British Expat Forum

A steaming hot pile of compost.

I have come to realise there is quite an art to producing a good compost pile, but I think I have finally got it!

Yesterday, when I went out and performed the once weekly ritual of turning the pile of weeds, grass clippings, vege scraps.....there it was....steam!
And when I plunged my hand into the epicentre of this great pile.....it was decidedly 'hot'

I have been making compost for a number of years now.....but never with such success as my latest pile.

Admitedly I took a lot more care with this one. I did it in layers (like they tell you in the book....when all else fails, read the book ).

I started with some ash from a spent fire (I don't know why I did that.....something told me it might be a good idea!) and then I spent a morning sorting out the great pile of tree branches, weeds and mess that I had been piling up for a few weeks.

No more throwing whopping great weeds onto the heap and expecting them to mulch down after a few months.....everything was chopped up into smaller pieces and then layered onto the pile, with grass clippings and a bit of blood and bone sprinkled liberally through. All the fallen leaves from last autumn were added (our Autumn is March, April,May).

Oh joyous day!.....after only a few weeks of building this compost, it's now cooking up beautifully.

Further to the above posting........does anyone know of what not to add to a compost pile?

I don't put rose prunings on, although I do add most everything else. My neighbour recently saw me adding some ivy trimmings to the compost and told me that wasn't a good idea
- any thoughts?

Wow, Mojan! Thanks for describing this - and in such detail too.

Clarkie will love you for this posting. He revels in his steaming piles too.

Have you seen this article?
http://britishexpat.com/leisure/clark-in-the-park/never-underestimate-number-twos/

No. I haven't seen that article Kay and thank you very much for pointing me in the right direction. (I have now printed it out in readiness for the building of my next compost).

Composting can be very rewarding as Mike points out in his article.
I normally have 4 different composts on the go at any one time.

I have two of those plastic rotating bins (although mine are not of the 'golden trimmings' variety Mike ). I find these two bins quite handy as far as saving space. Although the one drawback I have found with these, is that if you leave them for longer than a week without giving them a turn, you are likely to end up with a damp, claggy, not so pleasant smelling mess. But keep up with the turning and the finished compost seems to form quicker than those done in the open air.

The other two compost piles are tucked away behind the shed and out of view of the rest of the back garden. One of these is a mature compost pile, almost ready to be applied to the garden beds and the other one is a newer pile which I keep adding to every time I work in the garden.

Thanks for all the handy little hints in your article Mike.
Note to self.........pick up a bag of chicken manure next time the boot is empty (and you have no passengers in car!!)

PS......I also got some handy hints from your excellent article on carrots......'No flies on my carrot' - this is something I have had little success growing in the past - but spring has sprung in Oz, the soil is warming.....carrots here we come!!

Know something, Mojan? It is just so nice to get positive feedback. If I share my limited experience, and somewhere along the way it helps somebody, that's great, and that's what it's all about.

But when someone actually posts here, as you have done, it just kinda makes it all worthwhile.

Thank you for your kind comments.

PS Remember your heap needs nitrogen to accelerate decomposition, and the best and purest form of nitrogen is urea. So pee on your heap at every opportunity.

Mike

Peeing on the compost might be perfectly acceptable for the male of the species.........we females prefer to take a different approach when adding nitrogen to our compost!!

I've always heard (or read) that you shouldn't put animal products into your compost. I think it is because of the risk of attracting rodents or other vermin.

Also, I don't add cooked stuff...leftovers from the children's veggies, for example. I also don't know the logic here...perhaps because once it is cooked, there is no 'good' left in it?

As for peeing on it, that's what the 7 year-old grandson is for .

Makes no difference whether it's cooked or not, jaj. But you're quite right about meat or similar leftovers. Anything non-veggie attracts vermin - and it doesn't decompose at the same rate as the vegetable matter.

But don't forget you can include in your compost anything which began life in vegetable form - newspaper, wool, teabags, etc.

I'm trying to train Jake-the-Dawg to pee on my heap, but he prefers the herbaceous border

Mike

People round here have big, open heaps. And grass snakes love 'em. My neighbour dug 120 grass snake eggs out of her heap last week (six clutches of about 20 eggs each).

In France, the local rubbish tip accepts garden waste. They shred it and compost it (in heaps about 20 feet high). Then they give it away free to anyone with a car boot or trailer and the energy to dig themselves a helping.

Sutton council collect garden waste free of charge. They make compost from it and sell it to anyone who wants to buy. Seems fair enough to me - and it reduces landfill costs.

Most local authorities in the UK do this now, though it hasn't reached me yet. Not that I would give away such a valuable resource.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Dundee City Council were pioneers in the UK. Marketed as "Discovery Compost" (City of Discovery, based on RRS Discovery, Scott's Arctic research ship, now a major tourist attraction in the city's docks), this composted waste was being marketed to the trade when I was in commercial landscaping - quite a few years ago now.

Mike

Wifie says Edinburgh did it in 1959, then gave up later (like so many of the earlier recycling schemes, given up because they were 'uneconomical' - meaning the calculations didn't include all the relavant costs).

I always thought garden waste and Dounreay had something in common

Mike