Compost questions - spent and homemade. What do I do with it?!

Posts

• B3 Posts: 27,505

  8 February

  Use it as mulch or add fertiliser and use it in pots but keep them weeded. That's what I do. I don't expect my home made compost to be sterile . Maybe compost from fancy composters are weed free. Mine extracted from the bottom of my heap is fertile but weedy . I can live with that but some can't.

  In London. Keen but lazy.

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• StephenSouthwest Posts: 635

  8 February

  I wouldn't compost to a compost bin, simply because it's already composted, so it's a bit of a waste of time and energy.

  I tend to mix in old compost with new, or mulch the veg bed with it, or mix it into pots...
  

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• Fairygirl Posts: 55,117

  9 February

  I use spent compost for starting new seed off, or it can be used as a mulch, borders or pots, in the same way home made compost can be used. You can also re use it for potted plants, with some food added, and that will just depend on the plant and it's requirements. Many need very little feeding. 
  Home made can also be used for seed or potting on, but it often needs sieving well as there will be lumpy bits or pieces of woody material in it. Depends on the type of seed you're sowing of course. 
  You can certainly put spent compost back in a compost bin, but most people will find better uses for it 

  It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
  
  
  
  I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...

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• JennyJ Posts: 10,576

  9 February edited 9 February

  I sometimes brush old potting compost into the lawn as a top dressing. It's usually recommended to use a sandy loam mix (if you're going to bother at all) but my soil is sandy enough already. A surprising amount will pretty much disappear into the grass after the next heavy rainfall.

  Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
  

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• Butterfly66 Posts: 970

  9 February

  I used to always mix the old compost for my spring bulbs, then when they were done mixed half with new compost so I needed to buy less. The rest was just spread onto the garden as mulch. I say used to as I haven’t bought any in for a couple of years. I always bought peat free and rarely had problems. I’ve stopped as reducing plastic use.
  
  I use home-made compost as a mulch for the garden and a layer on my greenhouse beds at the start of each season. Also now use it, mixed with garden soil, to set off my seeds. It’s weedy but I know my weeds so easy to recognise any coming up, some are welcome and simply transferred elsewhere (violas, evening primrose etc) if wanted.
  
  
  

   If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
  East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham

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• Fire Posts: 19,096

  9 February

  michellellew said:

  Last year I used bought peat free in my greenhouse and it was a complete disaster.

  It might benefit from another year of composting to finish it off. I find that adding some old compost to new compost in the bins tends to speed things up. Adding a bit of garden soil helps too.
  

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• michellellew Posts: 26

  9 February

  My greenhouse has a concrete base so use pots, hence lots of compost!

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