Composting..... first time gardener

[kitchengardener]

Good afternoon all,

i have been chucking all my thinnings and failures etc into a big plastic dustbin with a lid.
I was hoping to make use of it for compost but i have no idea how.

Thanks

[Deano's "Diggin It"]

KG! Just lob everything into it!

Discarded plant tops, Dead headed flowers, annual weeds, grass clippings (Within moderation) but layer with other stuff if possible!

Shredded paper, prunings, just chop em up a little first! anything green really!

Stick the lid back on, and forget about it for a few months!

Once in an occasional while, dig it or tip it out, mix it up a bit, shove it back in again for another good few months!

End result! "Black Gold"

The stuff "Gardeners" can't get enough of!

[Chippy Minton]

If it's a standard bin I'd say you need some holes to let the juices out or it'll go all smelly?

[richie3846]

Don't worry about the juices, but as the bin has no contact with the ground, every time you find a lonely worm with no home, give the poor soul a new home in your compost bin. If you do this regularly it will help speed things up. In, say, nine months when everything is rotted, Save a little of the worm infested compost to start off the next batch.

Don't be surprised if the little worms transform into huge snakes. Some of them in my bin are absolutely massive!

[WendyC]

Don't worry about the juices, but as the bin has no contact with the ground, every time you find a lonely worm with no home, give the poor soul a new home in your compost bin. If you do this regularly it will help speed things up. In, say, nine months when everything is rotted, Save a little of the worm infested compost to start off the next batch.

Don't be surprised if the little worms transform into huge snakes. Some of them in my bin are absolutely massive!

But earthworms are not the same as the red brandling or compost worms you find in compost. If you want to add some you either need to get some from someone else's compost bin or visit a fishing shop. Think you can buy them online too. My MinL obligingly brought me some one time when I had just started my bin when we'd moved house. Otherwise they just appear!

[Potstubsdustbins]

If you want to know about composting you could do no better than read TwoSheds posts on the subject.

[taff]

You need air to aerobically compost.
Sticking in a bin with a lid means no air, it's anaerobic and will smell.

You also need to mix things so that you have quickly composting items, like grass clippings, fruit/veg peelings [greens] with slow composting things like small twigs, cardboard, shredded paper [browns]

You can compost may different ways - you can leave it as it is and it will be a liquidy smelly mess for over a year.
You can compost in a back dalek/pallet/heap/drum style, where the more you turn it, the quicker it composts.
Or heap it and leave it.

You can scatter it on the areas you think need feedings just raw [ I do this for the most part now]. I throw the veg peelings/fruit peelings/teabags etc on the ground and then cover with grass clippings.
It saves having a formal area for now because I intend to change things when I can spend more time on my feet so having one area doesn't suit me for the moment.

How you do it is up to you and it depends on how quickly you want your compost. It only takes about one season to see what works and what doesn't and there are so many methods, pick one you like the sound of and try it out. You can always change next year

[Bill HH]

You need air to get into this, If your bin or heap is on an earth base the brandling worms always seem to come from somewhere. If its dry, wet it, treat it like a huge plant. Turn it and nurture it. Add some newspaper or plain cardboard. All your kitchen peelings except potato skins they tend to grow and pop up all over your garden. The results are a compost the like of which you just cant buy. It is also somewhere to get rid of the above things rather than sending them off to landfill or burning them. The eventual compost is a fantastic mulch that supresses weeds and gets pulled into the soil by worms to feed and condition it.

[arpoet]

beware of putting weeds in that have been treated with weedkillers. Better to burn these or nuke them with a flame gun.

[4390evans]

I put potato skins in last year and found tatties earlier this year so I have resorted to shoving them through a blender just to break everything down and hopefully stopping them from shooting or forming tatties this year. The amount of tatties that we go through in this house I cant bear to think of them just going to waste. Just an idea

[taff]

I found that too but when they're peeled with knife. With a potato peeler, they haven't sprouted so far...

[4390evans]

yeah I use a knife, I just cant cope with a peeler for some reason.

[kitchengardener]

wow! really impressed with this info. thanks so much. i love this site xxx

[Chippy Minton]

I put potato skins in last year and found tatties earlier this year so I have resorted to shoving them through a blender just to break everything down and hopefully stopping them from shooting or forming tatties this year. The amount of tatties that we go through in this house I cant bear to think of them just going to waste. Just an idea

Tomato seeds as well, survive Armageddon those things would.... Tomatoes everywhere....

[Bill HH]

Tomato seeds as well, survive Armageddon those things would.... Tomatoes everywhere....

I use the spud peelings as a surface mulch, if the do sprout its easy to knock em back.