Homemade compost is so exciting! (MERGED)

Kantankrus_Mare

angelavdavis wrote: »

They dig in under it. Next time you completely empty it, fill up tunnels left by the rats and then place it onto a large piece of chicken wire, ensuring some of the wire sticks out around the edges by at least 3 inches to stop them burrowing from the side.

People always insist it is cooked food that attracts rats - it isn't - they will eat anything!

Thanks for that bit of info. There is deffo no cooked stuff in there.

Must be the good grub we serve up at restaurant lol rats are having gourmet treats. :rolleyes:

cattie

Compost bin question coming up from from gardening dumbo.:o

There's a compost bin at the end of the garden of the house I bought last year & hoping I don't sound like a real idiot, I'm asking what garden stuff it is you're actually supposed to put in a compost bin? Is it all the green growth you cut back from shrubs, grass etc?

I presume you have to leave the contents to 'cook' & then heap it around plants & shrubs, but how do you know when it's degraded or whatever it does to itself when in the compost bin?

Farway

As you suspected, all green stuff goeas in, leave out woody stuff as it will take a long time to rot down

You can also add uncooked veg scraps from kitchen, like cabbage stalks, apple cores, orange peel etc, plus used tea bags, shreded paper if you have a shreder, crushed egg shells as well, but these take longer

Adding dilute man pee now & then will help it rot down more quickly

You can tell when it is "done" as it no longer looks like rotting vegetation but looks like dark soil

Go easy on grass clippings as too many in bulk can turn into slimey mess, mix them with the rest

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

afsha

Im not allowed a compost bin because there too smelly or it attracts rats. I wondered if anyone else just digs a big whole in there garden and burys any veg and garden waste. Also I seam to have a lack of worms in my front garden is that going to cause problems? Im not looking for soil for next year just a bit or recycling.

Jack's_mummy

afsha wrote: »

Im not allowed a compost bin because there too smelly or it attracts rats. I wondered if anyone else just digs a big whole in there garden and burys any veg and garden waste. Also I seam to have a lack of worms in my front garden is that going to cause problems? Im not looking for soil for next year just a bit or recycling.

Who says you aren't allowed one? Mine is neither smelly or has attracted rats.

However I think the bokashi (google it or I think there may be a thread on here somewhere) system means you can bury the veg waste straight in the garden

Primrose

Afsha - if you really can't have a compost bin (and there is no reason why they should be smelly or attract rats) you can bury small amounts of kitchen waste in holes in the garden, or even, in warm weather, lightly fork it into the surface of your soil. The combination of rain and sun will cause the soil to warm up and it composts down pretty quickly. In parts of the garden where I have poor soil, I often adopt this approach, and fork in carrot peelings, chopped up cabbage stumps, broad bean pods, apple cores, etc, as well as grass clippings. At this time of year it often virtually decomposes within a couple of week, although in autumn and winter when the soil and air temperatures are much lower the whole process will take considerably longer. I've read the theory that composting material down in this way temporarily removes nitrogen from the soil but I've never noticed any adverse affect on any of the nearby plants and soil treated in this way does tend to hang onto its moisture slightly longer.

akh43

Has anyone ever converted an old black plastic dustbin into a compost bin, is it possible? Want to try and recycle and compost more but they are £27 to buy in my area and I have an old black bin in my garden doing nothing.

Any tips on how to do this (if it is possible) appreciated.

Thanks

chivers1977

Could uou not just cut the bottom out of it and sit in on the soil? this would work exactly the same as a bin. You won't have a fancy hatch but my real compost bin doesn't and it isn't a problem

afsha

Thanks you for your replies will now investigate bokashi composting.