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How to find or create green material for the compost heap when everything is brown

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  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384
    If you have room, it might be worth considering growing a patch of comfrey near your compost bins for the future.  It's about the only thing still green and lush left in my garden which hasn't had any rain for 7 weeks.  Wonderful compost accelerant.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Bob, do you make tea and add that to the compost? Not the leaves themselves?
  • BobTheGardenerBobTheGardener Posts: 11,384
    Fire, I do make tea but reserve that for feeding my plants.  Comfrey leaves go in the compost heap - either torn up or through the shredder.
    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • herbaceousherbaceous Posts: 2,318
    Leaves also excellent for lining runner bean and potato trenches I have found, the more you cut comfrey down the more you get (even in this weather). But definitely Bocking14 or it all gets out of hand.
    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I understood that comfrey can grow from a small bit of the plant. Is it not a bit of a risk putting leaves directly into soil/compost?
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    I used to add comfrey leaves to my compost in my last allotment with no signs of sprouting, wouldn’t you need a bit of root for that? 

    Any nearby municipal gardens or golf courses you could cadge green waste from?

    I am always short of brown material, mostly because I am too lazy to get the chipper out, so spare green gets dumped in a separate pile until it’s brown. Unfortunately, doesn’t work the opposite way ‘round...
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • herbaceousherbaceous Posts: 2,318
    @Fire the leaves are shredded for compost - no probs so far! I let the leaves in a trench wilt a bit and then they are covered with old compost/shredded paper/shredded leaves/ whatever and soaked before I plant anything. So far no comfrey but lots of blasted geraniums, milkweed, bittercress - you know what I'm saying  :/
    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
  • herbaceousherbaceous Posts: 2,318
    edited July 2018
    @mmjgriffiths don't want to assume anything so thought I'd just say that 'green' usually means fresh rather than dried out. I count stuff like potato peelings as green.
    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I put some Boking 14 in this spring and will be careful to take leaves and no root. I only have room for a few plants, so will probably make tea.
  • herbaceousherbaceous Posts: 2,318
    Very brave @Fire if you only have a small garden! It smells awful while it's brewing  
    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
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