Tim Watts wrote:
Rick Hughes
wibbled on Tuesday 06 April 2010 17:49

OK .. try to do the right things have a large purpose bought compost
container ... put all the right mix of stuff it it, lid kept on.
Occasional addition of Garotta,
Good mix of peelings, trimmings, coffee grounds, some grass cuttings,
leaves, splash of urine etc.

No cooked food scraps or meats.

Output is always disappointing ... seems to be lots of non rotted material
even after 3 or 4 years.
I do turn it fully annually.
For example the eggs shells & tea bags don't seem to rot, and when I put
any of the compost on the garden SWMBO complain it looks like fly tipping
has taken place.



Thought I had today was, could I shovel the output into my shredder to
really mix & break it all up before I use it in the ground ?
Not sure how the shredder would take it ... I'm guessing it should chop &
mix OK ....


Then form this into a separate stage 2 composting pile ... and restart
another new pile.

Egg shells won't rot (at least not in any meaningful time span for compost).
Surprised the tea bags didn't go though... ATM I'm running a compost heap
entirely off kitchen peelings and that's looking rich (apart from the rats
keep nicking stuff[1]

Last time I ran a heap with a lot of garden waste on it, I seeded it with 4
bags of free red hot horse manure (from the steaming pile rather than the 2
year old pile at the stables). That seemed to help considerably. No
chemicals used. Excellent quality output in about 18 months (apart from the
melon rinds - they can be reticent to rot).


last time we used horse manure fresh from the sables, it turned out to
be loaded with weedkiller. The sort that kills all your vegetables.

Finally late last year, the chemical company loaded it all into a lorry
and took it away. Not much compensation for losing half the vegetable
garden last year.

So don't believe all that horse manure about horse manure. Its as
'organic;' as what it was fed on, and if it was fed on hay infested with
weed killer, its a whole lot worse than a dose of phosphate from diw
chemicals.

[1] Need to make a decent rat proof bin, but for now have one of those stand
on the ground freebie council things, bit rubbish but better than nothing).
On the plus side if the rats like my bin, they might stay out of my roof and
shed