Compost

[Katie77]

Hi, I have recently moved from plastic compost bins to a home made, 2 section, open to the elements compost heap. Can it be left open to the elements all year round or should it be covered? Any other composting advice is welcome!


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[skeggijon]

Ideally it works best in the dark, so would be better with a sheet of black polythene, or a tarp dragged over it. It will work without being covered - it just takes longer to compost down.

[roitelet]

I leave mine open in the summer as they need moisture. I cover them from time to time to speed up the process and when I need to get more material in. Cover them in the winter to stop them getting too wet. If you can put something thick, old carpet or an old duvet over the plastic it helps to keep the heat in.

[crannman]

left mine uncovered in summer and covered up in winter and made some great compost

[arpoet]

I take the lids off my Daleks when, like now, we have some much needed rain. Then I will cover them again tomorrow so they don't get too wet.
Same with my hos muck heaps. At the moment lots of leaves are falling and, as my heaps are under the trees, I get loads of free leaves falling onto them. I will cover them when it turns colder.

[Kristen]

I have huge open heaps, they compost fine although obviously the surface layer doesn't, but that gets turned in (or scraped off and added to the next heap), so not sure that covering so that it is dark would make a difference - not enough heat near the surface for composting "proper" to occur.

I cover with a tarpaulin in Winter otherwise the heap gets too wet.

Best thing for the heap is to pee on it, accelerates the temperature significantly. Perhaps not the best "look" if the heap is in the wide open on the Lottie!

[Two_Sheds]

anything will compost, in any situation, eventually. To make it quicker, you need to provide

- warmth (by keeping a lid on)
- moisture (by watering before the lid goes on)


The lid can be a piece of old carpet


It doesn't need to be dark at all: I do most of my composting in the form of mulch, ie by chopping stuff into bits and dropping it on the soil. It's very much quicker at improving the soil than making a heap, and cuts out all the turning, barrowing, digging, lifting & carrying

[Katie77]

Thank you everyone. Pity we have recently chucked a load of old carpet. My dad has inadvertently added a pile of stuff that was meant for burning that includes bindweed and potato tops. Is this a disaster?! What should and shouldn't be composted? Xxx


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[Chris172]

Hi

On a personal note I would not use old carpets as when I got my allotment three years ago the previous plotter had used nothing but old carpet and it was all over the place have buried and took a long time to organise the beds. The old carpet also was nylon type and would never rot down neither would I burn it as the plot is local to other homes so I have spent two years cutting it up into small pieces and bagging and on the way home to the tip.

Thee are better ways to black out the weeds and carpet for me is at the bottom

Happy gardening


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[Bigmallly]

I don't compost Potato peelings or any diseased plants. Perennial weeds get thrown in a laundry bag which is sunk in water to make a tea. Everything else goes on the heap, trying to keep a balanced mix of greens & browns.

[Martin H]

Re carpets, our allotment site has now banned them. I wish they'd done it before the previous owners of my plot buried all theirs.

Apparently modern carpets contain all sorts of nasty chemicals that can leach into the soil, as well as being a complete pita once the rottable stuff rots and leaves you with thousands of strands of nylon or polyester.

[Two_Sheds]

What should and shouldn't be composted?

Making compost | Recycle Now

is a basic guide, although I compost things on the banned list

[the plumber]

get the bindweed out quick. it will take the garden over.burn it. i,ve been trying to get rid of mine for years.it spreads like fury.

[BertieFox]

We cover compost bins for two reasons: first to keep the rain from washing out all the nutrients, second to retain more heat. But compost will only rot down if it is sufficiently wet in the first place, so never cover a dry heap. The cover also stops weed and vegetable seeds from germinating and things like nettle roots from growing away in the heap, so excluding light helps with this. Here we find covering our bins means the compost gets too dry as we have far less rainfall than in the UK.

[BertieFox]

get the bindweed out quick. it will take the garden over.burn it. i,ve been trying to get rid of mine for years.it spreads like fury.

You can of course put all the really 'nasties' into a sealed black plastic bag and leave it out in the sun for six months or so. You can then add the resulting sludge to your heap, as it is one way of recycling all those minerals and things the bindweed and other perennial weeds have brought up. This is a lot more work of course so I understand why people don't bother.