Old Compost Heap
zoecordey85
Posts: 4
Hi,
I'm extremely new to gardening however, very much enjoying the hard graft and satisfactory feeling you get after seeing your hard work pay off. I recently moved into a rented house (sept 2015) and the garden was hugely overgrown. I began cutting it back in March/April to ensure maximum enjoyment during the summer months, although now learning I'd have been best off doing much of the hard work in the Autumn. Anyway, there has been an old fashioned green tub bin sitting at the end of the lawn since I moved in, and I imagine for many years before this (as I know the rented house has been tenanted for more than 5 yrs). It is obvious that the previous tenants did nothing in aid of tending the garden, which means I've always been slightly afraid of opening the bin to discover its contents! Today I did just that, and found it is full of what appears to be a lot of compost, ridden with worms and very sweaty looking! It is obvious that it has been in there a long time (at least 4 yrs I'd say) untouched. I do actually need compost, as I have just spent a lot of time killing off a large area of flower bed that had been choked by a large creeping plant. I would like to top soil the area and plant some grass seed.
My QUESTION IS, is it okay to use the compost that is in this green bin, or is it too old now? Any help would be well received as I am very new to this! Sorry for the long winded story, but I felt the history was important!
Thanks, Zoe
Posts
The fact that you didn't say the smell knocked your socks off is a good sign. If there are worms in it ...also a good sign. I don't see that any harm will come from using it but let's wait till a grown up comes just to make sure.
Excellent news! Definitely no bad smell, I suppose my concern is that although it is clearly compost, it is just very very moist in there, should I use as is? Or dry it out... somehow? Meh - who needs grown ups when you have google
It will be fine to mix in the top soil as preparation for your grass seed. Just spread it out and fork it in the top few inches.
Okay perfect, just now need to pluck up the courage to disturb what's in there! Hah.
FYI zoecordey....these people ARE google.
if i was you i'd half lift it off and bang on the sides loudly so anything that can run out can do so haha ive got a compost bin that is used daily for composting kitchen waste and i'm scared of emptying it
don't stick a fork in it just incase a hedgehog is inside, they are not scary at all
Last edited: 15 May 2016 20:35:34
@Sanjy67 What a brilliant idea! Will need a very long poking device as don't want to be in too close proximity to anything that may want to jump out and face hug me. The bin is completely enclosed so its very unlikely anything bigger than a worm/sloworm will have managed to get in there, so I guess I just need to face my fear! The majority opinion seems to be it will be fine to use, so I will go on ahead with caution! I'm glad I'm not the only one who's a tad scared of emptying their compost bin
If its the dalek type, they can be lifted off the contents like a jelly mould, anything unrotted goes in the bottom of the new heap.