I have my household on a recycling regime that has taken our landfill waste output down to one medium-sized garbage bag every two weeks. Glass goes to the recycling center, paper, cans, and aluminum get taken away by the city council. And anything that can rot goes on the compost heap.
Here’s where the problem lies: the compost heap refuses to rot. I think it hates me. It’s a brooding presence in my garden, mocking me with its non-compliance. “Feed me, jjimm, feed me now!” it says every day, so I put all grass clippings and hedge trimmings on it, together with kitchen waste, but when I dig into it, all the food I put on it months ago is still largely identifiable.
I’d really like to use the compost in the garden, but it’s entirely unusable, even after one and a half years of existence. Anyone got any ideas how I can persuade it to do its job?
Is the heap open, or boxed in? If the former, it might not be getting warm enough. You could try getting worms - they speed things up. You can buy them mail order. If you get a wormery thing as well you can drain off the liquid compost (or worm juice as my boss has it) which is a good liquid feed. I think there are particular species recommended. Compost worm or tiger worm I think.
make sure you mix “green” and “brown” stuff. Sounds like you’re light on brown stuff (shredded dried leaves, dried grass clippings, etc. – you can use torn-up newspaper [b/w only, not the colored sections] for browns as necessary).
aerate it. The easiest way is to make a chimney for the middle of the pile out of chicken wire or something – depending on how big your pile is, maybe 8 or 12 inches in diameter.
turn it – somewhat optional, depending on your patience, but it sounds like yours could use it.
Your best bet would probably be to devote an afternoon to doing all three at once –
Pull everything out of the heap.
Create a chimney out of chicken wire and place it in the middle.
Put everything back in, mixing in “brown” material. Try to leave air in as you do – “fluffy” is good – I like a pitchfork for this, kind of sprinkling stuff in a little at a time.
Also – is the overall texture wet or dry? I’m envisioning wet – but if it’s dry, that may be part of your problem: stop and soak down each foot or so of material before you add the next layer. If it’s sodden, the brown stuff will soak up some of the excess moisture.
Thanks, Sir Doris. I hadn’t thought of worms. Well, actually I’ve been thinking about worms all weekend, because it just cost me €70 to get them out of my cat. Dunno about buying them mail order - that’s the kind of thing that Ireland is rubbish at. I might see if there are any available at the garden centre, or just dig some up from the flower bed.
I think you’re right about the temperature - it’s not boxed in at all, just held in place between two planks. Maybe if it gets warmer (note I say if) in the Spring it might start getting a bit jiggy wi’ it. Are there composting fluids one can buy?
Sir Doris posted while I was still previewing: Worms are also good, but you may not need to import them – when my pile is behaving itself, the worms find it. If you’ve got a sodden mass, I’m not sure the worms will be able to do their thing. (I’m having a rather sad vision of teeny little worm corpses…)
Yeah, newspaper is great in the garden – it’s also good for weed suppressing: Lay down several sheets over the area, cut holes for what you’re planting, then add an inch or two of compost over the whole thing.
In the compost pile, though, remember to tear it up – I do long strips which I then wave around to fan them out before throwing them in. You don’t want it to mat down.
I like to use sawdust from a cabinet mill for my browns. If you can get hold of any manure, that should get things heated up. You will likely want to box yourcompost in a little better. I built a bin out of forklift pallets & plywood about 3 feet square. I use a mix of 2 to 1 of greens to browns, with grass clippings, vegetable waste, coffee grounds and manure for the greens and sawdust, dryer lint, fallen leaves and shredded paper for the browns. I keep mine moist, about the consistency of a sponge held under the tap and then all the water squeezed out of it. My compost worked faster when I turned it often 2 summers ago.
When it does start to compost, it will get HOT inside. I don’t use any worms in my compost pile because they would just cook.
You could make a servicable compost bin from a 55 gallon drum. I have seen them, but don’t know where to find the plans for one.
Something that I am enthusiastic about and cannot add anything of overt intelligence that Twisktser and Sir Doris haven’t already put in a more cohesive manner.
It won’t stop me from trying, however.
A very effective manner to keep compost getting the right amount of air is bales of straw. Just block them up around the pile and they are a self contained wonder that eventually decompose unto themselves and provide air nicely.
You know those bottles of crappy wine and cases of flat beer that you have ( yes, you.) pour a pint or two into your compost pile every so often and mix. The yeast in beer and wine helps activate the (insert gardening term here) in the compost, thus breaking down the heap faster. (learned on Paul James the Gardening Guy, HGTV) And makes you feel better about getting rid of the left overs from parties than tossing them down a drain.
Avoid milk, meat and grease. not only will it smell, it attracts animals. ( I add milk and yogurt, as I don’t have a smell issue here)
Another cheap compost bin can be made out of the “free pallets” that are always available near large companies. After six years, my pallet compost box is just starting to look a little seedy and that is only the eye& hook door for the large loads and churning it about. ( I tend to be very hard on this door when it is laying on the ground.) The rest is in A-1 shape.
Take your time and remember my motto: **Compost Happens! **
( I can die a happy death now that I’ve contributed to a Compost Thread!)
My compost heap is huge - 4’x4’x3’, but I do a lot of gardening and all stuff goes in there. Some food peels don’t break down quickly, but with my gardening wastes things got a lot better when I got a chipper/shredder and started shredding stuff like stems and leaves.
If you can break your food wastes down by shredding (especially stuff like orange peels and other thick rinds/peels), things might move faster. I have heard an old food processor will do the job.
I don’t know shit about compost (should that be ‘manure’?), but just to make you envious, at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew they go from raw waste to rich compost in nine weeks! So proud are they of their compost heap they built a viewing gallery!
Isn’t there some sort of compost starter you can buy? Might want to look into it, to see if it’s worth getting/safe. My dad had his compost in a couple of big plastic rain barrels with holes punched in the sides, to aerate he’d just roll them around a bit. You can buy them ready-made these days. Not moist enough was our challenge.
Congrats on reducing your trash to just a half bag a week!
There is a kind of compost starter here, but it doesn’t look like they ship outside the US. They also say “only from Gardens Alive” but I know I have seen compost starter available elsewhere. My dad uses this kind of stuff with his compost, and it seems to help.
Also, the worms you would want to use with compost are redworms. You might want to check out the book Worms Eat My Garbage.
Sounds like you need soil, jjimm. Maybe worms too.
I second the recommendation of that Worms Eat my Garbage book.
Whatever you do, think before tossing meat in quantity onto the compost heap. I spent a week in a place in farming country that had an outdoor composter where they threw in meat. It was full of maggots. (“Wow! Look at all the rice! …Wait a minute. They’re moving. That’s not rice…”) The smell was indescribable.
My apartment worm-composter is vegetables-only. No smell or anything. I started with a red plastic bin, worms, and a mixture of soil and grey fluff from newspapers. The only problem I’ve had is stuff sprouting in the bin; I guess I didn’t bury it deep enough. (I bought my composter at the Grassroots place mentioned in the linked page.)
Second the comment about worms finding your pile. They found mine - and not from the garden, which was awful when I started the pile. Now there are worms everywhere.
I got a nice bin from the city, for almost nothing. Some are sold with cranks that you turn every so often. Mine is modular, so every year or so I take the top layer off, but it next to the bin, move the top of the compost to it, and take the nice soil out of the bottom.
As for manure - if there are riding stables near you, they’ve probably got plenty of manure that they’d love for you to take away. We own a horse, and every six months or so we load eight or nine big garbage bags from deep in the pile into our pickup. My garden has gone from awful clay to nice soil thanks to the manure and compost. However the manure is nitrogen poor, so you’ll need some additives.
I never tried putting the manure in the compost pile - but it’s been fine without it. I never put meat in. Paper towels, though, have worked fine.
