home grown compost

[Mantha81]

I've got some compost that I've been making for three years. A good lot of it is rotted but a lot is still unusable. I've used kitchen peelings, tea bags, plot clearings, old compost, toilet roll tubes, odd bit of grass. Surely the bottom should be fully useable by now!

The bottom is still quite lumpy and in my opinion still needs time. How do I speed it up and make it into a good compost?

[zazen999]

Difficult to say without seeing it; can you post a photo? Do you just keep piling it on top or have you got 3 separate piles? Do you turn it at all?

[oldie]

How are you composting-Dalek, open heap, wooden bins? Have you ever mixed it, used an activator of some kind like comfrey tea/leaves?

[taff]

turning it regualrly, say once a week , will speed it up.

You won't ever have compost that looks like the compost you get in bags because that's been sieved, or smashed to start with [ shredders etc], but as long as there aren't any recognisable bits in there, like teabags etc [eggshells won't rot down either, smash them up before you put them in], then it's fine to use. You'll still have twiggy bits because they take an age to rot down, but pull any large twigs out, and put them back on the bottom once you've taken out what you can use.
good compost doesn't smell, and it should be moist, dark and crumbly. Lumpy is fine too.

[Aberdeenplotter]

Yups, keep turning it, aeration is the secret. A scattering of soil every so often will get it moving as will a handful of granular fertiliser

[Mantha81]

[Mantha81]

[Mantha81]

I am Dalek composting. I have two bins, pictures above are of the one I have queries on this time round!!! The 2nd bin I mainly use for grass clippings.

[Two_Sheds]

The 2nd bin I mainly use for grass clippings.

You can't just put grass in, it becomes a horrible slimy unrotted mess

Use the grass clippings in 2" layers in with your 'normal' compost.

Daleks should rot down much quicker than 3 years: at the moment I'm turning and emptying mine every month. Yours looks very dry: put a can of water in them every now & again

[Mantha81]

Sorry I'll clarify, the second one hasn't just got grass in it. But I put grass in that one and not the other, it had peelings and clearings too!!!!! Re the dryness, I thought that after taking the pics, will get the hose pipe out! Thank you :-D

[ugley_matt]

Pee in a bottle, mix a bit of water, and pour that in. Urine is a very good activator. Do you shred everything that goes in?

[Mantha81]

I can't bring myself to per in a bottle, I'm not a bloke! And I don't shred... Should i?

[Two_Sheds]

You don't need to shred, but the smaller the bits are, the quicker they rot down (more surface area for the microbes and bacteria)

As for pee, you can use a potty/bucket/whatever. You may go "eeeugh" but urine is sterile when it leaves the body, and contains NPK so is a good plant fertiliser and compost activator. That's how Nature intended it.

[Florence Fennel]

Mantha don't worry, you don't have to use urine! I cut everything up before it goes in the dalek and smash eggshells as they don't seem to rot down if you don't. I alternate the layers of veg peelings etc with paper and egg boxes. If I were you, I'd tip that dalek out and either give it a good mix and put it back in, or extract the useable compost and put the rest back in to rot further.

[Jono]

I often clear the bottom of my daleks into plastic bags, especially in the summer. These get hot quickly and finish the compost off.