Homemade compost is so exciting! (MERGED)

Kantankrus_Mare

olibearhorse wrote: »

Ah, now after 23 years of shovelling it, I am a horse poo expert...:p

You must not put fresh manure on your lovely plants and soil, it needs to be at least 6 months old, well rotted manure.

I have a pile of poo which is constantly added too but never acutally cleared away so I take the very bottom stuff which you could barely recognise as horse poo. If you have a composter, put fresh manure/straw in it as it will rot down much quicker because of the heat and other yummy ingredients you add to it.

Hope that clarifies your poo question?

Thanks for that olibear......so I could get the occasional bagful and just stick it in with all the other compost stuff and leave the lot for six months or so.

One of my neighbours has just decided to get in on the allotment lark and said she could have shares in ours. She also has a rotivator and hopefully is going to turn it all at the weekend. Should make planting a lot easier.

Some one told her you shouldn't rotivate it as it cuts all weeds into smaller ones and spreads them but Ive spent the last year rough digging and have removed most of the main weeds so shouldn't be a problem Im new to all this though so its trial and error.

While Im on here....totally off subject....I planted some onions last autumn which look to be doing well but Im not sure when they should be lifted?

olibearhorse

Yep, bung it all in, I did and it worked a treat.

The rotavator sounds a bonus - I am sure it will be fine. Gardening is all about trial and error which is why I love it so much - you soon learn once you've made a mistake!

Never grown onions could you not just take a peek and see if they look ready? That's my moto with everything, it if looks ok it must be ready :rotfl:

showtunesgirl

Onions are ready to be lifted when the leaves die down and look all brown and wilted. Then you need to lift them and let them dry out for a bit.

In order to make plaiting them easier, moisten down the stalks a tiny bit before plaiting. They look so nice hung up in the kitchen!

showtunesgirl

We are dead lucky as apparently the poo we are collecting this weekend is very well rotted down indeed. It's an allotmenteer's dream!

olibearhorse

I share my poo, I think I'll re phrase that :rotfl: , my horses poo with my neighbours. Poo on tap, they are delighted!

I never thought horse poo and compost could enlighted me so much....I must get out more, oops I can't, I'm skint which is why I am on here!

Kantankrus_Mare

showtunesgirl wrote: »

Onions are ready to be lifted when the leaves die down and look all brown and wilted. Then you need to lift them and let them dry out for a bit.

In order to make plaiting them easier, moisten down the stalks a tiny bit before plaiting. They look so nice hung up in the kitchen!

Lots of healthy looking green stuff so I guess they need longer. Would love to learn how to plait them to store but am finding the thought of it a tad daunting. How long do they store for?

just-saving

At the end of last year my next door neighbour was throwing out an old water butt which I decided to turn into a compost bin (hows that for saving money! )
Its done the job very well but after receiving a leaflet through the door recently, yesterday OH ordered a new 'real' compost bin for £10 (£9 if ordered online)

Today I wanted to see just how the water butt composter had done and decided to remove the whole binful of stuff to turn and air and return to the butt. Its doing extremely well, still a way to go but everything at the bottom is breaking down nicely.

Lots of gorgeous healthy looking worms have found their way in there too which hopefully means I am doing something right!

AND I am getting chickens soon...a nice cheap accelerator to throw in. Not the chickens...the poo! <lol>

showtunesgirl

Kantankrus_Mare wrote: »

Lots of healthy looking green stuff so I guess they need longer. Would love to learn how to plait them to store but am finding the thought of it a tad daunting. How long do they store for?

So long as you keep them nice and dry, they pretty much store until you want them. However, do beware that when lifting the onions, you see something a bit like white mould on the end, don't use it and don't keep it on the allotment, it's the dreaded onion white rot! :eek: If you do unfortunately get it, then don't plant onions there the next year.

ceebeeby

Can anyone tell me where I can get a cheap compost bin from. B&Q's are all about £30 ish??

Thanksxx

just-saving

ceebeeby wrote: »

Can anyone tell me where I can get a cheap compost bin from. B&Q's are all about £30 ish??

Thanksxx

I got mine from here ceebeeby.

https://www.recyclenow.com/compost

This is for residents of Hampshire, Portsmouth and Southampton only.

OH ordered the ecoMAX 330ltr on Wednesday for only £9. :j