Question:
Can we have a list from all the composters of all the things which are good to compost & all the things which are bad
Any help greatly appreciated as i have a nice new bin to fill
Answers:
Your compost should be made up of 50% green material and 50% brown.
Brown - Egg boxes, loo rolls, tea bags, small pet bedding, Newspaper, human hair and animal hair, Contents of vacuum cleaner, snotty tissues, ash, charcoal from BBQ and bonfire remains, egg shells.
Green - hedge trimmings, grass cuttings.
And did you know you can wee on compost to speed up the process because urine is rich in nitrogen?
AVOID - dog and cat poo, cooked vegetables and meat
Got this from ITV's This Morning site hope it helps
Aslo remember some on on OS saying that urine is very good for composting
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cant imagine peeing on my compost heap!!!
what about cotton wool balls when used? are onions ok? oh yeah what about potato peelings & unused potatoes chopped up?
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Onions and all veg peelings are ok. I empty my vacuum cleaner in the composter, also crushed egg shells, tea bags, shredded paper etc and yes urine speeds up the process but the men in the house won't oblige and I don't fancy perching on the edge - very risky.
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I'm an active composter but am having problems with rats. Any suggestions?
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I'm an active composter but am having problems with rats. Any suggestions?
You can't compost rats.
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You can't compost rats.
Oh that tickled me!! Thanks
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I had a leaflet which said no potato peelings, gawd knows why, because I've had no trouble with them.
Definately a bad item is wood pellet cat litter, it is just compressed saw dust, so it should compost very well, but if you put too much in it becomes very compacted and will just sit there doing nothing for years, I suppose in small quantities it will not be a problem.
Cooked vegetables, they always say not to use this, I can't see why not, it's organic, biodegradeable, will rot down in no time, I would have no qualms putting it in my bin. but then I eat all the veg I cook anyway!
I put dead mice and birds in that the cat brings home too. I will put anything in my compost if it is left over food, I don't subscribe to this idea of no meat, no fish no bread etc. If it's organic and its left over it goes in the compost bin.
In reality though I hardly ever have anything left over, but some items (just to give you an idea of what I do put in) would be yoghurt, bread, mozarella cheese, pasta, cooked fish.
fallen leaves are good.
In my experience turning a compost heap is too much like hard work, so mine just sits there, I have two compost bins and work on the principle that if one ever becomes full I can start the other one. I am yet to get some satisfactory compost though, I am close to it in one bin, I just emptied all the saw dust from bin 2 and spread it on the garden as a mulch, then transferred the semi compost from bin 1 to bin 2 (gining it some air in the process) so I have bin 1 empty, and bin 2 3/4 full but still not good enough, I'll leave it till next year.
tissues & cotton wool, go in my bin too, if it's organinc it goes in.
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I am not loving mine. It is turning a little like sludge and there are hundreds of incredibly tiny flies that sit inside it and puff up on you when you open it.
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Polly have you though of having a container in the toilet for your OH to use, then you could just empty that on to the compost.
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My husband loves weeing in the compost bin. Makes him feel like he's on some mountain adventure of something, getting to wee outside. I only let him do it at night though. At least it saves me the worry of a container...
We put all our friut and veg scraps in there, even though things like oranges aren't supposed to be that good. No meat though, ever. Things like shredded paper too. Can't imagine any indentity theives groping around in there to find our details!!!
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when you say loo rolls do you mean the cardboard roll that you get when the roll is finished
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when you say loo rolls do you mean the cardboard roll that you get when the roll is finished
You can put anything organic in. Cardboard is compressed paper, and will eventually rot.
I imagine the poster did mean the cardboard roll, yes. If you want to make it go quicker cut it or tear it into little bits first.
You can also do egg cartons and the cardboard trays they sell things like avocados and kiwi fruit on, which are made from a lightweight cardboard almost paper mache material.
Gingham,
Take out your sludge, try to find some dry leaves, or wood chippings, then mix it up and put it back in, if you have lots of sludge you'll need twice as much dry material interspersed. You can also use cardboard items described above.
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Hi
Re weeing in the compost bin - I've heard Bob Flowerdew on 'Gardeners' Question Time' refer to this as 'recycled Guinness'.
My DH says he can no longer reach up that high. I'm trying to persuade him to wee into a bucket and then tip it into the compost bin.
We usually have 3 bins on the go at any one time. One is filled up then left alone to rot down. The middle one is half-full, it's the one I'm keeping an eye on because it will soon be ready to have the compost bin lifted off it and a heap left for the birds to forage in, then used as mulch. The third one is being used at the moment. We keep a 'green bucket' with a lid in the kitchen for peelings, tea-bags, coffee filters, coffee grounds, and when the bucket is full I take it down and tip it into the third of the bins. I line the bucket with newspaper - that's another thing you can use for compost, newspapers, but you have to keep it damp. Not soggy, not dry - damp!
I've put in cardboard, egg-boxes, the cardboard centres of loo rolls, tea-bags, coffee filters, all kinds of fruit and veg. What don't rot down so well are twigs, hedge-clippings, those kind of things. But that's OK because we have a 'green recycling' garden waste collection service here - the 'green bin' gets collected fortnightly. You pay £39.99 every year though, and obviously a lot of people don't like doing that because neighbours put lawn mowings and dead plants into their normal wheelie-bin, so it just goes into landfill, which is getting scarce, and in decomposing causes methane gas.
Another point is: best to have a bin with a lid on to discourage rats. Also put it in a sunny position - the heat generated speeds up decomposition.
HTH
Margaret Clare
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some good replys so far, great.
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Some of the ingredients depend on whether you are building a hot heap or a cool heap.
There's a brilliant guide on the website.
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I know you shouldn't put perennial weeds in a compost bin but is that just the roots or the whole plant, I just cleared a large garden of thistles and dandelions and wonder if I cut the roots off, if all the greenery could go in the bin?
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I know you shouldn't put perennial weeds in a compost bin but is that just the roots or the whole plant, I just cleared a large garden of thistles and dandelions and wonder if I cut the roots off, if all the greenery could go in the bin?
It's all in the link
There's a brilliant guide on the website
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I currently compost all uncooked vegetable waste and have twice had problems with rats. It is an open based bin, and they either tunnel under or get in and out through the front hatch.
Does anyone know of any rat proof compost bins?
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You could make your own using wire mesh, construct a cube out of the stuff you'll need a 10mm grid and then build or buy a wooden cube compost bin
Where to buy wire mesh? look for sheet metal in the yellow pages.