Starting a Compost Bin (Merged Thread)

sillyvixen

i have just remebered my nan used to save up all her teabags and when i visited as a child it was my job to cut them open and choose which plants to put them round. her plants always thrived!

Malski

Tea bags and coffee are good for composting and to go straight onto the plants. Also you can ask for coffee grounds at Starbucks if you ever go as they have it all in a tin behind the counter and they will give you some for this purpose.

thriftmonster

Hi we have one of these from Belfast CC and it didn't work very well for us. So we took the lid off permanently and dh borrowed an auger and drilled 6" holes round it to let the air in and it's working well now. However this might be a problem if it's not at a distance.

arkonite_babe

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idlikemymoneybackplease

Advice needed please, can I compost mint cuttings with greenfly?
I choped of a load of mint earlier to use in a sauce and found it had greenfly. I do not want to eat it now so can it go in the compost bin. Will the heat kill the greenfly?

louise_1981

it may sprout roots, mint can take over, it depends on how chopped up it is i.e. is there any stalks that can root in your compost.

I turned over my compost bin (an old coal store) and found sprouted potatoes that had grown baby potatoes! that is after I had chopped the tattys in half.

I also disturbed a mouse family, turned a baby mouse out of the nest, lucky I noticed. Mum came out and dragged it back down. and I left some bird fat block in the compost to say sorry!

mouseymousey99

Okey dokey not going to start singing (phew). Mr Tesco deliverd my shiney new compost bin today (its massive). Also my new water butt (green points all round). I'm ok with making compost - but just a quick question - what did you put at the bottom of yours? I'm thinking of newpapers etc to try to keep the contents warm?

nookie_bear

In the past when I had a composting bin to get it going I put nothing in the botton other than a good pile of grass and leaves followed by a couple of sheets of newspaper when the weather got cold just to keep the warmth in the decomposing grass it seemed to work out ok.

happy composting

mouseymousey99

Any point in acquiring a small shredder do you think? (for the daily paper and junk mail).

arkonite_babe

We have a thread similar to this already, I'll add your query to it so all the replies are together. Posts are listed in date order so you'll need to read from the beginning to catch up

MOVING THREADS FOR BETTER RESPONSES

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere (please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]