My daughter is moving into a house, and we are trying to encourage
her to use a compost bin. That will be for kitchen waste for
1-2 people, possibly plus grass cuttings from 50 square yards of
grass. I have no experience of such things, so any comments would
be welcomed.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In message ,
Janet wrote

and many
councils give them away free.

Try putting the postcode into
http://www.recyclenow.com/home_composting/index.html
then the link to buy a bin.

The site also gives advice on composting

If the local council are providing a subsidy on the purchase price (not
all do) the bins will be cheap, otherwise you may find it cheaper to
buy elsewhere.

--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:26:11 +0000 (GMT), wrote:


My daughter is moving into a house, and we are trying to encourage
her to use a compost bin. That will be for kitchen waste for
1-2 people, possibly plus grass cuttings from 50 square yards of
grass. I have no experience of such things, so any comments would
be welcomed.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Kitchen waste from a 2-person familiy (remember that meat waste
doesn't go in a compost bin) isn't on its own going to sustain 50
square yards of grass cuttings in the summer. You need a balance or
you'll end up with simple smelly mush. What's the compost product
destined for? Your daughter will need borders or a veg patch to use
the compost she generates. Does the new place have these or will they
be created?

Have you thought about a wormery? That can take meat waste as well as
vegetable waste and produces a liquid feed that's second to none
(provided, again, there is somewhere to use it).

Cheers
Jake

In message , Jake
wrote

Kitchen waste from a 2-person familiy (remember that meat waste
doesn't go in a compost bin) isn't on its own going to sustain 50
square yards of grass cuttings in the summer. You need a balance or
you'll end up with simple smelly mush

A few card boxes from the tons of packaging mixed in with the grass
cuttings (+ urine) will help with that. And it doesn't really matter if
it gets a bit mushy as it will rot down eventually.

--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

"Alan" wrote in message
...
In message , Jake
wrote

Kitchen waste from a 2-person familiy (remember that meat waste
doesn't go in a compost bin) isn't on its own going to sustain 50
square yards of grass cuttings in the summer. You need a balance or
you'll end up with simple smelly mush

A few card boxes from the tons of packaging mixed in with the grass
cuttings (+ urine) will help with that. And it doesn't really matter if it
gets a bit mushy as it will rot down eventually.

The urine has to be from a male!

Alan




--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

In article ,
says...
In article , says...

My daughter is moving into a house, and we are trying to encourage
her to use a compost bin. That will be for kitchen waste for
1-2 people, possibly plus grass cuttings from 50 square yards of
grass. I have no experience of such things, so any comments would
be welcomed.

A metre -cube (four old palletts plus an improvised lid) works fine.
If she isn't into DIY, plastic daleks work (much slower) and many
councils give them away free. Whichever she uses, should stand direct on
earth; and I suggest she mixes paper waste (like shreddings) into the
grass cuttings.


Janet

Add to janets remarks, have two bins one filling, and one settling and
then being emptied. On earth is good but I would recommend a layer of
close mesh wire netting under and bent up the sides as the rats love to
tunnel up into mine and eat the worms
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

On Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:41:48 +0000, Alan
wrote:

In message , Jake
wrote

Kitchen waste from a 2-person familiy (remember that meat waste
doesn't go in a compost bin) isn't on its own going to sustain 50
square yards of grass cuttings in the summer. You need a balance or
you'll end up with simple smelly mush

A few card boxes from the tons of packaging mixed in with the grass
cuttings (+ urine) will help with that. And it doesn't really matter if
it gets a bit mushy as it will rot down eventually.

The ideal compost heap/bin will be close on 50% green (in this case
grass) and 50% brown (in this case cardboard). The cardboard will need
to be scrunched up to provide air in the heap/bin, not just torn and
put in flat, as the grass will compact and exclude air. Shredded paper
on its own won't do the trick as, again, it'll compact too easily.
Male urine (and it's not only male but the first output of the morning
;-)) ) may provide nitrogen but the heap also needs air to work
properly - this is why grass on its own doesn't do the biz. Are there
any trees in the garden - if so, collect the leaves , bag them up and
then use them to provide the "brown" bit through the grass cutting
season. Cardboard and grass will take a long time to break down into
usable compost (I've tried it!).

On Sun, 16 Jan 2011 17:26:11 +0000 (GMT), wrote:


My daughter is moving into a house, and we are trying to encourage
her to use a compost bin. That will be for kitchen waste for
1-2 people, possibly plus grass cuttings from 50 square yards of
grass. I have no experience of such things, so any comments would
be welcomed.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.


I would suggest a wormery instead.


(Which ever you use you need to make sure that you do not put all your
grass clippings in - they will usually turn very nasty and slimy and
not produce good compost on their own)

Thank you, everyone for your comments. I suspected some of them,
but confirmation is important, as it's outside my experience.
Here are a few points:

Pallettes etc. aren't on, because the garden really IS only 50-100
square yards, and only about 2/3 is grass - with no borders, shrubs
etc. I might well end up collecting the compost for my own use :-)

The key is the kitchen waste, to avoid an incredibly smelly green
bin. I suspected that it was asking a bit much for the grass to
go in as well, so that might have to be put in the green bin. A
wormery is well worth considering.

This is a far cry from my own composting, but my garden is 1000
square yards, and I use a traditional heap and put everything on.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In message , Jake
wrote
On Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:41:48 +0000, Alan
wrote:

In message , Jake
wrote

Kitchen waste from a 2-person familiy (remember that meat waste
doesn't go in a compost bin) isn't on its own going to sustain 50
square yards of grass cuttings in the summer. You need a balance or
you'll end up with simple smelly mush

A few card boxes from the tons of packaging mixed in with the grass
cuttings (+ urine) will help with that. And it doesn't really matter if
it gets a bit mushy as it will rot down eventually.

The ideal compost heap/bin will be close on 50% green (in this case
grass) and 50% brown (in this case cardboard). The cardboard will need
to be scrunched up to provide air in the heap/bin, not just torn and
put in flat, as the grass will compact and exclude air. Shredded paper
on its own won't do the trick as, again, it'll compact too easily.
Male urine (and it's not only male but the first output of the morning
;-)) ) may provide nitrogen but the heap also needs air to work
properly - this is why grass on its own doesn't do the biz.

Too many people worry too much about getting the perfect mix. I don't
worry about how I put all those ingredients in my bins but it all
composts down eventually. The card I use is the small food packing
boxes, the inner rolls from toilet paper etc. put in whole. Large
corrugated card boxes are left outside to weather - in a few rain
showers before being torn up. As for urine, just take a **** in a
bucket for a day, fill up with water and put it all on the heap.

If occasionally is does goes slightly wrong and gets a bit slimy in the
summer (don't bother about the condition in the winter) just empty it
out and mix it up a bit before putting it back in the bin.




Are there
any trees in the garden - if so, collect the leaves , bag them up and
then use them to provide the "brown" bit through the grass cutting
season. Cardboard and grass will take a long time to break down into
usable compost (I've tried it!).

--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

In message , wrote
A
wormery is well worth considering.

In my experience a dalek type bin that doesn't heat up too much will
often contain thousands of worms who find their own way in (if the bin
is installed on earth).

--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

Too many people worry too much about getting the perfect mix.

FWIW, I agree. and ...

... just empty it out and mix it up a bit before putting it back in
the bin.

Yes: ideally you have (at least) two bins: you use one for ageing
compost, and one for the new stuff. Every few months you empty out the
ageing stuff, and hopefully find some good compost at the bottom; that
goes on the garden; the rest goes back in the bin; then you empty the
newer stuff out of the other bin, and fork it all into the "ageing
compost" bin. That stuff then rots away for another few months, while
you put your new stuff into the now-empty "new stuff" bin.

And I have found (after decades of trying all sorts of home-made bins)
that the dalek bins are very effective, are tidy (unlike my home-made
pallet-built affairs!), and have the *great* advantage that to empty it,
you just lift the bugger up, instead of having to fork stuff out!

If I had a bigger garden, I would always have opted for ... a compost
heap! That is, just a big heap, into which you dig for compost every
few months. This is what you see the TV gardeners have (Carol has one,
Monty has one). My Dad used to have a proper heap too: it was great.

Finally: it's the process of shifting it about every few months which is
most important, IMHO. I've recently seen that the (disgusting) idea of
weeing on it has recently been dissed as a myth; I don't know about
that, but what is important is to keep it damp, so I water mine, each
time I have turned it all over.

John
BSc in Compost Making (scraped a 3rd)

In article

, Another John writes
And I have found (after decades of trying all sorts of home-made bins)
that the dalek bins are very effective, are tidy (unlike my home-made
pallet-built affairs!), and have the *great* advantage that to empty it,
you just lift the bugger up, instead of having to fork stuff out!


Do what i do I have three large wooden bins at the bottom of the garden,
sort of in a terrace, BUT I have put a small plastic bin on alternate
deep beds at one end.
These i fill up first or with a mixed stuff and then when they need to
be emptied i just tip them over and can haul the contents up the bed
with a rake. Then i put the empty bin on one of the beds that didn't
have a bin and so on. Saves carting the stuff around and any goodness
that leaches out goes directly into the soil in the deep/raised bed.

Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

On Mon, 17 Jan 2011 23:17:16 +0000, Alan
wrote:

In message , wrote
A
wormery is well worth considering.

In my experience a dalek type bin that doesn't heat up too much will
often contain thousands of worms who find their own way in (if the bin
is installed on earth).



But - those are common or garden earth worms (no surprise there) -
which are not the best for wormeries.

The recommended ones are Dendrobaena which are supposed to be the best
- also for fishing.

I bought mine from local fishing shop.

In message , Judith
wrote

But - those are common or garden earth worms (no surprise there) -
which are not the best for wormeries.

They appear to be coloured more red than the common earth worm and are
smaller. In the large numbers I occasionally see them in my bins it
wouldn't make much difference to having the "proper" worm. The worms are
usually found in the top two inches of the bin .

With the "special" worms, I wonder if people are actually purchasing
something that nature provides for free

--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk