Am I just lazy?

[Dorothy rouse]

Oh dear, I read on here about you all chopping your ' finished plants,weeds, etc' into small pieces before adding to compost bins or leaving on surface to rot down over winter, well I'm in process of 'tidying up' plot for winter, daleks are full, but the stuff isn't chopped into little bits! I'd be there Forever!

Does it matter too much? (Please don't say Yes!)


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[Creemteez]

It'll be ok - just may take longer to rot down.

[chris]

It'll rot down faster when cut smaller. More surface area for the bacteria etc to work on.


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[rustylady]

Plus, if you chop it you can get more in the Daleks

[WendyC]

My lazy way is to put the plant material on the ground and chop with a spade. Can do loads quite quickly and satisfying too. Also works on stuff in the bin. Can't use for very woody prunings but great on brassica stems.

[daviddevantnhisspiritwife]

Not just you Dorothy. I am extremely lazy, only just considering tidying up a little bit...maybe tomorrow or somewhen.

[Two_Sheds]

I don't tidy up until March, when I'm needing the room for spring crops.

Sweetcorn & sprout stalks etc, get left in situ all winter for the weather to break them down a bit (a lot, actually, which makes them easier to eventually get in the compost dalek).
Plus the vegetation gives hibernating insects somewhere to hide out, and covered soil protects against erosion (winter gales & rains can wash topsoil & nutrients away)

[Olorin2001]

Basic composting is putting organic matter in a pile and leaving nature to take it's course.
From there you go into various levels of anal retentiveness about chopping stuff up, getting the brown/green mix right, adding acelerators, pissing on it - which make the decomposing process faster.
I don't chop stuff up, I have three massive sheet steel compost bins six foot diameter and five foot high, the additional volume makes it all work quicker, other people give me their green waste and each year I have a large heap of compost to seive, what doesn't go through go back into the bin for another go. It would take me all year to seive the pile by hand, and here I must admit to being lazy so I made a machine so I can seive it all in an afternoon.
Trommel - YouTube

[Bill HH]

You can allways run the mower over it.

[Glutton4...]

I have two different rules; At Customers' gardens, I chop everything down as and when, and chop it small, so I can get as much in the composter or collected refuse bin. In certain areas I spread the prunings on the ground as a mulch.

At home, I leave it to Ma Nature until I can be bothered!

[Alison]

I only chop up woody stuff as life is too short. Anything not broken down when I want to use the compost gets thrown back for next time. If I spent time cutting it up small I'd have to miss out other jobs and the plot would have more weeds. Can't mow it either as no power at the plot. Doesn't bother me it takes longer as so did the previous stuff so its all fine after the first lot has rotted

[Dorothy rouse]

Yep, I'm a lazy ' non chopper up per ' person ! And not the only one !

Thank you feel better now! Creating a haven for insects !


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[Dorothy rouse]

Plus, if you chop it you can get more in the Daleks

Am now chucking it on top of sheets of cardboard that I've laid over areas that have been harvested, to stop weeds, looks a bit of a mess, but fellow Lottie's are asking what I'm doing? They should be reading the Grapevine?


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[wizzbang]

I don't chop a lot. Just the big stuff. I leave stuff on the surface for the worms and bees and wasps and other insects to feast on which aids breakdown too. If you try to dig it in you could possibly disturb beneficial worms which are very busy at the moment doing their thing before they go deeper into the soil for winter. Ive been a bit busy just lately with a new baby granddaughter so I haven't even had time to cover the kitchen garden with cardboard or any weed protection yet, but I am hoping to be able to do it within the next three weeks or so. Its early days yet to cover it up because of said insects needing the light and sunshine for a bit longer.
What a lovely summer its been!

[zazen999]

Am now chucking it on top of sheets of cardboard that I've laid over areas that have been harvested, to stop weeds, looks a bit of a mess, but fellow Lottie's are asking what I'm doing? They should be reading the Grapevine?


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What you are doing is mulching.