Compost Questions

ampleforth

Planning to start a compost in my garden and want to collect some experiences from you, if possible, outside of what I could find online. I have a few questions:

* Do you put egg shelves in the compost? I heard a few times that animal and food left-overs should stay out if it is non-veg... not sure where eggs can be categorised on that. Would be nice to hear from you what you put in your compost and what you leave out.

* Do you build your own compost container or do you buy one? I was told it can work to convert an old trashcan into a compost container and kinda like that idea. What do you use?

* I am worried about the smells as I have a small garden and neighbours (and their gardens) nearby. I know that a good compost should not smell, but I might not be so lucky right away. What are your experiences? Do you know simple tricks to keep it smell-free?

Would be interested in your thoughts.

Tnx, A.

gozunda

ampleforth wrote: »

Planning to start a compost in my garden and want to collect some experiences from you, if possible, outside of what I could find online. I have a few questions:

* Do you put egg shelves in the compost? I heard a few times that animal and food left-overs should stay out if it is non-veg... not sure where eggs can be categorised on that. Would be nice to hear from you what you put in your compost and what you leave out.

* Do you build your own compost container or do you buy one? I was told it can work to convert an old trashcan into a compost container and kinda like that idea. What do you use?

* I am worried about the smells as I have a small garden and neighbours (and their gardens) nearby. I know that a good compost should not smell, but I might not be so lucky right away. What are your experiences? Do you know simple tricks to keep it smell-free?

Would be interested in your thoughts.

Tnx, A.

Eggs shells- yes. If you think smell might be an issue - bake them in the oven until dry and crumble them!

An easy compost bin is an old wheelie bin with holes drilled in bottom. Easy to move etc and has a handy lid.

Keep your compost aerated to avoid any lingering smells. This is easy to do with a long pole (broom handle or similar) inserted into the compost at intervals moved about and repeated to incorporate air which will aid the break down of organic matter and eliminate anaerobic smells such as 'rotten egg' smell being produced

Best of luck with the composting!

New Home

Egg shells are perfectly fine, if you want you can crush them first. I don't get strong smells, except the odd time when the weather is really, really, really warm (like last summer), and I've lots of kitchen scraps (not meat or fish) in it and/or if some insects are get in there (I don't mean house flies or bluebottles), but with the lid on you can barely perceive it. I have a normal composter (one of those that look like Daleks) that I bought off the council many moons ago.

Living Off The Splash

I collected some old one sided pallets and built a frame with them. Put some posts in the ground and nailed pallets to them.

The area is about 4 feet x 4 feet. I fill with grass cuttings, leaves, shredded paper, light shrub cuttings. I have thrown in some eggshells and uncooked vegetable cuttings but not much.

There is no smell from it.

It takes a year for most of it to breakdown. I try and turn it at least one or twice over the year.

Last week the top stuff that had only partly composted I used to mulch around my fruit bushes. The better composted stuff will go in to my raised beds as soon as I can get the willpower to go out and do it. I will dig it in lightly.

I had some trees trimmed in my garden late last year. I saved some branches about 6 feet in length. I will make some frames to grow French beans etc.

Day Lewin

There is a lot of folk-lore about composting so take anything you hear with a grain of salt.

That being said, the basic online instructions are fine for beginners.

When you've had compost for years and years, and it is simply teeming with worms, lice, centipedes, bacteria, fungi etc etc all these invisible hordes will munch up practically anything that is in fairly small pieces and natural in origin.

The old eggshells thing...there's really only one snag and it is quite small: they are slow to break down. Sure, you can dry and crumble them first but its a bit of a bother, yes?
I crush them roughly as soon as I break the egg; but truly, even a year later there are tiny identifiable bits of dry eggshell in the actual compost which I am spreading around my flowers. They break down there and add lime to the soil so I'm happy out, but my kids were freaked out for some reason.

The traditional open bunkers - pallets etc - are easier to maintain by turning over with a fork now and again. A square yard is an ok size.

Smells - not usually as much as people fear. Keep contents covered by shaking some grass-clippings over the top now and again. I stack lawn mowings separately for this very purpose.

(Veteran composter/Master composter)

ampleforth

Thanks for clearing up the egg and smell part, read a lot of conflicting information but with this forum a lot has been clarified.

New Home

TBH, the only time I really got some smell (without the lid on) was when black soldier fly larvae were working at full speed during the warmest days, but they are so brilliant at breaking everything down that I was more than happy to put up with it (they can halve the volume of the contents of the bin and reduce everything to compost in one week or so, but during that time the mass looks like a horror movie, with all the writhing). If you're lucky enough to get them, you'll see what I mean. During mild (not hot) weather they're way more sluggish, but the smell isn't as noticeable. No need to stir anything, either.

dubbrin

I've been composting meat and fish and a lot of other kitchen scraps and waste for a few years now. Each to their own, but the smell is never bad and having made composters from blue drums with good lids vermin/unwelcome visitors is never an issue. My current composting experiment is currently ready for digging into some beds. We've just built a house so I'm trying it out on a permanent garden so I've space and time to work with it. I'm trying to get to the bottom of:

1. What sort of pH will I be dealing with and how will the compost I've made from all sorts of food affect growing? I'm thinking of buying a pH meter to assess the current soil, the compost, and what happens after I add some compost
2. What kind of compost will I be getting from the drum? I've been reasonably careful in that I only add """"organics"""". What I mean is no overly processed foods or anything else, I've been trying to keep what comes out of the kitchen 'clean'. Sure why not, it's going into my food (eventually)
3. Look at the long term - I'll have a small lawn to cut this year so can add some of that, but try to figure out what I can add/increas/cut down on to get a decent compost. I've been putting egg cartons (sticker peeled off), kitchen rolls, toilet paper inserts, any 'basic' un-inked cardboard.

So far I'm relatively happy, the amount of black bag waste from the house is minimal with being able to take recycling to the dump and nappies are the only real 'waste'.

Does anyone see any pitfalls with my thinking?

BTW, the County Council have a recycling facility in their yard in Kinsale. If you go in a ask the chap there who looks after the place (nicely) he'll give you a compost bin! They had a few chucked in the back that they were more than happy to dole out FOC. I don't know if they still have any but about 12months ago there were more than a few there

blackbox

I no longer put egg shells in the compost simply because of their very messy appearance when the the finished compost is used as a mulch.

I'm losing the benefit of their lime, but I'll live with that.

Pretty much anything of vegetable origin goes in.

macraignil

blackbox wrote: »

I no longer put egg shells in the compost simply because of their very messy appearance when the the finished compost is used as a mulch.

I'm losing the benefit of their lime, but I'll live with that.

Pretty much anything of vegetable origin goes in.

I have read that a good use of broken up egg shells is to put them in a row around plants that might be liable to slug attack. The soft underside of the slug can't deal with the sharp edges of the broken egg shells apparently so they act as a deterrent to the slugs traveling over them.

New Home

TBH, I don't think that's the reason - slugs and snails can slide over blades unharmed.

macraignil

New Home wrote: »

TBH, I don't think that's the reason - slugs and snails can slide over blades unharmed.

I only read it works somewhere and have not tried using egg shells as a slug deterrent so I can't say if it does work. I have made a point of breaking up the soil around seedling plants as I also heard this discourages them and found that it seemed to help. Not tried the razor blade method.

New Home

Apologies, I didn't mean to say that the egg shells wouldn't work as a deterrent, I only meant that if they did it wasn't because of their sharp edges.

Living Off The Splash

I have tried everything to deter slugs. The only thing that really works is to hand pick them in the evening or after it rains or use slug pellets.

However I try to limit the amount of cash I spend every year on gardening including slug pellets (Dealz €1.50), seeds etc, I repair my raised beds with salvaged wood. I build my frames for peas, french beans etc, with cut tree branches...

I have a SuperValu, M & S, Aldi, Lidl and Tesco all within a mile of my house and with their selection of vegetables at 49c it is cheaper to buy them, than grow my own.

This has caused me to rethink what I am going to grow this year. There are only two of us at home and sometimes one Suede or large cabbage bought in Aldi can last us for several meals.

I am just wondering if anyone else thinks the same.....

macraignil

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

I have tried everything to deter slugs. The only thing that really works is to hand pick them in the evening or after it rains or use slug pellets.

However I try to limit the amount of cash I spend every year on gardening including slug pellets (Dealz €1.50), seeds etc, I repair my raised beds with salvaged wood. I build my frames for peas, french beans etc, with cut tree branches...

I have a SuperValu, M & S, Aldi, Lidl and Tesco all within a mile of my house and with their selection of vegetables at 49c it is cheaper to buy them, than grow my own.

This has caused me to rethink what I am going to grow this year. There are only two of us at home and sometimes one Suede or large cabbage bought in Aldi can last us for several meals.

I am just wondering if anyone else thinks the same.....

I agree that it is often cheaper just to buy the vegetables you want to eat in shops. It is a product I think of the industrialisation of agriculture that means the economy of scale allows the bigger producer and supply chain offer their products at a fraction of the price of the small scale producer. A huge amount of vegetables are also imported into the EU so the effect of currency value differences means 20cents in euros goes a lot further in Morocco or Egypt or wherever else the vegetables are shipped from. Even the commercial growers here have large machines including harvesting rigs where multiple low waged vegetable packers turn crop into shop ready vegetables in a matter of seconds per retail unit which can often be less than the time required to sort the small packets of seed sold to home growers.

Gardening more for the enjoyment of it now rather than looking at the economics and growing more plants for aesthetics of colour and appearance and fragrance than anything else. Also growing more things I can save seed from or propagate myself. Don't believe slug pellets are a good investment even at 1.50euro from deals. I want to enjoy being in the garden so surrounding myself with poisons isn't going to help. Built a pond last year to attract frogs so hoping they will consume some of the slugs and have planted lots of fruiting plants that feed the birds that should also pick up a few slugs. Going to try clear some ground now for the beetroot that I have saved seed from as I did not harvest most of it last year. Shouldn't really cost much unless I break the garden fork, but again not going to worry about the economy of the whole thing as it's a lot cheaper than some other hobbies.

magicbastarder

macraignil wrote: »

I want to enjoy being in the garden so surrounding myself with poisons isn't going to help. Built a pond last year to attract frogs so hoping they will consume some of the slugs and have planted lots of fruiting plants that feed the birds that should also pick up a few slugs.

+1 on this. i can't be certain it's the cause, but i think we've seen slugs drop in numbers since putting a pond in.
i'm certainly open to correction on this, but i have always assumed that it's not that the frogs eat the big slugs per se, more that they eat the eggs and baby slugs?

Living Off The Splash

I have no pond in my garden but I have a half dozen large frogs. They came from a neighbours garden that has a pond. Plenty of greenery for them to hide under.

macraignil

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

I have no pond in my garden but I have a half dozen large frogs. They came from a neighbours garden that has a pond. Plenty of greenery for them to hide under.

Good to hear. Maybe they will sort your slug problem and save buying the pellets.

Day Lewin

The other thing that eats slugs in numbers is a hedgehog: they love them and will roll the slug around in their little paws until the skin peels off (gruesome!) and then munch it up.

However, slug pellets left around in a garden will poison birds and mice, and probably hedgehogs too.

New Home

Day Lewin wrote: »

Slug pellets left around in a garden will poison birds and mice, and definitely hedgehogs too.

FYP.

bobbyss

As a first time composter it's all trial and error with me. Grateful for any tips and advice.

I don't really know if what I am doing is correct or not. I just have a pile in the back garden and I add to it as and when. The more I read about it the more questions I have.

I have read that you turn over the compost occassionally so that the stuff that is doing well at the centre is moved out and the bits on the outside are shifted around. Basically what's in the centre is now on the outside and what was the greenest on the outside is now placed in the centre of the heap. This basically, as I understand it, allows plenty of air to circulate throughout the heap. I understand this and it makes sense. How often should this be done?

I have seen bin type composters with a lid on the top. How then are you supposed to follow that procedure with that type of composter? And these type of bins, what about letting rain at it?

My heap is just at the end of the garden. Open to the elements. Should I put some cover on it? And why? I have seen compost heaps made from pallets without any covers at all. The compost looks fine to me. At the same time all compost bins you buy are like barrells closed basically to the elements. So which is better?

I do not put any kitchen stuff into my compost heap whatsoever as I simply do not want any vermin. Without kitchen food and veg will my compost be less inferior?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

bobbyss wrote: »

As a first time composter it's all trial and error with me. Grateful for any tips and advice.

I don't really know if what I am doing is correct or not. I just have a pile in the back garden and I add to it as and when. The more I read about it the more questions I have.

I have read that you turn over the compost occassionally so that the stuff that is doing well at the centre is moved out and the bits on the outside are shifted around. Basically what's in the centre is now on the outside and what was the greenest on the outside is now placed in the centre of the heap. This basically, as I understand it, allows plenty of air to circulate throughout the heap. I understand this and it makes sense. How often should this be done?

I have seen bin type composters with a lid on the top. How then are you supposed to follow that procedure with that type of composter? And these type of bins, what about letting rain at it?

My heap is just at the end of the garden. Open to the elements. Should I put some cover on it? And why? I have seen compost heaps made from pallets without any covers at all. The compost looks fine to me. At the same time all compost bins you buy are like barrells closed basically to the elements. So which is better?

I do not put any kitchen stuff into my compost heap whatsoever as I simply do not want any vermin. Without kitchen food and veg will my compost be less inferior?

How often to turn it depends on it's size. I have the dalek bin types and turn it every month or so. You just lift the bin off the material and put all back in again - often harvesting compost ready for use at the time.

Kitchen waste, as in cooked foods, are to be avoided but raw vegetable waste, tea bags, coffee grinds, clean kitchen roll etc are super for the compost and doesn't attract vermin.

smacl

bobbyss wrote: »

I do not put any kitchen stuff into my compost heap whatsoever as I simply do not want any vermin. Without kitchen food and veg will my compost be less inferior?

We've a worm farm for kitchen waste which is well sealed from vermin but can get a bit smelly over the summer and attract flies. Produces excellent fertiliser and worms for the garden. Not really ideal for a garden as small as ours to be honest, but if you had a less used corner of a large garden it would be worth a punt.

New Home

Can I ask where you got the earthworms/tiger worms from, please? Feel free to PM me, if you like. I bought the worms years ago thinking the container I had was adequate - as soon as I realised it wasn't I bought the proper one, but by then the worms had moved on, and I'd like to replace them.

smacl

New Home wrote: »

Can I ask where you got the earthworms/tiger worms from, please? Feel free to PM me, if you like. I bought the worms years ago thinking the container I had was adequate - as soon as I realised it wasn't I bought the proper one, but by then the worms had moved on, and I'd like to replace them.

Originally from a friend who had a similar worm farm but following the hard winter a few years back, we replenished from worms in the bottom of the compost heap who bred to meet the available food quite quickly.

I see there's a crowd here who sell a bag of worms delivered to your door for a tenner in Ireland, though no idea what they're like. As someone who was into fishing in my younger years, never had any problem finding worms :pac:

New Home

Thanks for that, Smacl. I can find earthworms under my flowerpots all right, I just didn't know if they are a species suited to wormeries or not.

smacl

New Home wrote: »

Thanks for that, Smacl. I can find earthworms under my flowerpots all right, I just didn't know if they are a species suited to wormeries or not.

I think the main thing is to start the bottom layer off with a reasonable amount of whatever the worms you're using are used to living in. When I did the restart from the composter it was basically the bottom tray about two thirds full of worms in their compost. I found it takes awhile to become productive as you fill the next layers up with food waste and you need make sure the second from bottom layer is well decomposed and busy with worms before emptying the bottom layer and recycling it to the top. Definitely not a job for those that don't like grubs, bugs or stinky smells. Ours has a tap for draining the liquid fertiliser produced which is fantastic stuff but rather 'lively'.

Planet X

Have had two compost heaps going for a few years now. One will lie dormant for a couple of seasons, the active one, which I get about 7-8 barrow loads of good compost annually is turned every few weeks.
It's over a meter cubed as per ideal volume to get good "furnace" going.

But.....in the kitchen I make sure "OCD like" that everything that goes into the scrap bin in finely chopped and shells crushed enabling everything to compost much quicker.
Then, turn compost over every few weeks. Alot of cardboard goes into it also, again torn into smallish pieces.

It works.

ldy4mxonucwsq6

Can anyone advise how to defeat fruit flies in the compost? I've actually eventually had to stop adding to the pile due to swarms of them. Really gross!!

There are tiny shiny black flies in there with them too that I can't identify. I think I had got the mix wrong at the start of new pile with too much green so stop adding green and bulked up on brown. Have vinegar traps out as well which are full within days.

It's really putting me off, it smells awful. I had an open composter for years with no trouble but this is first year with a closed roto composter, has a few airholes and a screw off lid but it's totally infested now.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Dalton Aggressive Pinto wrote: »

Can anyone advise how to defeat fruit flies in the compost? I've actually eventually had to stop adding to the pile due to swarms of them. Really gross!!

There are tiny shiny black flies in there with them too that I can't identify. I think I had got the mix wrong at the start of new pile with too much green so stop adding green and bulked up on brown. Have vinegar traps out as well which are full within days.

It's really putting me off, it smells awful. I had an open composter for years with no trouble but this is first year with a closed roto composter, has a few airholes and a screw off lid but it's totally infested now.

A sure sign the mix is wrong and has not enough 'brown' material. Add leaves, newspaper, twigs etc.

smacl

Journee Quiet Mutant wrote: »

A sure sign the mix is wrong and has not enough 'brown' material. Add leaves, newspaper, twigs etc.

Agreed, if it smells bad (sickly sweet?) it sounds like it is fermenting much like silage rather than composting. Flies love that smell. It needs turning over and as suggested above, some drier material that will help keep in aerated.