Compost Discussion Thread (Merged Threads)

DilbertJones

Can we have a list from all the composters of all the things which are good to compost & all the things which are bad

Any help greatly appreciated as i have a nice new bin to fill

tiptoes

Your compost should be made up of 50% green material and 50% brown.

Brown - Egg boxes, loo rolls, tea bags, small pet bedding, Newspaper, human hair and animal hair, Contents of vacuum cleaner, snotty tissues, ash, charcoal from BBQ and bonfire remains, egg shells.

Green - hedge trimmings, grass cuttings.

And did you know you can wee on compost to speed up the process because urine is rich in nitrogen?

AVOID - dog and cat poo, cooked vegetables and meat

Got this from ITV's This Morning site hope it helps

Aslo remember some on on OS saying that urine is very good for composting

DilbertJones

cant imagine peeing on my compost heap!!!

what about cotton wool balls when used? are onions ok? oh yeah what about potato peelings & unused potatoes chopped up?

pollys

Onions and all veg peelings are ok. I empty my vacuum cleaner in the composter, also crushed egg shells, tea bags, shredded paper etc and yes urine speeds up the process but the men in the house won't oblige and I don't fancy perching on the edge - very risky.

Gillylou

I'm an active composter but am having problems with rats. Any suggestions?

Wig

I had a leaflet which said no potato peelings, gawd knows why, because I've had no trouble with them.

Definately a bad item is wood pellet cat litter, it is just compressed saw dust, so it should compost very well, but if you put too much in it becomes very compacted and will just sit there doing nothing for years, I suppose in small quantities it will not be a problem.

Cooked vegetables, they always say not to use this, I can't see why not, it's organic, biodegradeable, will rot down in no time, I would have no qualms putting it in my bin. but then I eat all the veg I cook anyway!

I put dead mice and birds in that the cat brings home too. I will put anything in my compost if it is left over food, I don't subscribe to this idea of no meat, no fish no bread etc. If it's organic and its left over it goes in the compost bin.

In reality though I hardly ever have anything left over, but some items (just to give you an idea of what I do put in) would be yoghurt, bread, mozarella cheese, pasta, cooked fish.

fallen leaves are good.

In my experience turning a compost heap is too much like hard work, so mine just sits there, I have two compost bins and work on the principle that if one ever becomes full I can start the other one. I am yet to get some satisfactory compost though, I am close to it in one bin, I just emptied all the saw dust from bin 2 and spread it on the garden as a mulch, then transferred the semi compost from bin 1 to bin 2 (gining it some air in the process) so I have bin 1 empty, and bin 2 3/4 full but still not good enough, I'll leave it till next year.

tissues & cotton wool, go in my bin too, if it's organinc it goes in.

Gingham_Ribbon

I am not loving mine. It is turning a little like sludge and there are hundreds of incredibly tiny flies that sit inside it and puff up on you when you open it.

tiptoes

Polly have you though of having a container in the toilet for your OH to use, then you could just empty that on to the compost.

rackstar

My husband loves weeing in the compost bin. Makes him feel like he's on some mountain adventure of something, getting to wee outside. I only let him do it at night though. At least it saves me the worry of a container...

We put all our friut and veg scraps in there, even though things like oranges aren't supposed to be that good. No meat though, ever. Things like shredded paper too. Can't imagine any indentity theives groping around in there to find our details!!!

C_Ronaldo

when you say loo rolls do you mean the cardboard roll that you get when the roll is finished

Wig

C_Ronaldo wrote:

when you say loo rolls do you mean the cardboard roll that you get when the roll is finished

You can put anything organic in. Cardboard is compressed paper, and will eventually rot.

I imagine the poster did mean the cardboard roll, yes. If you want to make it go quicker cut it or tear it into little bits first.

You can also do egg cartons and the cardboard trays they sell things like avocados and kiwi fruit on, which are made from a lightweight cardboard almost paper mache material.


Gingham,

Take out your sludge, try to find some dry leaves, or wood chippings, then mix it up and put it back in, if you have lots of sludge you'll need twice as much dry material interspersed. You can also use cardboard items described above.