Home composting

[Nanny Chicken]

Morning all

I recently decided to give up my allotment and have a go at growing my veggies at home in the garden and in containers. I bought home from the allotment my black plastic composter so that I can continue composting at home.

At the allotment we had a compost bin made from pallets and each visit we would take our food waste, chicken waste and any spent seed compost and chuck it in in layers with a few egg boxes etc. We had planned to build a second bin and so our composting material has sat at home on the drive in bags waiting for the day when it would grace our new compost bin. That second bin never materialised.

The food waste is in with the chicken waste which includes their old bedding (straw) and the spent compost is in separate bags

My question is this - can I chuck all the "live" stuff that has been fermenting on the drive into the new plastic composter or will it have done its thing by now and not react with the other sack contents/fresh stuff and turn into anything useful?

I hope this makes sense. It's not particularly a hassle to take all the "live" stuff to the dump and start again - the hens give us plenty of (ahem) "contributions" and the kitchen caddy is full to bursting at present - but I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

[marchogaeth]

I'd say mix it all up together as much as possible and chuck it in - air and chicken manure should go like a bomb!

[Two_Sheds]

can I chuck all the "live" stuff that has been fermenting on the drive ...or will it have done its thing by now and not react with the other sack contents

compost doesn't "react" as such, and you may be over-thinking the whole thing. Stuff rots ~ leaves rot, trees rot, everything rots eventually. Nature doesn't mix things into layers, nor add any kind of activator.

Bacteria, slugs, snails, worms, millipedes, woodlice, fungi and lots of other organisms break organic material down into smaller and smaller pieces, until finally it resembles what we call "compost"


What will help your stuff to rot in a quicker timescale is:

- warmth (site your heap in a sunny spot if poss)
- moisture (chuck a can of water in every so often)

[BUFFS]

compost doesn't "react" as such, and you may be over-thinking the whole thing. Stuff rots ~ leaves rot, trees rot, everything rots eventually. Nature doesn't mix things into layers, nor add any kind of activator.

Bacteria, slugs, snails, worms, millipedes, woodlice, fungi and lots of other organisms break organic material down into smaller and smaller pieces, until finally it resembles what we call "compost"


What will help your stuff to rot in a quicker timescale is:

- warmth (site your heap in a sunny spot if poss)
- moisture (chuck a can of water in every so often)

and give it a good stir once a month if possible, with the other things you will make great compost and if using a lot of "wet" stems and leaves, or grass, add ripped up cardboard to balance it all stopping any chance of it going slimy...

[BUFFS]

my grandfather taught me the basics and emphasised that you don't need to buy any "activator" as the active ingredient is found in male urine (or female?)which explained why there seemed to be no toilets on the allotments, they kept a bucket in the shed and it went on the compost heap, and before anyone goes uuuggghhhh nature has been using this fact for millions of years, from millions of animals...its just ammonia and part of natures recycling...

[Two_Sheds]

- warmth (site your heap in a sunny spot if poss)
- moisture (chuck a can of water in every so often)

to make a successful compost heap, you also need:

- carbon (straw, newspaper, card, loo rolls etc) (to balance the green stuff)
- oxygen, for aerobic decomposition (air gaps are naturally created by putting in balled up newspaper, loo rolls, occasional chunks of big twigs)

[Two_Sheds]

before anyone goes uuuggghhhh ...

... just think for a minute about all the insects, birds, hedgehogs, foxes, rats, mice etc pooping and peeing on your veg garden when you're not there

[marchogaeth]

Pee is just brilliant stuff. We have a bucket outside the house in the shrubbery and nip out to it as long as the weather's not too awful. Each night it goes on any crop that needs nitrogen or into one of the compost bins.

[marcofez]

Shall have to try some "urine" on the compost, instead of p----ing it up the wall at the pub! Might get double pleasure from drinking the beer and eating my crops!!!

[marchogaeth]

Shall have to try some "urine" on the compost, instead of p----ing it up the wall at the pub! Might get double pleasure from drinking the beer and eating my crops!!!

Make sure you get it on at ground level for plants like lettuce etc (I know some people won't use it on edibles). I do dilute it with water if I'm doing a whole bed of say celeriac/turnips/leeks if I want to make sure all the plants have had some. Of course bringing it home from the pub can cause some problems, you will have to start home brewing.

[Nanny Chicken]

Ahem guys...when you've quite finished

Thanks once more to the Grapevine family for your helpful comments.

Home composting mission phase 1 completed yesterday

In went all the sacks of goo. We started with a couple of spent compost to soak up all the lovely juices that were to follow and then added the sacks of food waste and chicken do do and bedding. We stirred, gagged, walked away, stirred again, and complained about the burning off of our nose hairs and laughed a lot - trying not to open our mouths!

We (well DH) cut the grass and we added in a couple of thin layers of grass clippings as well as a couple of layers of kitchen roll tubes (won't need them for the leek bed up at the allotment after all now) and in no time at all peace was restored. Bags of fermenting goo gone from the driveway, a nice cut lawn in time for the showers that followed and an alleyway complete with new composter surrounded by air fresh as a daisy.

Thanks again for your advice - please feel free if you see me on other posts bumbling around the issue to tease me about over thinking things. I need that poke in the ribs from time to time....and by the way fellas my OH uses his "compost accelerator" as a fox deterrent around our chicken run :0

Marchogaeth - I have not forgotten your advice (from another thread) about posting on the introduce yourself thread. I just really needed to get those sacks off my driveway. See you around

NC

[Keeks]

Pee is just brilliant stuff. We have a bucket outside the house in the shrubbery and nip out to it as long as the weather's not too awful. Each night it goes on any crop that needs nitrogen or into one of the compost bins.

Now I am not trying to discourage anybody from using Pee as it is a brilliant activator for compost, but people shouldn't use pee if they are sick or on medication.
There maybe unwanted pathogens that sick people shouldn't really be passing about or it is possible that medications in urine can have a harmful affect on plants.

It's highly unlikely that sick people with the flu for example are going to get out of their sick bed to pee in the garden, or that medications will be in large enough quantities in urine to cause harm, but just best to be sensible with pee use.


Sent from my iPad using Grow Your Own Forum

[Two_Sheds]

We stirred, gagged, ... complained about the burning off of our nose hairs

Done properly (ie with enough carbon/browns to balance the nitrogen/greens, the compost heap won't smell. I have 2 daleks full of dog poop, 12' from the kitchen door, and nobody knows they're there

people shouldn't use pee if they are sick or on medication.
There maybe unwanted pathogens

A little sensible consideration is required here. I'm not going to pass on a cold via my pee, and no harm is coming to anyone or any thing from the minute traces of tramadol that may be in my pee, which anyway is quickly broken down by the "good" bacteria in the environment

[marchogaeth]

DA little sensible consideration is required here. I'm not going to pass on a cold via my pee, and no harm is coming to anyone or any thing from the minute traces of tramadol that may be in my pee, which anyway is quickly broken down by the "good" bacteria in the environment

Exactly .

[marcofez]

I'm going to use it as an activator for my compost.