Homemade compost is so exciting! (MERGED)

springchicken

lol ,sorry Rach cant help you out with your putrid smelling dalek problem ,but thanks for the laugh.:T

arkonite_babe

twinklyrach wrote: »

MoneySavers, I have smelt evil. It's at the bottom of my garden in my compost bin.

The top is fine - not a lot going on there so far - but if I lift my dalek up a bit the smell is vile. It literally smells of evil. Nothing appears to have broken down except into a sludgy goo that makes my eyes water.

I've tried adding browns for all I'm worth but it's just not doing anything. I've tried mixing the heap up to no avail (plus it's rather difficult as I can't reach to the bottom, being not very tall). When I look in the little hatch there's just unrotted stuff plus the aforementioned sludge.

Someone please help! I am so fed up with it - the pile has been going since September 07 and I've not had even a teaspoon of compost out of it. I feel so ashamed; I'm from a dynasty of gardeners/allotmenteers and I cannot get this right. I'm so close to chucking it all away and not bothering anymore, which sucks as I'm desperate to start my veggie patch and also we barely have anything to put out for the fortnightly bin collection these days. But if I just have putrid sludge festering at the bottom of my garden and emanating the stench of death, then what chance do I possibly have of growing vegetables?

Mine is like that sometimes, I just dig it in to the ground and turn it over well. The veggies love it and go like hot cakes.

If you want tips check the useful links sticky at the top of the board. In the "c" section there are links to compost sites where you can get advice.

HTH

A_Clock

I got my compost bin at about the same time, havent really added much to it lately as i want to move it I think you should wait till after the summer, the summer heat "should" help it break down alot! Think i read somewhere it takes about 9 months before you get any good stuff out of it, but that could be wrong...

wallbash

sludgy goo

Stinks:mad:

So its far to wet!add some dryer mixture and keep the rain out

My bin is normaly to dry , making good compost is not as easy as some make out.
But if your heap is in contact with the earth, with a cover .... it MUST dry out.

Poppycat

My compost does take time to rot I started late last Spring and a year later I managed to get a small amount composted and out it on the garden to condition the soil and add some to peat for pots. The rest hadnt rotted too much so I tipped composter over and turned the composter around before putting it back in managed to leave about 50% left to add new stuff in now, its about 95% full

I put dead weeds in, greens, corn on cobs (they dont rot to well), egg shells, grass cuttings, some cardboard (egg boxes) in. Dont have any smell problems, but the composter doesn't get much sunlight only in the morning

I keep the composter on some flagstones. I also add worms if I find any in garden

culpepper

you could try adding a drainage layer at the bottom,small branches and woody stems. You would have to pull the bin off, move all the sludge and put the empty bin back,then chuck in the bulky twigs and woody bits just for a bottom layer and stick all the sludge back.
Try a layer of sludge/greenstuff and then some loo roll inners ,newspaper and egg carton/cardboard,then a layer of earth, then your sludge/greenstuff so that there is some air getting into it.Keep layering and end with some earth on top again.

susieb

I would leave the lid of in the dry weather to help dry it out. But you can still dig the sludge in to the veggie plot, just wear a clothes peg on your nose when you do LOL

Malski

You can also get a compost accelerator, its a bit gritty/sand like and pour some of that in to help break down whats in there, but as others have said it appears to be too wet. Mine is positioned in a position where the sun can get on it from about 10 o'clock in the morning until sun down.

wallbash

A bit surprised about all the words on the 'Sun' WHY ??
I always thought it was the breakdown of the marterial which causes the 'heap' to warm up. Putting my compost bin in the sun would not do any good, its an insulated box.Also I rather hide it away in a corner, behind the green house.Its not too pretty.

adouglasmhor

compost accelerators, - sharp sand and any of, comfrey, nettles, wee, or alternatively mix in half a pound of builders sand - get it to dry out first though.