philippa, I so agree that a compost bin is more interesting than TV! Especially soap operas In a compost bin, you have LIFE, DEATH, DECOMPOSITION; ok you may have that stuff on East Enders, but East Enders does not produce Black Gold - wonderful growing medium for your plants
thanks to the chippings from my friendly tree surgeon, I reckon I've "made" almost 20, yes twenty, tons of compost this year. Can't wait to get using it all up.
Birdy, a domestic bin like a Dalek or a timber one (I think that is called a New Zealand bin) does not get hot enough to kill the seeds from Perennial weeds. One of the new Hot Bins (£150) would kill them. But generally Garden Organic (who train us Compost Masters) say that it is ok to use grass cuttings in an ordinary bin. When you think about how much the wind and the birds distribute seeds around your garden, annual weed seeds from the compost are the least of our problems.
To turn the contents of a Dalek, go on line and google Compost Stirrer. Mine is shaped like an arrow and is very useful; there is one shaped like an auger (drill bit) which may demand less welly to use. Or just shimmy the contents around a bit with a garden fork.
The point is to introduce air to stop the contents becoming anaerobic (smelly/slimy).
Thank you so much for that advice, artjak - I should have thought about the heat aspect although I know I must have heard the point made often enough on the gardening shows. Also I'd not realised that the heat build up could vary that much according to the type of composter.
Just seen the Compost Stirrer on Amazon. Seems so simple and logical. Hopefully the designers will take on board the reviews which state the handle needs to be about a foot longer to facilitate the action of the tool - I think I'll still get one, though.
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philippa, I so agree that a compost bin is more interesting than TV!
Especially soap operas
In a compost bin, you have LIFE, DEATH, DECOMPOSITION; ok you may have that stuff on East Enders, but East Enders does not produce Black Gold - wonderful growing medium for your plants
thanks to the chippings from my friendly tree surgeon, I reckon I've "made" almost 20, yes twenty, tons of compost this year. Can't wait to get using it all up.
Regarding using grass clippings in the compost bin:
1. Is there any risk of lawn weeds multiplying in next year's compost?
2. Do all weeds get killed off by the composting process?
(My bin is Dalek style so I can't turn the heap to help things along...)
if it composts properly, i.e. it's a fine crumbly unsmelly product, then I believe there should be no problem with weeds surviving.
Thanks Hostafan - seems the operative word is 'if' - my compost never seems to rot down enough.
Now, it was a different matter when we had our wormery, years ago: the compost they produced was amazing!
Birdy, a domestic bin like a Dalek or a timber one (I think that is called a New Zealand bin) does not get hot enough to kill the seeds from Perennial weeds. One of the new Hot Bins (£150
) would kill them. But generally Garden Organic (who train us Compost Masters) say that it is ok to use grass cuttings in an ordinary bin. When you think about how much the wind and the birds distribute seeds around your garden, annual weed seeds from the compost are the least of our problems.
To turn the contents of a Dalek, go on line and google Compost Stirrer. Mine is shaped like an arrow and is very useful; there is one shaped like an auger (drill bit) which may demand less welly to use. Or just shimmy the contents around a bit with a garden fork.
The point is to introduce air to stop the contents becoming anaerobic (smelly/slimy).
Thank you so much for that advice, artjak - I should have thought about the heat aspect although I know I must have heard the point made often enough on the gardening shows. Also I'd not realised that the heat build up could vary that much according to the type of composter.
Just seen the Compost Stirrer on Amazon. Seems so simple and logical. Hopefully the designers will take on board the reviews which state the handle needs to be about a foot longer to facilitate the action of the tool - I think I'll still get one, though.
Hmm!
I wonder if I could modify it?
I have one - find it useful to level out the layers as well as mixing