Compost Corner!

[Baldy]

Thought a little thread about compost, compost heaps and related questions and answers might be good.

My question is - how best to compost potato peelings? I reckon I need to dry them out or drown them before composting them?

There are more obvious questions? What is the best mix for a compost heap - how big should a heap be - what is green what is brown?

This is the genesis of a thread I feel.
https://youtu.be/TKn5otfZHxE

[Snoop Puss]

I'm hopeless at making 'proper' compost. I just bung in what I have when I have it. Sometimes it's masses of brown and then a great load of onion tops (like today), for example. I'm about to take my scythe to a load of grass and other weeds still at the pre-seed stage. So that'll be green, I presume, but I have no brown to add to it.

What do people do? Do you save browns or greens till you have the right proportion of the other type?

Edited to add: OH! Maybe I should have watched the video first.

[Baldy]

^^^ nope Snoop - I'm deadly serious
My local council is changing its recycling rules so I need to work out how to compost stuff that I haven't really bothered with before... the Tiswas link was a(n) (humourous) aside.

[nickdub]

A lot depends on your circumstances (as well as how compost generally works best) If you get a lot of kitchen waste for example and unless you are operating on a municipal scale, rats can always be a problem. What I've done is to get a couple of plastic barrels put a metal rod horizontally through the middles and supported them on stands - this obviously gets the whole lot off the ground, it acts more like a wormery than a true composting system.

On the other hand if you're talking mostly about garden waste, grass mowing, hedge trimmings etc a true compost heap will be good - probably the most popular approach is to knock something wooden together out of materials like old pallets and build a couple of open fronted boxes so that one can be filled well the other is maturing.

Autumn leaves are best kept separate, as they decompose differently and will end up as leafmould if left to their own devices in a big bag or whatever.

[bario1]

Hope you don't mind, Baldy, I've moved your thread into the 'Digging Around' section. Carry on!

[Baldy]

Digging around... digging around? What is this you speak of?

Ahh.

Not been here before - seems appropriate...

[bario1]

I bung potato peelings in with everything else. Just about the only thing I won't put in my compost bin is perennial weed roots like couch, dock and dandelion. They all go into their own bin where they'll break down eventually.

For browns I use shredded paper which I add to my kitchen compost caddy as I go. I also collect shredded cardboard boxes from a local charity once a month - they have to pay to have them taken away! Lots of shredded cardboard makes for great compost!

[bario1]

Digging around... digging around? What is this you speak of?

Ahh.

Not been here before - seems appropriate...

Whaaaaat? This is my favourite part of the forum! Lots of interesting threads here!

[veggiechicken]

Digging around... digging around? What is this you speak of?

Ahh.

Not been here before - seems appropriate...

Fibber https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ml#post1539717

[Baldy]

Blast your eyes VC
Blast your eyes...




btw the drain pipe oxygen thing was massive fail and I'm back to daleks...they may not manage stairs but I seem to be able to do compost in 'em

oh dear https://youtu.be/3_cJ9BlMCw8

[SarrissUK]

I don't tend to compost potato peelings, only because I boil them up and bung in rolled oats for the last five minutes as a treat for my chickens. They can't eat raw peelings, hence the boiling.
I do compost almost all of my paper and cardboard waste, and in fact, I don't have a shredder, so I make absolutely sure that all stuff with my name and address on it goes in the compost bin rather than the recycling.
I don't know what the appropriate mix actually is, but I bung in what I have at the time. It tends to be more greens than browns. I aim to turn the dalek every couple of months (in reality once or twice a year haha). I crush up all my egg shells and chuck them in too. But no weeds. None at all. They all go in the juice bin that smells so divine lol

[self-contained]

I have a pile of stuff behind my shed that wouldn't fit in the green waste bin last year. Mostly grass and privet trimmings. The bottom layers have rotted down into surprisingly decent looking compost and I was excited when I found it as it wasn't exactly a planned compost pile (more of a where-can-I-hide-this-stuff pile). Sadly, it must have been nice and warm over the winter and the neighbour cats have chosen to make it their poo spot. It's absolutely full of the stuff, so I'm not keen to put it anywhere near my fruit and veg.

My composting endeavours this year are going to be largely confined to my lovely wormery. I'm feeding it with lots of fruit and veg scraps, but also lots of torn up paper and card.

Once I have a proper garden of my own, I definitely intend to start much bigger composting adventures. It just seems such a shame to start it off here if I'll have to just leave it behind when I move.

[SarrissUK]

Ah yes, the beloved pets that make their mark haha I have seven cats and two dogs, so my veg beds have plenty of that in it, and there's not a thing I can do about it. It's not harmed me in any way as far as I know *twitch twitch* haha

[veggiechicken]

I use the chooks as compost activators and turners. They have all the edible veggie waste - potato peelings are boiled (like Sarris does).
Junk mail (not shiny) is shredded and, either used as kindling or dumped in the chook run for them to play in. They mix it with the wood shavings and poo from their "kennel" and the green waste and weeds.
Its regularly cleaned out and either spread on the garden and put in a compost bin to stew a little longer.
Its easy with chooks.

[Baldy]

^^^ yes Mrs Balders has got a bee in her bonnet about 'chooks' but I have this strange feeling that it might not be her or the little balderings that end up looking after them...
Anyhow - chickens are good for composting - good to know...