Compost advice

stiofan85

Hi folks,

Made a neat compost heap in February using some pallets and it's going great. About half of it is black crumbly goodness. Smells great. I'm wondering how best to "finish" the rest - if I keep adding to it it'll never finish. I don't use my brown bin so I was thinking of either starting a new one in that until the current one finishes then tip it over into the original one, or vice versa. Conscious the brown bin has no air circulation so was thinking of drilling a bunch of holes, then when I take out whatever is in it, I can turn it and get air into it.

If a few raised vegetable beds, hoping to spread the finished compost on them and top up with store bought stuff.

Thanks for any advice

standardg60

If you ever watch Monty Don you will see that he has three separate palleted areas on the go.
As he empties the 'finished' one, he turns the contents of the next into it and then the next one into that and so on.
If you haven't the space for three you take the finished compost from the bottom while adding to the top.

Garlinge

I would put over raised beds but maybe cover for the winter? I think we get so much rain that some protection is warranted. Last Autumn I put over some bags of semi rotted leaves (one year in black bags) and topped with Mypex (black woven membrane that lets some moisture thru). No weeds in Spring and I did not need to dig over bed. Real purists say to put some crop in the 'fallow' bed over winter. I put red clover in one year, come up lovely then disappeared overnight when our slimey friends discovered it!

I have two compost bins now, not quite up to Monty standards!

baaba maal

Your compost is likely to have a lot of annual weed seeds- wherever you spread it, get ahead of the seedlings in spring by hoeing. Compost
only kills off weeds if it gets above a certain temperature and inevitably seeds survive around the edges of the heap.

I'm not saying this negatively- it is great to make compost, just needs to be checked when it is spread.

GreeBo

I just have one large one, its open on top and on one side so I pile stuff on top and dig away at the bottom of the open side.

This year I have covered it with a couple of pallets and and some clear corrugated roof sheets.
They are suspended about 2 foot about the top of the pile so they allow lots of light and air but keep off the bulk of the rain.

I dont think finishing a heap is something you can do, the top will always be less mature than the bottom and if you stop adding to it the worms etc will bugger off and it will cool down and start to rot rather than compost.

I opened the middle of mine up on Saturday morning to add in some food waste, the steam came billowing out and it was lovely and warm and alive inside

Garlinge

Yes I get compost out a door at bottom. Not many weeds in my wee garden as jammed full with plants. I think good to have some moisture into your compost heap? All a matter of balance, can be too dry or too wet!

GreeBo

Garlinge wrote: »

Yes I get compost out a wee door at bottom. Not many weeds in my wee garden as jammed full with plants. I think good to have some moisture into your compost heap? All a matter of balance, can be too dry or too wet!

Grass will typically give all the moisture you need, unless its very warm or you have very little grass. If needed you can sprinkle the hose over the heap if its getting very dry, but I'd rather it be too dry and needing water than too wet and a slimy mess!