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1 bootful of council compostlooks a lot more like wood chips than the stuff you buy in bags, figure it needs some further rotting down. I was going to stick it all into a homemade composter, 4 pallets, some old pine panelling and some carpet over the top and start chucking green waste in on top of it and give it a regular stir.
1. does this sound about right?
2. would getting son to pee on it regularly be beneficial? I've been told pee is good on compost heaps.
3. how long is it going to take before i get somehting i can use on my veggies?
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Behemoth
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yes
yes
depends 
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1. good
2. son will be delighted
3. depends on what....
I'm not asking for huge amounts of detail about the art of compost, but just 2-3factors that will speed up things most.....
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Behemoth
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Depends on:
airation (sp?)/mixing
contents and blend
heat
moisture
quantity
I guess this time next year.
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thank you.
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gil
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I'd suggest layering the wood chips with green waste, so don't put them all in at once. Saves a bit of stirring, though you still need to turn the heap to get air in to fuel the composting process.
Less than a year, starting now when it's warm weather.
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Treacodactyl
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Depending on what your soil is like you might be able to use it right away. We have a very light dry soil and I don't bother to wait for our homemade compost to fully rot down the wood shavings I add. I just add the bulky matter to the soil and it holds onto the moisture.
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the quantity I have is beyond what I can use now anyway. It's a big bag, like they deliver builders sand in.
I'll start layering it a bit with kitchen waste as i chuck it in, but I don't have a lot of green waste atm.
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gil
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could you get other people's lawn cuttings ?
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next time i see them cutting the park grass, i'll run out and ask for some cuttings. Or i'll go bother the school about it. No house has big enough lawns round here to make it worth chasing grass cuttings.
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dougal
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If you can, stuff the pallets with straw. (I've covered the straw on the open side with textile cut from torn 'builders bulk delivery bags')
The insulation keeps in a bit more of the heap's heat and so helps a small heap to rot slightly faster, and (IMHO more usefully) more completely out to the sides.
To get the heap going at its fastest, you should assemble the browns and greens to make the heap in one go. Yes, that's hard domestically, but the more that goes together in one hit the better.
Worth remembering that coffee grounds, although distinctly brown in colour, are nitrogen rich and so count as a 'green' addition to the mix, like grass cuttings.
I've heard tell that many coffee shops are quite happy to give away their by-product...
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I'll see if there's a coffeeshop near where himself works that will give away stuff.
And I'm not sure where to go to get straw. I was gonna find some old carpet and line it with that.
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judith
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| toggle wrote: | | And I'm not sure where to go to get straw. I was gonna find some old carpet and line it with that. |
A couple of layers of cardboard would do.
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cardboard I can get. always loads about
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judith
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I use lots of it for composting. You can tear up cereal and egg boxes and the like and then fork the bits into the compost to add bulk and aeration. It's a nice destructive job for kids to do!
Then the big sheets are good for topping it off and keeping the pile warm.
Wonderful stuff cardboard!
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dougal
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Cardboard (ideally well shredded) is a substitute for straw as 'browns' *in* the heap.
I was suggesting packing the side pallets with straw to insulate the heap.
With an excess of woody browns (and a shortage of nitrogenous 'greens') there's no need for extra brown (from cardboard) *in* this particular mix.
I'd be worried about using cardboard, or even carpet, for *side* insulation for fear that it would (especially once wetted) greatly restrict ventillation - resulting at worst in a soggy, slimy, smelly and slow anaerobic heap.
A couple of thicknesses of carpet however makes a fair, close-fitting cap for a heap. I keep meaning to construct a close fitting, hinged, insulated, black (for solar heat gain) lid... so I can't yet say how much that might help!
One thing about cardboard - remove any sellotape before composting it! Pulling out streamers (or worse fragments) of tape from the product isn't nice. "Been there." Same goes for natural+synthetic fibre mixes - you get left a mess of the synthetic fibres...
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judith
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| dougal wrote: | | I'd be worried about using cardboard, or carpet, for *side* insulation for fear that it would (especially once wetted) greatly restrict ventillation - resulting at worst in a soggy, slimy, smelly and slow anaerobic heap. |
Nah. Don't you worry. It doesn't.
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gil
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| judith wrote: | | Wonderful stuff cardboard! |
'Tis. I add the insides of toilet rolls to my compost [more 'brown'] - the holes in the middle trap useful air.
Though other folk use theirs for sowing leeks or parsnips into.
Toggle sounds more in need of sources of 'greens'.
Greengrocers waste / trimmings ?
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| dougal wrote: |
I'd be worried about using cardboard, or even carpet, for *side* insulation for fear that it would (especially once wetted) greatly restrict ventillation - resulting at worst in a soggy, slimy, smelly and slow anaerobic heap.
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It's still gotta breathe some, at least compared to a dalek
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James
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yeh, I use carboard. It does breath and doesnt allow compost to sweat and get all clammy, which is when things go wrong. I put some holes in with a garden fork first though
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dougal
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| James wrote: | | yeh, I use carboard. I ... I put some holes in with a garden fork first though |
Sounds prudent!
I gather that some folks do drill holes in unventilated plastic daleks.
A bit of air is good for compost! I'll be using the loo roll idea... 
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