Did some early morning raking of leaves (yes in the dark which is not the sign of a mad man honest) and added them to the heap. As you can see the steam is rolling out of the heap this morning.
@Lyn thanks I'm totally inept at tech stuff and don't even try to turn them.👍👏👏
@Fire I've never been called that before so I'm having a celebratory brew 🎉🎉☕
@Uff the bin was filled with wood mulch on 2nd Sept, I recently added all the tomato leaves from 8 large plants and some trugs of hosta leaf. The wood mulch requires lots of water though and the recent heavy rain has slowly saturated the heap and it really makes a huge difference
I've collected some 120 Lt of apples from my customers garden this morning and they are destined for the bin tonight
You’re lucky to have neighbours who you can collect it from, I take my daughter’s waste and newspapers from someone one, other than that it’s collecting our own. we are fortunate enough to make a good compost in only a few months, where as some I’ve read on here need 1 or 2 years. Because of it having no nutritional benefits, it’s perfect for growing seeds, I’m now getting 100% germination.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Thanks @MikeOxgreen. Just went down the first link and found what I'm probably looking for - the Tekplas large bin with add-on. I may even be tempted to set up a three bay system.
Don't think I'll be competing with the compost experts here anytime soon but I've now set up my new two bay system which will be in the sun as opposed to my existing two (rotting wood) bays under the trees. I'm aiming to get to a point where I buy hardly any compost.
This is the 'kit' before assembly. You can see the slotted posts and the galvanised steel ground spikes (far left) which are sunk in the ground and then the posts fit over them. Sounds really straightforward but in reality it isn't. If your site isn't perfectly flat with nice firm ground or, as in my case, there are footings from an old oil tank, you're left with no alternative but to concrete them in. And if you're a bit OCD like me and can't abide things not being absolutely level or looking out to the eye, you'll spend quite a while with a spirit level, propping things up and do much walking back & forth.
Anyway it's finally set up and I've started filling it. I've got three builders sacks full of shredded Laurel & Berberis to go in, but I've started by transferring some part-composted material from my existing heap, along with its worms, millipedes & all its microscopic goodies. I even went to the carpet shop this morning and begged some waste carpet to cover each heap.
To give you some idea of scale, each bay is roughly 90cm square & 78cm high. And yes I did leave a gap so that I can still paint my walls
So now the neighbours will have even more reason to think I'm very strange.
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
Posts
@Fire I've never been called that before so I'm having a celebratory brew 🎉🎉☕
@Uff the bin was filled with wood mulch on 2nd Sept, I recently added all the tomato leaves from 8 large plants and some trugs of hosta leaf. The wood mulch requires lots of water though and the recent heavy rain has slowly saturated the heap and it really makes a huge difference
I've collected some 120 Lt of apples from my customers garden this morning and they are destined for the bin tonight
we are fortunate enough to make a good compost in only a few months, where as some I’ve read on here need 1 or 2 years.
Because of it having no nutritional benefits, it’s perfect for growing seeds, I’m now getting 100% germination.
🌽 🌽 🌽
Don't think I'll be competing with the compost experts here anytime soon but I've now set up my new two bay system which will be in the sun as opposed to my existing two (rotting wood) bays under the trees. I'm aiming to get to a point where I buy hardly any compost.
This is the 'kit' before assembly. You can see the slotted posts and the galvanised steel ground spikes (far left) which are sunk in the ground and then the posts fit over them. Sounds really straightforward but in reality it isn't. If your site isn't perfectly flat with nice firm ground or, as in my case, there are footings from an old oil tank, you're left with no alternative but to concrete them in. And if you're a bit OCD like me and can't abide things not being absolutely level or looking out to the eye, you'll spend quite a while with a spirit level, propping things up and do much walking back & forth.
Anyway it's finally set up and I've started filling it. I've got three builders sacks full of shredded Laurel & Berberis to go in, but I've started by transferring some part-composted material from my existing heap, along with its worms, millipedes & all its microscopic goodies. I even went to the carpet shop this morning and begged some waste carpet to cover each heap.
To give you some idea of scale, each bay is roughly 90cm square & 78cm high. And yes I did leave a gap so that I can still paint my walls
So now the neighbours will have even more reason to think I'm very strange.
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful