on go. It is left alone and eventually used. The last one I think was 5 years old and the stuff was beautiful.
In 40 years of compost making I do not think I have ever made anything which looks like the stuff produced on TV. It does not matter unless you want pretty stuff to use as mulch. Whatever it comes out looking like, put in to a trench under say potatoes, it does the job just as well.

I just sling everything in the compost bins. I've never had couch survive. The only things that ever have have been the absolute strongest dock and bindweed toots; smaller ones die like everything else. It's just a quiestion of picking them out - they're easy to see - and chucking them back in. After a year or two, you're no longer getting enything big enough to come through a season in the can. Even if you accidentally plant one of the survivors, they're so weakened they don't thrive, and they're easily dealt with later.

I put all the stuff I don't want again in my garden in a special bin. Seperate from my compost bins. The compost bins I use mostly on top of the soil and "the special bin"I use for under the soil, like potatoes and runnerbeans..... I do that for nearly 30 years now and I like it that way...... but if is "the right way".... if there is a right way..... ;D.........Try and do what you like best........ ;D

thanks for your advice all. i feel better knowing that i can perhaps pile it all up somewhere and leave it for a year or two.  i think i will make that a priority and replace the plastic bins - i find they attract too many flies and creepy crawlies,  with some pallet ones. and a nice manure pile too.  roll on those frosty autumn mornings;  i' m almost looking forward to it. ;D

I have a dalek at home, but it never seems to get hot or even slightly warm.
There are lots of creepy crawlies living in it though.
It's settling down quite a bit, as the more I put in the more space appears at the top.
Maybe it's a tardis rather than a dalek.  ::)
I also have a pile of partly rotted straw and shredded paper on my allotment,
that has got creepy crawlies too, but doesn't get hot or settle down.

How do I get them to heat up?

The dalek has got a reasonable mixture of veg peeling, tea bags, dead plants,
grass cuttings (spread about in layers, not all in one go) and shredded paper.
I occasionally pour on some sludge from my pond filter.

I too have a darlek at home. Recently got an allotment and would prefer it there but it is nearly full. I too have fallen prey to a family of ants, a swarm of flies and a mulitude of bugs. I am hoping that this is a good sign and that the composter is working. Got it in April along with a kitchen composter (worst invention ever). If anyone out there is thinking of becoming greener and do a bit of composting of cooked foods think twice!!! The council promised no smell, it stinks like vomit and that is what I nearly did. On top of that the lid sealed but was only a push tight type of lid, my 6 year old could easily get into it if he so wished. They promised it would have broken down in 2 weeks good enough to spread on your soil - Ha what a laugh!!! after 2 weeks I had the foulest smelling glupp going, with all the prettiest coloured moulds - just lovely for spreading all sorts of diseases around my family if it got out. So now I use the bins to store my veggie bits for the Darlek to eat. :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[

Two weeks is ridiculously short. My daleks heat up well in the midsummer sun, but they don't cook well otherwise. I don't fill them up in one go though, which would give higher temperatures. Just give whatever you put in plenty of time; mine get emptied once a year.

A kitchen composter uses the bokashi system it is not intended to compost the waste merely to ferment it before it is added to your compost heap or is buried in the garden (not spread on the surface of the soil) where it will decompose faster than unfermented waste & introduce microorganisms which will kill off harmful bacteria in the soil. If it smells bad then the three most common causes are that 1> not enough bokashi bran has been added 2> the liquid has not been drained off regularly or 3> the lid has not been closed properly which I suspect was the most likely case as that also results in the fermentation not taking place & other moulds being allowed to grow.

As for the dalek if you have ants it is too dry if you have flies you should add a layer of shredded paper or soil.

If anyone wants to learn how to make compost properly then I suggest you look at http://www.csimba.com/compost/ or http://pub30.bravenet.com/forum/2544104454/ unfortunately the second site is now covered with pop up ads but there is some good information there.

You can always try here :

http://www.recyclenow.com/home_composting/composting/index.html

thanks for the insight Baccyman but I am not risking the bokashi system any more and trust me the lid was definately closed properly, the smell was when it was opened to put more stuff in. Never again but the bins make good transporters for other waste to my Darek

for weeds (cos I have horrible stuff like bindweed), I put them in a black bin bag that I leave in the sun to sweat then chuck it in the corner of the shed. After several weeks, everything has rotted down to a sludgy fibrous mass that I then sling in the compost. Works great (someone here gave me the idea  ;D )
I have started using the very bottom bits of my compost just now, I started it in January. It is nice, crumbly and full of promishing shaggy bits of organic matter. It has had lots of things put on it, veg peelings, vegetable cat litter, newspaper, coffee grounds, grass.

whats vegetable cat litter antipodes? can you put gritty cat litter on the compost?

I throw all the weeds in too, the only things I bag up are thick roots, marestail and nettle roots, in the black bag and left to rot or burn which ever comes first. ;D ;D ;D

i suppose it's not really called that, but vegetable cat litter is made out of organic stuff, I think it is compressed wood dust or some kind of powdered vegetable matter, maybe corn waste? Anyway it swells up when kitty peepees in it and turns to a powdery substance that you can compost.
I am sure you can buy it in the UK but I am not sure what the proper name is. It's quite good, but unfortunately my kitty scorns it and prefers the clay-type. Which you can't compost, I don't think.
She is not an environmentalist apparently...

You can contract toxoplasmosis from cat litter. Although the cat litter might be a cat wee one only, if there was cat poo in the tray at any point previously then the virus might still be present.
Toxoplasmosis is one of those things that is best avoided as although most healthy adults immune systems will fight it off young children, pregnant women, the elderly & anyone with a weakened immune system can suffer very severely if infected.

The composting process will only kill off the toxoplasmosis virus if the heap hits 150°F or over for at least 5 minutes after the last addition is made.

yes it is pretty pokey stuff cat poo.  i m always very careful with the cat litter. ididnt thinkit would compost. shame really, we get through loads of the stuff.

hi Sarah, compost, i love the stuff, i find to make good compost you have to add loads of different things, straw, grass, weeds, soil, shredded paper, shredded cardboard, organic plant waste, water, and any spare veg from the house, it's like making cakes,
i use four pallets as a holding pen, i place cardboard around the insides of the pallets to hold the heat in that is built up from the waste decay, then i place cardboard on the ground to slow down the weeds from growing up through the heap, then a layer of straw, a layer of grass, soil, veg waste, etc,etc, i place a piece of plastic on the top of the pile to hold heat in,
after a few months or when the heap is half full I'll take it out of the bins, this allows the air to get into the heap and to mix the pile,(you can check to see the state on how things are going, IE-- if the heap is to dry?? add more grass, water, until the pile steams, if to wet add more paper, cardboard, straw, this will soak up the moisture to dry it out a bit ) but the best thing is to keep turning it, feeding it fast, this builds up your heat and kills of any growing plants, seeds, and bacteria, i add dog poo to my heap, and keep it turning for three years, until its dryish, but fluffy, allway ware gloves and double dig it deep, if you can, add worms to the heap, on a rainy night collect as many as you can and throw them into it, they love it, they will help breakdown waste into compost,

hope this helps
windy