really old style living?

csarina

We have two compost bins which OH pee's in regularly, we have an old plastic wine carafe with a wide neck which we brought wine from the keg back in some years ago, its left in the boot room, he just nips in and pees in it them empties it into the bin, we also use comfrey which we grow, part of it gets chucked into the bin and part gets chopped up and put in an old barrel and filled up with water, lid put on and then watered down 1/10 we use it to feed the plants, it stinks, but no worse than the pig !!!! smell we get when they are cleaning out the pigs and the wind is in the right direction. We also have access to hore manure which we stack and leave for at least 6 months before we use it.

When I was little my grandma used to follow the coalmans horse down the road to catch any effluent from its bum for her roses!!!!!

Watched the waste programme last night on TV, OH remaarked they should come and look in our bin, whats not compostable gets eaten, there is never any left over foos chucked out here. Last week I had too much mince when I had done Spag bol, so I diced some potato and carrot, part cooked it and then added it to the mince to make pasties which we had for supper........the only waste in our bin is the grass clippings just now, OH treated the lawns for clover and we have to put 4 mowings into the bin, before we can use it in the compost again.

mardatha

There is no way in hell I am going to pee in a bucket thankuverymuch. The state my bloody knees are in !
And Vs dont do things liek that - R or otherwise. They are far far too posh & snooty.

ginnyknit

Ok Mardatha you need to rig up a hose system from the loo out the window and into the compost bin - diversion tactics, RV will never know he is making compost for you. I saw it on 'its not easy being green' prgramme, they built it into their compostable loo.

annie123

mardatha wrote: »

There is no way in hell I am going to pee in a bucket .

:rotfl: You and me both, nor will my hubby, especially straight into the compost bins, we only have 3ft high fences between gardens, neighbours would get an eyeful and we back onto a small park so facing away from the houses is a big no!

The downside of growing your own is the so**ing weather.
The heavy rain predicted a few days ago, didn't happen here, but yesterdays rain has flattened my garden.
Been out this morning propping up toms, cut the last of my aubergines as a large pile of slugs has set up camp under them, courgettes are OK, that will really please hubby, NOT, he's even had enough of courgette muffins.
French beans have slid down their supports, and raspberries are now horizontal complete with canes.
And I've got more rain due today and tomorrow.
Plus side to all this rain, my 3-4ft x 15ft of lawn is green again:D

Need to go to supermarket again:mad: I tried to shop for 2 weeks and found I forgot potatoes, bread, cider vinegar, and a few spices I'm out of.
I do however have 72 loo rolls, co op had 18 for £5 and I had £2 off a £20 spend, so happy with 25p per roll.
They are still in the boot of my car cause I can't find anywhere to store them:(

betony

There are shelves full of books on, er, 'liquid gold', it's very high in nitrogen, so good for green crops (such as Mardatha's kale!) and excellent as a compost activator. However, it's generally recognised that human 'solid' waste, hmm, is a big no-no for the garden, that similarly goes for the waste of carnivorous pets, although if you have veggie pets, such as rabbits, guinea-pigs etc; along with chickens; adding their waste and bedding to the compost heap adds a good mix of green and brown material and helps it break down faster.

Hope this helps!

seasalt_2

I meant the liquid gold - much better name for it. Don't think male LG superior to female just more convenient. I was trying to get a sluggish hot bed going once and asked DS (then aged about 6) and his friend to pee on it for me. DD demanded to know why she couldn't pee on it too. -You can, you can, I said and she did. Then she asked what it was for and when I said cucumbers she burst into tears and said -But I LIKE cucumbers! Am much more discrete these days - plastic jug emptied straight into a watering can, diluted well and watered on to hungry crops - or neat for compost bins - but only when none of the rest of the family is around - so far I have not been caught sidling out of the bathroom with my jug - they have no idea!

seasalt_2

csarina wrote: »

we also use comfrey which we grow, part of it gets chucked into the bin and part gets chopped up and put in an old barrel and filled up with water, lid put on and then watered down 1/10 we use it to feed the plants, it stinks, but no worse than the pig !!!! smell we get when they are cleaning out the pigs and the wind is in the right direction.

I have got a comfrey bucket too - an old dustbin with a hole in the bottom propped up on breezeblocks so I can get a container underneath. Stuff it with comfrey then put a heavy weight on top to press it down and concentrate drips slowly into the container - much less smelly - or quite often these days I am even lazier and just cut the comfrey, let it wilt, chop it up a bit and just mulch the tomatoes with it - they grow in the ground in the tunnel and I don't feed them at all apart from that.

I once made a kind of nettle, garlic and compost tea - that was really smelly - was using it inside the polytunnel and it made me gag, it was so vile - haven't done that again!

ETA Sorry about your garden devastation annie, so disheartening. Can the rasps be propped up again and roots firmed in? We get hammered by gales at summer solstice which always get the peas and then again in mid september which is the start of winter for the outside garden - even winter crops look sorry for themselves - apart from kale of course.

Welsh_Poppy

we also been hammered by rain lost my rasberries been raining non stop for 3 days so I have made:
4 jars spicy tomato relish
4 jars tomatoe and pepper relish
4 jars tomato ketchup
4 jars of new Zealand tomato relish(we toured in a camper van last year for 6 weeks and love the country)
4 jars NZ kiwi fruit jam
8 jars of victoria plum conserve

Hubby said NO more but I think I can fit in a few more chutneys and jams hehehehe

ginnyknit

I keep meaning to send for some comfrey seeds, no one I know has a plant so i can't nick a bit - sorry borrow some!

Cleaned up the patio this morning, all my tubs are officially empty, put the old compost in a heap out the back to weather over winter. Dug up some fab spuds inclidung a small stash of pink fir apple - yummy. Found some garlic loitering in a tub and a few small onions. think i will have to pull up my big onions and dry them out on a rack in the shed. Am resisting pulling up my 2 ..yes 2... parsnips - my triumph needs a witness :rotfl:My sunflowers have done me proud - 18 foot tall and flowers the size of dinner plates, got 3 hanging in paper bags so I can harvest the seeds. Yesterday we had fresh sweetcorn, picked 5 so far and more to come. Didnt expect them to be so successful.

My Dd has got a house -:j:j:j:j:jshould move in 2 weeks I am so pleased for her - and me :D and her friend has just brought us a tv, free for gratis, nada, zilch. Its 20 inch and a bit old but not as old as mine. Not a bad couple of days all in all

Winged_one

Do you have any coffee shops or tea rooms near you? Would they give you the tea leaves/bags and coffee grounds? I often get coffee grounds for free from a couple of coffee shops locally (not so much this year, but S*arbucks generally do them, and I know Fall*on & B*rne also offer them, in case NualaBuala wants a source!) and they are great for adding into compost bins (we also have our own from home) and as a slug deterrant or general soil conditioner added straight on.

I wonder, as you are so far north, does your CB get enough heat and summer season to really get going, MArdatha? Site it in full sun, and perhaps wrap some bubble wrap around it in the winter to insulate it somewhat. It will work away eventually itself, but the hotter it gets, the faster it works and the better it breaks down what goes in. (And the odd addition of LG is always useful - jug in the bathroom, tip it among the potato peelings when bringing those out, and no one is ever the wiser!).

I can't get much up to the plot so really rely on whatever coffee grounds I get (maybe 1 or 2 batches a month), and the weeds and dead plants from the plot itself. And at home we don't have grass clippings so only the kitchen waste (veggie peelings, tea/coffee, occasionally crushed eggshells if I feel like faffing) and weeds/dead plants from the garden. But the garden one works better as full sun, shelter from cold winds, and I can keep a better eye on if it needs extra water.