@micmarg welcome to the forum and to the joys of composting 🤣🤣 I'd say that you should just stick it all in and in the end it will breakdown in a useable compost. Personally I mow absolutely everything that goes into the bins but a shredder will do the same and will definitely speed things up,I also turn it weekly at least, take the temperature, talk to it and sometimes I'm even tempted to give the heap a cuddle. All of which is clearly bonkers 🤣🤣 and confirms that composting can lead to delerium (that's definitely spelt wrong), however it's 2 years since anything from a chicken carcass or weeds have gone into my brown bin.
I'm pleased someone else is bonkers, I go to sleep at night thinking about compost! Sad isn't it. I've 5 dalek bins but could fill them in a day with all the "stuff" I've got as I don't have wheelie bins or a normal binman even. I live so far from a road and the track is too narrow for the bin wagon to negotiate so the council sends a Transit pickup every 2 weeks to collect whatever bin bags I have managed to drag down to the gate (and that's a fair way). The joys of country living.
Everywhere I go, ingredients to add are on my mind. At work, I have pots scattered around near kettles for used tea bags and fruit peels. It all goes in although the tea bags are emptied before getting added.
I stir my compost mix roughly every 2 weeks. Some do mix it round, some dont. I suppose as long as the ingredients are as small as possible when added, they will rot down and the worms will do the job.
I use twiggy stuff to push the green stuff through, thereby mixing them and stopping too much build up of greeny mush
Therefore, if you save your twiggy stuff til after the greeny stuff so that you can use the former to help the latter through you'll eventually manage to shred both greeny and twiggy and end up with a goodish compost pile
Our Bosch struggles with too much green stuff as well, but very good for twiggy stuff and buddliea prunings. Two advantages of weekly turning, one it lets in air and Secondly it disturbs any rats who thought they might take up home in there, which they do! We are using our compost now in planting holes and bottoms of patio tubs that we started off in March, having used up all last years on the garden through winter and early Spring. Like others here, OH is obsessed with it😀😀😀 I don’t mind though it’s done a marvellous job on soil improving here over the years, I never use any fertiliser on the ground, if you get you soil in good condition it will make all the nutrients your plants need.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Many thanks all you composters. It's good of you to take time to comment. I think we should have a "Compost Corner" where all you experienced guys can give your tips and tricks and little stories to us newbie composters.
Many thanks all you composters. It's good of you to take time to comment. I think we should have a "Compost Corner" where all you experienced guys can give your tips and tricks and little stories to us newbie composters.
I have six daleks but the first one I got is now umpty years old and has a baggy lid so I use it for shredded shrub prunings because they take a while and use fungus and beasties rather than worms for breakdown. My shredder is also old, a Bosch and would be thought of as a chipper really, it uses a rotating, notched drum - great for branches up to about an inch and a half thick, not so good for small green shoots so I chuck them on the lawn and mow them up. I got a shredder with a spinning blade on a disk for the small green but it is just a waste of shed space: clogs as soon as you feed it and a pita to unclog!
I try and refresh the bins when I mow but don't do this every time i mow. I take the first dalek in the row off its stack and put it in the extra dalek sized space next to itself, spread the contents and mow. I empty the mowings over the contents and fill the empty bin working my way along the line as I go leaving a bit of old stuff to start it off.
I too wonder if my dalek contents have dried out - are they considered brown now? I reckon yes but I also work hoover contents, paper shreddings and cardboard into the mix so I tend to work on moistness rather than anything else. I have a LOT of mowings so potential for stinking slime - I also have dry conditions being in the East so potential for dried out layers doing nuffink! Hence mixing is the key I feel and the method I've come up with works for me (it's also a workout for me!).
Hope my ramblings are useful, I wasn't mixing as much last year, I maybe did it about three or four times but lockdown has given me more time so started this new regime when I mow. I had a lovely lot of mulch in Spring this year so I'm hoping it will be even better next year.
Keep us abreast of your progress. I'm also very interested in compost. 😁
Posts
Have a look around at some shredders on eBay etc and maybe ask the sellers if they've had success with green/leafy material
I'm pleased someone else is bonkers, I go to sleep at night thinking about compost! Sad isn't it. I've 5 dalek bins but could fill them in a day with all the "stuff" I've got as I don't have wheelie bins or a normal binman even. I live so far from a road and the track is too narrow for the bin wagon to negotiate so the council sends a Transit pickup every 2 weeks to collect whatever bin bags I have managed to drag down to the gate (and that's a fair way). The joys of country living.
I love my compost heap.
Everywhere I go, ingredients to add are on my mind. At work, I have pots scattered around near kettles for used tea bags and fruit peels. It all goes in although the tea bags are emptied before getting added.
I stir my compost mix roughly every 2 weeks. Some do mix it round, some dont. I suppose as long as the ingredients are as small as possible when added, they will rot down and the worms will do the job.
We are using our compost now in planting holes and bottoms of patio tubs that we started off in March, having used up all last years on the garden through winter and early Spring.
Like others here, OH is obsessed with it😀😀😀 I don’t mind though it’s done a marvellous job on soil improving here over the years, I never use any fertiliser on the ground, if you get you soil in good condition it will make all the nutrients your plants need.
I can talk for hours about composting 😂😂
I try and refresh the bins when I mow but don't do this every time i mow. I take the first dalek in the row off its stack and put it in the extra dalek sized space next to itself, spread the contents and mow. I empty the mowings over the contents and fill the empty bin working my way along the line as I go leaving a bit of old stuff to start it off.
I too wonder if my dalek contents have dried out - are they considered brown now? I reckon yes but I also work hoover contents, paper shreddings and cardboard into the mix so I tend to work on moistness rather than anything else. I have a LOT of mowings so potential for stinking slime - I also have dry conditions being in the East so potential for dried out layers doing nuffink! Hence mixing is the key I feel and the method I've come up with works for me (it's also a workout for me!).
Hope my ramblings are useful, I wasn't mixing as much last year, I maybe did it about three or four times but lockdown has given me more time so started this new regime when I mow. I had a lovely lot of mulch in Spring this year so I'm hoping it will be even better next year.
Keep us abreast of your progress. I'm also very interested in compost. 😁