Homemade compost is so exciting! (MERGED)

FairyElephant_2

Hi Olly - yeah I know, but the bindweed at the last house grew up from under the compost bin and up through my compost - I thought I had pulled it all out at the time, but I was wrong....

Luckily this house is not plagued by bindweed (well the garden is about a quarter of the size and doesn't have a lot of soil in it!). I'm just a bit paranoid about chucking stuff in the compost bin after the last experience, and much as I love my Russian Vine it does need to be kept in check by regular hacking back!

I seem to be growing tomato seedlings in my flower bed at the moment - I suspect that they were seeds in the compost I dug in from my bin...I'm letting them get a bit bigger and then I'll pot them up - free tomato plants! A friend actually had melon seeds sprout inside her compost bin and successfully grew them on in her greenhouse!

darcyvuqua

hey guys as my bin is only collected once a fortnight and i do as much recycling as possible i bought a compost bin in march and started filling it which is fine

HOWEVER i have been filling it with kitchen scrapps apart from meat and the garden grass after mowing i have seemed to aquire loads and loads of flies in my bin resulting in maggots and a wet patch of mud around the bin leeking from the sides how can i stop both of these problems as the water coming from it blooooooody stinks

any help would be great and i will thank all answers cheers darcy

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


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novascotia

olibearhorse wrote: »

Also, don't make the same mistake and throw in any old potatoes as, yes, you can guess, I grew some more in my bin:rotfl:

Ah, well that was what I was about to ask. I have been throwing loads of stuff in mine for over a year now, and have only had a little amount of compost out - but when I lift the lid it looks like a potato farm. What can I do with them instead then?? We tend to have lots left over very often - he's a bit tattie fan, I am not! Is there some other way of disposing of them apart from the waste bin??:o

MookieSnuffles

darcyvuqua wrote: »

hey guys as my bin is only collected once a fortnight and i do as much recycling as possible i bought a compost bin in march and started filling it which is fine

HOWEVER i have been filling it with kitchen scrapps apart from meat and the garden grass after mowing i have seemed to aquire loads and loads of flies in my bin resulting in maggots and a wet patch of mud around the bin leeking from the sides how can i stop both of these problems as the water coming from it blooooooody stinks

any help would be great and i will thank all answers cheers darcy

Hi Darcy!
Well done you on getting a compost bin!!! :T Hurrah! All you need to remember is a good compost bin mix is made of "Greens" and "Browns", Greens are your teabags, veggie peelings ect, your Browns are things like cardboard, woody sticks, paper. Sometimes termed things like fast and slow composting material.
You've been bulking up with loads of greens which is good but as you've noticed you get a great big smelly pile of sludge and no compost! So I recommend immeadiate action and start bulking it up with all your spare bits of paper, newspapers, toilet roll tubes you've got handy, if you notice box of waste paper at work, or even boxes of shredded paper ask if you can take them home and compost them. The best tip I can offer you is that all of your private correspondance (such as bank letters, identifying documents ect) that you don't want to leave in your bin, shred them or cut them up and put them in your compost bin! Proper handy! (Its also good if you use them as hamster or g.pig bedding first).
Put them in and give everything a big stir up with a garden fork (or possibly a spoon in your case! :rotfl: ) and leave it to settle. The stirring is called aeration, which is good for your compost bin occasionally, but you can just do this with a stick or a garden fork, or if you have a gigantic bin this is called turning the heap!

Good luck Darcy,
Mel x

TheDink

I think my compost is composted - the bin is full of brown stuff, but it's very sticky, rather than looking like commercial compost. It's been made of a mix of kitchen and garden waste and shredded paper over the last year, so I think the green and brown mix was about right.

Is there anything I could mix my sticky compost with to make it more usable? I'm hoping to use it for growing veggies in pots.

Thanks!

adouglasmhor

Sharp sand?

poppyoscar_3

I'm sure there is a compost thread somewhere, so hopefully some kind person will move this.

However, if not, can anyone tell me how to remedy my compost which is slimy and wet. It's in a wooden beehive type composter, but standing on clay. The bottom has gone very slimy and wet. I'm hoping that grass cuttings (first cut today!:D ) will help. I compost all peelings, uncooked veg waste, teabags and hercaceous garden waste.

Any tips gratefully accepted.

Thanks,

PO xx

HampshireSeagulls

Get some woody waste in there! Newspaper or card will do as well. You have no "fibre" in there for it to work through, everything (especially as it stands on clay) is reverting to its main constituent - water. You need to get some air flow through it as well - perhaps lift the base off of the clay and put some wire underneath to allow the liquid to flow out?

Lotus-eater

What they said ^

Grass cuttings will only make it worse, get some shredded paper or carboard in it and have a good old stir. Next time you add green material, add some brown as well.

A good base of woody stuff at the bottom would be good as well as Hampshire says, I use old straw I have lying around.

http://organicgardening.org.uk/composting/compost_pf.php