Report from the colonies:

I moved to my present garden in 1988 and there's never yet been a
decent setup for compost. Yet the garden is 0.4 acres and densely
planted, so it generates a lot of organic waste. Leaves I'm just
raked onto the beds to form a mulch, but cut-down perennials and
such have usually been carted off to the municipal garden refuse
composting depot. What a waste of waste!

For a while, I had a compost bin made out of shipping pallets,
one for a floor and four surrounding it, tied together with a
rope. But I never watered it because it was tucked away in an
obscure corner -- out of sight, out of mind.

This spring I *had* to do something: there were at least five
distinct piles of compostable material scattered around the
place, waiting to be dealt with. Too many, made the place look
bad.

Solution: a 10' length of 4' wide hardware cloth (wire mesh),
with a 1" mesh. Stapled lengths of 1'x2" cross-wise, one every
two feet, plus one at each end, like corset stays. Stood the
thing on its edge, formed into a circle, and tied the end stays
together. (Stays on the *outside*)

Thus I have a cylindrical bin, slightly over 3' in diameter, 4'
high. Put it right out in full view next to a paved parking area.
It won't get overlooked *there*, by gum! And the path from front
door to compost is now paved the entire distance. It's not the
most beautiful thing in the world, but I don't think there's any
shame in having a compost bin in full view.

A cylinder this size has a volume of about 1 cubic yard, btw.

Proceeded to transfer all the existing piles into it, layering
them, watering them, and adding lime from time to time. By
evening, it was completely full and I'm not completely finished.
I didn't realize just how much compostable material I had lurking
around.

Current plans call for building a second such bin for the
surplus, with a possible third to hold the fall leaves.


Comments: 4" is almost too tall, even with my 5'11" height. Three
feet would have been more convenient, though I admit that my use
of a long-handled hay fork worked very well for flipping stuff
into the mouth of the new bin. And the new bin may be too tall in
proportion to its diameter. It has a slightly unstable look (but
it didn't collapse overnight), and I suspect it may be prone to
drying out too quickly. OTOH, this is one compost heap that is
very well oxygenated!

I'm going to wrap the thing in a blue tarp. This will keep it
warm and snug and reduce evaporation.

Wish me luck!

PS: Since drafting this message, I've built a second one. It was
the proverbial piece of cake to do.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

The message
from (Rodger Whitlock)
contains these words:

Corset strings pulled tight on interesting Compost Report from the colonies.

I've been thinking on the same lines; one can never have too much
compost and the amount of free material available here is just too good
to ignore :-)(seaweed, fresh sheep poo, spent brewery hops, and my
neighbours' grasscuttings happily donated by local lawn contractor).To
extend the usual compost heaps and mulching, I'm going to try summer
compost pies. These are going to be temporary "instant compost heaps"
made right where I want the finished compost. My idea is to cut off the
(closed) top and bottom of a big plastic industrial barrel and hole the
sides,to make a pie-mold tube about 3 ft high and two across; dig a
round hole about a foot deep and stand the tube over it, then fill
loosely to the top with mixed material, dowse well with diluted urine
and put the lid back on to encourage fast heating. The dug out soil will
be piled round the bottom of the pie. As soon as the stuff has sunk down
a few feet, I'll tamp it down a little, add some tiger worms, and slide
off the pie-mould to start the next. Bare pies may get a small
stone-weighted fishing net hat, like a westcoast haystack, to hold them
steady.I'm hoping that sufficient hot material given a flying start,
will outweigh the disadvantage of smaller cubic capacity.

Janet

In article ,
Janet Baraclough writes:
|
| Bare pies may get a small
| stone-weighted fishing net hat, like a westcoast haystack, to hold them
| steady.

Ah, yes. You get a bit of wind, don't you? It is easy to forget
that such things happen, here!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Much better that you gather a lot of pallets ......pull them apart for the
timber
then use 4 of the 4 by 2 timbers for corners
Close board 3.5 sides
Add 2 slats upright at both sides on the front
to form a slot to slot in removable slats ........creosote the lot
..........line inside with heavy duty plastic (old potting compost bags )
Stand whole thing on concrete or a solid slatted pallet base //////////you
dont want rats to get in anywhere

AKA a compost bin THAT RIVALS THE £60 JOBS AT DIY STORES and with a front
thats accesible

add a solid slat lid and you have a bin that will produce brilliant moist
crumbly compost in about 1 year

PS dont forget lashings of buckets of urine or handfuls of Sulphate of
Ammonia




"Rodger Whitlock" wrote in
message ...
Report from the colonies:

I moved to my present garden in 1988 and there's never yet been a
decent setup for compost. Yet the garden is 0.4 acres and densely
planted, so it generates a lot of organic waste. Leaves I'm just
raked onto the beds to form a mulch, but cut-down perennials and
such have usually been carted off to the municipal garden refuse
composting depot. What a waste of waste!

For a while, I had a compost bin made out of shipping pallets,
one for a floor and four surrounding it, tied together with a
rope. But I never watered it because it was tucked away in an
obscure corner -- out of sight, out of mind.

This spring I *had* to do something: there were at least five
distinct piles of compostable material scattered around the
place, waiting to be dealt with. Too many, made the place look
bad.

Solution: a 10' length of 4' wide hardware cloth (wire mesh),
with a 1" mesh. Stapled lengths of 1'x2" cross-wise, one every
two feet, plus one at each end, like corset stays. Stood the
thing on its edge, formed into a circle, and tied the end stays
together. (Stays on the *outside*)

Thus I have a cylindrical bin, slightly over 3' in diameter, 4'
high. Put it right out in full view next to a paved parking area.
It won't get overlooked *there*, by gum! And the path from front
door to compost is now paved the entire distance. It's not the
most beautiful thing in the world, but I don't think there's any
shame in having a compost bin in full view.

A cylinder this size has a volume of about 1 cubic yard, btw.

Proceeded to transfer all the existing piles into it, layering
them, watering them, and adding lime from time to time. By
evening, it was completely full and I'm not completely finished.
I didn't realize just how much compostable material I had lurking
around.

Current plans call for building a second such bin for the
surplus, with a possible third to hold the fall leaves.


Comments: 4" is almost too tall, even with my 5'11" height. Three
feet would have been more convenient, though I admit that my use
of a long-handled hay fork worked very well for flipping stuff
into the mouth of the new bin. And the new bin may be too tall in
proportion to its diameter. It has a slightly unstable look (but
it didn't collapse overnight), and I suspect it may be prone to
drying out too quickly. OTOH, this is one compost heap that is
very well oxygenated!

I'm going to wrap the thing in a blue tarp. This will keep it
warm and snug and reduce evaporation.

Wish me luck!

PS: Since drafting this message, I've built a second one. It was
the proverbial piece of cake to do.

--
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

In article , Janet Baraclough
writes

I've been thinking on the same lines; one can never have too much
compost and the amount of free material available here is just too good
to ignore :-)(seaweed, fresh sheep poo, spent brewery hops, and my
neighbours' grasscuttings happily donated by local lawn contractor).To
extend the usual compost heaps and mulching, I'm going to try summer
compost pies. These are going to be temporary "instant compost heaps"
made right where I want the finished compost.

An interesting idea - I was wondering about a use for my water butt that
has sprung a leak.

--
Kay Easton

Edward's earthworm page:
http://www.scarboro.demon.co.uk/edward/index.htm

Xref: news7 uk.rec.gardening:133184

The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:


In article ,
Janet Baraclough writes:
|
| Bare pies may get a small
| stone-weighted fishing net hat, like a westcoast haystack, to hold them
| steady.

Ah, yes. You get a bit of wind, don't you? It is easy to forget
that such things happen, here!

Surely Cambridge people enjoy beans and artichokes, Nick? Or do you
have amnesia?
;-)

Janet