All I can say Artjak is my bins have been up and running in this garden for 28 years and never a sign of a rat and before that several gardens with never a sign of a rat. My problem is the snails think it a five star hotel so I take a bucket of water and domestos to rid them of the idea, never fancied eating them.
Frank- you've been luckly re the rats then. Mind you I've not had signs of activity for about 3-4yrs. I regularly sweep up from the bird feeders & look out for any signs of holes being dug into bins/under the fencing.
We back onto non-maintained open ground & I know they're around there. We didnt have any problems until some drain bloke left a land drain cover off for several hours one day, several yrs ago, whilst trying to sort out a blockage further up the road. Ratty then found my food waste compost bin! J.
If you have problems with rats in compost bins avoid putting potatoes or potato peelings in them - my potato farmer brother says "rats will gnaw through concrete to get at potatoes"
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Hmmm, OK guys. I have had a look at the link Gardengirl and have a better understanding now. I think I have too much brown in mine at the moment so will sort it tomorrow. Rats? Dont like the sound of them wee buggers in my heap How do I know if I have them then???
Rats would dig holes to go under compost so you would probably see holes going into the compost area. Sure they would rush away fast as would be scared.
You could have a small bin/ bucket that you put in veg scraps indoors or just outside your house - then you don't need to walk to the compost heap all the time when the bin/ bucket a bit fuller put in you compost heap. You don't put cooked food in normally but if you have a wormery you can - (strange)
Jo, we had a huge midden behind the stables, you could open a hatch and throw the manure and straw straight into the midden, it also had the pig hen duck and goose cleanings plus garden waste, it was always steaming and did have the odd rat. When Dad told me to fill a barrow to spread on the garden from the composted end I would put my Terrier Peter in there first, he was a whiz at killing them so they did not hang around. Just give them room to flee, if you corner them they will bite. We would start the Hot Box every year from the hot end of the midden and bales of straw, we ate fresh veg from that hot box until the spring sowing was ready, two or three weeks later.
Artjak, my Fathers one interest apart from his business was gardening, he had grown up in that walled garden and smallholding which had to feed extended family in need well before my time, he knew every trick of the trade. Each Autumn he would assemble wood panels as if for a raised bed in a sheltered spot next to a south facing wall so they got the most of any winter sun. Next went in bales of straw, we had plenty from the farm and I do mean bales not a covering. On top of that went raw manure out of the midden a plentiful covering on top of the straw. More straw went on the manure a good covering then soil on top of that again a good covering and it was left to heat up naturally, if it was wet weather he had glazed panels to cover it. When it was up to heat Dad put boxes of seed on the soil and planted some straight into the pile, he would cover the pile at night and lift the glass during the day. His motto was if you cannot eat or sell it then it is a waste of space, we had fresh spring cabbage beans and peas long before anyone else, he grew melons, marrows (we ate a lot of them) and some soft fruit, but he also brought on his Chrysathemum roots to take the cuttings, he loved them and showed them at the local shows. When the pile had run its course we dismantled it and all the content went into the midden for next years compost. Unless you had access to raw manure it was not viable so fell out of fashion as tractors do not produce the raw material. I watched a program last night that said the calorific content of fruit and veg had fallen drastically as modern techniques put in the minimum feed needed to produce the crop. Us "auld lads" brought up in times of good gardening with "olde" fashioned ways of doing things have said that for years, nothing tastes as it once did. In these modern times I have a sand box in the greenhouse with heating wires in the sand and a thermostat, it does the same job only on a lesser scale. That apart from a frost guard fan heater is all the heat I use.
Been out sorting out a few buckets of veg scraps and other bits today into compost bin, compost outside filling up nicely did notice a hole in one compost bin a rat maybe but not there when I put compost in- sure it must have just popped in for a bit of food and left
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All I can say Artjak is my bins have been up and running in this garden for 28 years and never a sign of a rat and before that several gardens with never a sign of a rat.
My problem is the snails think it a five star hotel so I take a bucket of water and domestos to rid them of the idea, never fancied eating them.
Frank.
Frank- you've been luckly re the rats then. Mind you I've not had signs of activity for about 3-4yrs. I regularly sweep up from the bird feeders & look out for any signs of holes being dug into bins/under the fencing.
We back onto non-maintained open ground & I know they're around there. We didnt have any problems until some drain bloke left a land drain cover off for several hours one day, several yrs ago, whilst trying to sort out a blockage further up the road. Ratty then found my food waste compost bin! J.
If you have problems with rats in compost bins avoid putting potatoes or potato peelings in them - my potato farmer brother says "rats will gnaw through concrete to get at potatoes"
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It also saves the odd potato plant appearing in the flower borders!
J.
Hmmm, OK guys. I have had a look at the link Gardengirl and have a better understanding now. I think I have too much brown in mine at the moment so will sort it tomorrow. Rats? Dont like the sound of them wee buggers in my heap
How do I know if I have them then???
Rats would dig holes to go under compost so you would probably see holes going into the compost area. Sure they would rush away fast as would be scared.
You could have a small bin/ bucket that you put in veg scraps indoors or just outside your house - then you don't need to walk to the compost heap all the time when the bin/ bucket a bit fuller put in you compost heap. You don't put cooked food in normally but if you have a wormery you can - (strange)
Jo, we had a huge midden behind the stables, you could open a hatch and throw the manure and straw straight into the midden, it also had the pig hen duck and goose cleanings plus garden waste, it was always steaming and did have the odd rat. When Dad told me to fill a barrow to spread on the garden from the composted end I would put my Terrier Peter in there first, he was a whiz at killing them so they did not hang around.
Just give them room to flee, if you corner them they will bite.
We would start the Hot Box every year from the hot end of the midden and bales of straw, we ate fresh veg from that hot box until the spring sowing was ready, two or three weeks later.
Frank.
Palaisglide; I heard about the hot box system for the first time a few years ago, could you explain it to us?
Artjak, my Fathers one interest apart from his business was gardening, he had grown up in that walled garden and smallholding which had to feed extended family in need well before my time, he knew every trick of the trade.
Each Autumn he would assemble wood panels as if for a raised bed in a sheltered spot next to a south facing wall so they got the most of any winter sun.
Next went in bales of straw, we had plenty from the farm and I do mean bales not a covering. On top of that went raw manure out of the midden a plentiful covering on top of the straw. More straw went on the manure a good covering then soil on top of that again a good covering and it was left to heat up naturally, if it was wet weather he had glazed panels to cover it. When it was up to heat Dad put boxes of seed on the soil and planted some straight into the pile, he would cover the pile at night and lift the glass during the day.
His motto was if you cannot eat or sell it then it is a waste of space, we had fresh spring cabbage beans and peas long before anyone else, he grew melons, marrows (we ate a lot of them) and some soft fruit, but he also brought on his Chrysathemum roots to take the cuttings, he loved them and showed them at the local shows.
When the pile had run its course we dismantled it and all the content went into the midden for next years compost.
Unless you had access to raw manure it was not viable so fell out of fashion as tractors do not produce the raw material.
I watched a program last night that said the calorific content of fruit and veg had fallen drastically as modern techniques put in the minimum feed needed to produce the crop. Us "auld lads" brought up in times of good gardening with "olde" fashioned ways of doing things have said that for years, nothing tastes as it once did.
In these modern times I have a sand box in the greenhouse with heating wires in the sand and a thermostat, it does the same job only on a lesser scale. That apart from a frost guard fan heater is all the heat I use.
Frank.
Hi Sam
Been out sorting out a few buckets of veg scraps and other bits today into compost bin, compost outside filling up nicely did notice a hole in one compost bin a rat maybe but not there when I put compost in- sure it must have just popped in for a bit of food and left
Have you sorted out your compost heap a bit more?