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Cardboard on compost
Stephanie newish gardener
Posts: 516
Hi
I know you can put cardboard on the compost heap and I also know you should tear it up and not put too much on at once, but I've never found any pics of how much, how big and so on.
Part of me thinks it doesn't matter that much, but part of me is that uncertain person still learning as I go along. Having got the compost wrong in the past by just not thinking about it enough, I'm now in danger of thinking about it too much.
Could any of you friendly lot comment on the pic below please? Polite/constructive comments preferred....! 
Thanks
No longer newish but can't think of a new name so will remain forever newish. 
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Looks all right to me! As long as it's layered with stuff that's got some water in it, such as kitchen scraps or grass clippings.
Looks good to me too - make sure you add some water for moisture ?
When we moved house, I laid out whole sheets of cardboard packing boxes layered with grass, they all broke down ( apart from the odd bit of sellotape I missed)
It needs watering in
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Thanks all. I try to give each layer a bit of a stir, really just by twisting a big fork round in it vertically each time I put a layer on. I then try to give it a proper turn every 6 ish weeks. Our problem at this time of year is that we have way more grass clippings than one heap can manage - the lawn is about 1400m square. This year for the first time we have taken builders bags of clippings to the tip where they will compost them
I shall give the heap some water later today
Last edited: 13 July 2017 10:03:40
If you remember you need equal amounts of greens to browns, you can put in much more than that.
I collect card, cartons and junk mail from other places, it all goes on except the plastic coated stuff and very glossy.
I found a fascinating little book all about using human urine as fertiliser. One suggestion was to fill a plastic box or dustbin with corrugated cardboard and tip freshly-voided wee in it. If you let the wee stand for more than half an hour or so, the nitrates turn to ammonia which plants can't use. If you add it fresh to something high in carbon, it stabilises the nitrates. So the book says. I've done this for three years, using two dustbins and the first wee of the day, as that's the most concentrated. I left it for two years, then used the resulting sloppy mess to manure some raised beds I've just built. (It didn't smell bad.) Too soon to judge the results.
I get quite a lot of cardboard as I shop online a fair bit. It all ends up on the garden one way or another: in the wee bins, or torn up in the compost bin as you've done, or laid flat on the veg plot after cropping, and covered with shredded hedge clippings.
I also put all the waste paper through the shredder, (the office one, not the one the hedge clippings go in!) and in the compost bin it goes, mixed with grass clippings, nettles, comfrey or any other green stuff that's available. Egg boxes are good in compost too, as they've already been mushed up once. And toilet roll middles.
When out in the garden, if my husband needs a wee he will pee directly on the heap (we have no neighbours and the compost heap cannot be seen from the road!) Not heard about making fertiliser with pee and cardboard though, so will be interested if anyone has experience of the results
I have a black, plastic enclosed composter at home (with lid & hatch) and one at the allotment - the one in the garden got too wet so I was adding a lot of cardboard but I shred it (in the paper shredder) - I tear up boxes into strips to shred and collect in a carrier bag - when full, it goes in the compost and is mixed in.
The allotment compost bin has a lot of bad stuff in it; weeds, roots, couch grass etc so I'll leave that a couple of years or more - plenty of urine goes in there to break it down - I collect it in 2 litre plastic bottles but obviously it's a bit of a pain - comfrey leaves or tea is also very good for breaking compost down and adding to its nutrient level
Remember to make lots of holes in your compost - I use a sharpened bamboo cane and push lots of holes from the top, all the way down - this allows worms and other creatures better access and aerates it - forking is good too but doesn't go deep enough
Last edited: 13 July 2017 21:54:48
Its a good idea to put a couple of shovels of garden soil in, there's the bacteria then to get it started.
If you can get some horse poo in there it will be smoking in no time.