So a morning temperature 🌡️ update Just need to figure a way to get the heat up a pipe that's 90 mts long to heat the house
Dunno about the house @Wilderbeast, you'd surely need to up even your composting game to generate enough heat to make that worthwhile, but I reckon you could prolly rig up a relatively simply system to economically make use of it to heat a greenhouse say..
Ok so I needed to add a laughing face😜 to my last post, I didn't really mean it 😜😜. I was previously mentioned in camp wilderbeast and I did have plans for a greenhouse heating system, alas I was made to move my compost system out of view by Mrs Wilderbeast.
@Chris-P-Bacon I follow Charles Dowding too, I'm not a disciple though and aren't completely tied to his no dig religion 😂. I find his trial beds very interesting, all are the same size, all grow the same veg each year, each autumn 1 bed is dug over incorporating compost, 1 bed has really well rotted cow manure added to the surface without digging and the 3rd has compost (without manure) spread on the surface without digging in. Since year 2 the composted bed has been the top performer for weighed produce and little work effort.
I don't add lots of manure to my bins in terms of volume to what I produce, I don't add any fertilizer to my veg beds and have had excellent crops. No idea about nutrition of the compost and to be honest I'm not hung up about it, as long as the veggies are happy all is good.
Anyway on a happy note I snook out today and defied the environment agency, I decided that until the pen pusher sends me a letter saying I must stop then I shall continue. Oh aren't I wild 😜😜
Yeah, I take from it what either suits or is applicable to me. Don't worry about the EA...they're that short staffed you'll unlikely to ever have one turn up. Actually two . They worry that a lone EA warrior is more susceptible to being thumped! And they generally will only show up if they can guarantee a result...those boxes need ticking!
Would be interested to know what you compost gurus think about this. I have just been listening to a Charles Dowding podcast, and he says you can have too hot a heap, which will destroy the valuable microbial benefits of your compost.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
For many years we made 'hot' compost. A big black conical bin inside a big greenhouse, with lots of grass clippings added -- it got hot. After a week this was transferred (shrunk down by then) into a smaller plastic bin alongside the black one in the greenhouse. It would heat up again but not as hot. In week 3 it was barrowed to the outside block- built bin to mature. This system produced wonderful compost, it really did. Free of weed seeds and full of life. I think the heat if anything activated a lot of life. Because I now manage on my own I have stopped doing it in this grass/labour intensive way and make the compost just in the block-built bins. I mulch mow a lot more to save time and effort but still use collected grass clippings to help heat things up. I no longer add anything that's going to seed in order to cut down on future weeding, as this cooler method doesn't kill the seeds, and I find fewer worms etc in it than there used to be in the compost produced in the old way. I miss doing it really, but have to accept that two have become one and there's a limit to what can be done. I'll always make compost. There must be as many different ways as there are gardeners but I think there's room for them all. No one person has the answers when gardens and climates are so diverse. Let's share, in a friendly way, what we do, in the hope of fostering an interest in composting among new readers of the forum.🙂
@punkdoc I don't have the scientific friends that Charles Dowding has prove or disprove either way, I'll keep the hot method while I can as it's the only way I can make the quantity I do in the space I have. Mine does fill right up with worms and long fungal strands once it's left to mature and cool done
it is a really interesting subject, and I am a total luddite. I have always made my own compost, but all I do is throw a good mix of green and brown into my bins, then hoick it out about a year later. it seems to work, but I am sure i could do much better and I don't make nearly enough for my largish garden.
How can you lie there and think of England When you don't even know who's in the team
But it works, @Punkdoc, what you're doing, it's working for you. That's good. I sometimes feel a bit wistful as I put seeded plants into the council green bin, but like to think that their system will convert what I can't, into something useful.
Posts
Don't worry about the EA...they're that short staffed you'll unlikely to ever have one turn up. Actually two . They worry that a lone EA warrior is more susceptible to being thumped! And they generally will only show up if they can guarantee a result...those boxes need ticking!
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
This system produced wonderful compost, it really did. Free of weed seeds and full of life. I think the heat if anything activated a lot of life.
Because I now manage on my own I have stopped doing it in this grass/labour intensive way and make the compost just in the block-built bins. I mulch mow a lot more to save time and effort but still use collected grass clippings to help heat things up. I no longer add anything that's going to seed in order to cut down on future weeding, as this cooler method doesn't kill the seeds, and I find fewer worms etc in it than there used to be in the compost produced in the old way.
I miss doing it really, but have to accept that two have become one and there's a limit to what can be done.
I'll always make compost.
There must be as many different ways as there are gardeners but I think there's room for them all. No one person has the answers when gardens and climates are so diverse. Let's share, in a friendly way, what we do, in the hope of fostering an interest in composting among new readers of the forum.🙂
it seems to work, but I am sure i could do much better and I don't make nearly enough for my largish garden.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
I sometimes feel a bit wistful as I put seeded plants into the council green bin, but like to think that their system will convert what I can't, into something useful.