I only put ornamentals in the compost - weeds in green bin.
Just filled up a dalek today with shredded tree branches from a broken tree branch, fallen apples and lawn mowings. Expect that to be cooking away tomorrow.
I decided to gather up all the leaves that had fallen onto the nearby borders. There was quite a deep covering over the plants and soil so it did look a lot better once I had finished.
Not a good idea to have bare exposed soil if you can help it - it's not good for the soil and it only encourages weeds to germinate. A good covering of fallen leaves makes a good mulch and will improve soil organic matter content as the worms etc break them down and incorporate them. Obviously you can brush them off the plants if they're covering them. If you're dumping them at the back then possibly they're not breaking down very fast because they're not getting enough rain and are too dry. Plus they'll break down faster in a thin layer over the soil than piled in a heap.
Steve I don't even trust my own compost, let alone the Council stuff which may (or may not) have nasty weed seeds/roots in.
The municipal compost is made at such a high temperature that pretty much everything nasty (weeds/plant pathogens) is going to be killed off. My one potential concern with it is the possibility of lawn weedkiller residue (clopyralid) which isn't degraded much by composting. Having said that I did get a large lorryload of the stuff delivered in the spring - it makes an excellent mulch for the vegetable beds and bare soil between/under plants in the borders. No weedkiller problems yet although obviously that could vary between batches.
Several years ago I nearly got a job as a technician at a municipal composting site. My duties would have included scaling the 10m-high heaps every morning and thrusting in a thermometer to measure the temperature at various points. Once it fell below 60 deg. C, the bulldozers were called in to turn the heaps and make them heat up again. SO they get pretty hot and do indeed kill everything in there.
BUT there's no guarantee it's free of bits of plastic, glass and metal. That depends mostly on what people put in.
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I only put ornamentals in the compost - weeds in green bin.
Just filled up a dalek today with shredded tree branches from a broken tree branch, fallen apples and lawn mowings. Expect that to be cooking away tomorrow.
I decided to gather up all the leaves that had fallen onto the nearby borders. There was quite a deep covering over the plants and soil so it did look a lot better once I had finished.
Not a good idea to have bare exposed soil if you can help it - it's not good for the soil and it only encourages weeds to germinate. A good covering of fallen leaves makes a good mulch and will improve soil organic matter content as the worms etc break them down and incorporate them. Obviously you can brush them off the plants if they're covering them. If you're dumping them at the back then possibly they're not breaking down very fast because they're not getting enough rain and are too dry. Plus they'll break down faster in a thin layer over the soil than piled in a heap.
Steve I don't even trust my own compost, let alone the Council stuff which may (or may not) have nasty weed seeds/roots in.
The municipal compost is made at such a high temperature that pretty much everything nasty (weeds/plant pathogens) is going to be killed off. My one potential concern with it is the possibility of lawn weedkiller residue (clopyralid) which isn't degraded much by composting. Having said that I did get a large lorryload of the stuff delivered in the spring - it makes an excellent mulch for the vegetable beds and bare soil between/under plants in the borders. No weedkiller problems yet although obviously that could vary between batches.
Exactly so, Onopordum.
Several years ago I nearly got a job as a technician at a municipal composting site. My duties would have included scaling the 10m-high heaps every morning and thrusting in a thermometer to measure the temperature at various points. Once it fell below 60 deg. C, the bulldozers were called in to turn the heaps and make them heat up again. SO they get pretty hot and do indeed kill everything in there.
BUT there's no guarantee it's free of bits of plastic, glass and metal. That depends mostly on what people put in.
I am finding bits of rubbish in the potting compost I buy in garden centres. Perhaps we need more sceening of garden waste.