I've never used a commercial accelerator, only the stuff I produce myself and droppings from sheep, chickens etc. Take it out and mix it up; mix in some fresh stuff - grass cuttings are good as an activator, as is urine (from either sex!), chicken/sheep/hamster/guinea pig/horse/cow/elephant manure - whatever you can get hold of.
It's important to have a good mixture: green stuff like grass cuttings, soft weeds & food waste are all nitrogenous and soft; leaves (small quantities only), shredded paper & cardboard, very thin twigs, hollow stems from old annuals etc. are all 'brown', tougher stuff and supply more carbon. Mix them up well, make sure it's all nicely damp and include as much air as poss. Activator too if you want, as above
It should get too hot to hold your hand in. When it cools down, turn it and it should heat up again. Or don't - it'll just take longer. Ideally the heap should be at least a metre cube, to retain heat. It's possible to get good compost out in a couple of months in the summer, longer in winter.
Unless you have a large garden, getting enough material is the problem. I used to get bags of grass cuttings and leaves from the grounds at work and horse manure from a stables.
Working for ICI you saw chemical experiments. All the mens toilets suddenly sprouted lidded buckets with a funnel, we were asked to sluice our man juice into the bucket a task some found imposible do not ask why. I did ask the Labs why only men the reply was women's hormones caused problems where as Uria was easily produced from the mens urine. It is the uria content that fires up the compost, you could just add granular fertiliser at a handful every few inches of layerd material. I did have plenty of well rotted manure from my Son's farm all added to the compost which gave plenty of heat, it also went into hot boxes, another story.
my home made boxes are high so easier to fill a bottle in the garage door shut away from the window, do not wish to frighten the nieghbours do we.
I have had two compost bins for years, one to be "filling" and the other "resting", but this year the one being filled the has "died". The composting process has just stopped and it has gone cold.
I am hoping that if "we" (OH ) can pull some of the top stuff out, mix it up and add water and some compost acellerant it might start "cooking" again. It has never failed like this before. Could it have dried out with the very hot weather? We cannot turn it over. but after the "resting year" we get rather lumpy but very sweet smelling compost out of it .
I love reading these threads.. but I always fail, we have a huge garden, plenty of chicken and duck manure (mixed with straw) everything a compost heap could need and I get slime.. sigh. I suspect it gets too wet.
never have a compost heap stopped making them many years ago,i think what you get from them, considering the work making them, is very much overrated.
i have an allotment and about the beginning of June i take out my runner bean trench, across my plot, for the following year and everything that would normally go on a compost heap goes in the trench.
the result is that over the years i have been doing this i now have a plot that is very fertile to a depth of about two foot.
to the people who do all their gardening in their back garden and have no option but to have a compost heap why not use the contents of the heap to make up your own potting compost by mixing it all with some sharp sand and a small handful of phostrogen.
Good video for beginners, glad he dispelled those myths, blight, shredding paper and sieving😱 You can see that he put sheets of paper on just scrunched up, allows more air. We do just as he does and there’s enough compost to cover the garden every Winter/Spring, whenever you choose to do it, obviously winters best then the worms take it down and chop it up for you. As he said, you don’t need to turn or mix but if you do it will make quicker that will also disturb rats so less chance of them breeding in there. If you don’t have enough brown waste, ask your neighbours for newspapers junk mail cardboard boxes, I collect mine from someone else.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
What do people think about the 'Dalek' type bins? I've been using one for a couple of years now and the most difficult thing about them is not being able to easily turn the mix. I'm thinking to abandon that and knock up a three sided, timber open type.
Posts
I've never used a commercial accelerator, only the stuff I produce myself and droppings from sheep, chickens etc. Take it out and mix it up; mix in some fresh stuff - grass cuttings are good as an activator, as is urine (from either sex!), chicken/sheep/hamster/guinea pig/horse/cow/elephant manure - whatever you can get hold of.
It's important to have a good mixture: green stuff like grass cuttings, soft weeds & food waste are all nitrogenous and soft; leaves (small quantities only), shredded paper & cardboard, very thin twigs, hollow stems from old annuals etc. are all 'brown', tougher stuff and supply more carbon. Mix them up well, make sure it's all nicely damp and include as much air as poss. Activator too if you want, as above
It should get too hot to hold your hand in. When it cools down, turn it and it should heat up again. Or don't - it'll just take longer. Ideally the heap should be at least a metre cube, to retain heat. It's possible to get good compost out in a couple of months in the summer, longer in winter.
Unless you have a large garden, getting enough material is the problem. I used to get bags of grass cuttings and leaves from the grounds at work and horse manure from a stables.
Working for ICI you saw chemical experiments. All the mens toilets suddenly sprouted lidded buckets with a funnel, we were asked to sluice our man juice into the bucket a task some found imposible do not ask why. I did ask the Labs why only men the reply was women's hormones caused problems where as Uria was easily produced from the mens urine. It is the uria content that fires up the compost, you could just add granular fertiliser at a handful every few inches of layerd material. I did have plenty of well rotted manure from my Son's farm all added to the compost which gave plenty of heat, it also went into hot boxes, another story.
my home made boxes are high so easier to fill a bottle in the garage door shut away from the window, do not wish to frighten the nieghbours do we.
Frank
I have had two compost bins for years, one to be "filling" and the other "resting", but this year the one being filled the has "died". The composting process has just stopped and it has gone cold.
I am hoping that if "we" (OH ) can pull some of the top stuff out, mix it up and add water and some compost acellerant it might start "cooking" again. It has never failed like this before. Could it have dried out with the very hot weather? We cannot turn it over. but after the "resting year" we get rather lumpy but very sweet smelling compost out of it .
Suggested solutions greatfully recieved.
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
I love reading these threads.. but I always fail, we have a huge garden, plenty of chicken and duck manure (mixed with straw) everything a compost heap could need and I get slime.. sigh. I suspect it gets too wet.
I will do you a swap. Half each of our compost bin contents. .
'You must have some bread with it me duck!'
never have a compost heap stopped making them many years ago,i think what you get from them, considering the work making them, is very much overrated.
i have an allotment and about the beginning of June i take out my runner bean trench, across my plot, for the following year and everything that would normally go on a compost heap goes in the trench.
the result is that over the years i have been doing this i now have a plot that is very fertile to a depth of about two foot.
to the people who do all their gardening in their back garden and have no option but to have a compost heap why not use the contents of the heap to make up your own potting compost by mixing it all with some sharp sand and a small handful of phostrogen.
makes wonderful stuff for containers.
You can see that he put sheets of paper on just scrunched up, allows more air.
We do just as he does and there’s enough compost to cover the garden every Winter/Spring, whenever you choose to do it, obviously winters best then the worms take it down and chop it up for you.
As he said, you don’t need to turn or mix but if you do it will make quicker that will also disturb rats so less chance of them breeding in there.
If you don’t have enough brown waste, ask your neighbours for newspapers junk mail cardboard boxes, I collect mine from someone else.