A couple of months ago we bought one of those Dalek-shaped compost bins, which now stands in the back garden. We've been gradually filling it with onion skins and potato peelings from the kitchen and it's now got about 25cm of vegetable matter in the bottom. A few small insects flit about inside, and I've seen the odd worm in there (the bin has a base that allows them in from the soil beneath) but there's not much sign of decomposition going on.
Meanwhile, in front of the house, the little tree by the drive is busy shedding its leaves all over my car. The crevices around the boot lid, and the trough behind the bonnet are full of them and - and here's my point - they're already breaking down and turning into compost.
So should I have given the Dalek a miss and bought a secondhand Volvo to stand outside the kitchen door? What does the car have to make it a better composting environment than a composter?
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Simple answer = leaves
In my limited experience of these daleks, we've had one for about 3 years now, potatoes and onions don't compost very quickly, leaves grass and twigs do. Don't ask me why, I haven't a clue.
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Just bought another two daleks from the local council. Now have 4 in the garden and two at the allotment. A few tips.
1 You need a lot more greenery for the compost to heat up. Lawn mowings, kitchen waste, weeds, old bedding plants etc. 25 cm is not enough!
2 Don't add dead leaves to the compost - they wont really rot down very quickly. Keep them in a separate container - something simple made of chicken mesh is ideal. Resultant leaf mold excellent soil improver but not great as a plant food.
3 Green waste especially lawn mowings are high in nitrogen. You need to add high carbon material such as chopped straw, cut up soft cardboard or even shredded newspaper to stop it turning into a black smelly mess.
4 Biggest tip. Compost needs turning . After a few months empty out contents and put back in the bin.
5 Compost bins best kept in sun and out of wind. Rots quicker when warm. Takes a lot longer in winter
6 All vegetable matter will rot eventually. Don't worry if its not perfect
7 You will get hooked on compost making seeking the ultimate black crumbly product!.
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>>we bought one of those Dalek-shaped compost bins,
>>We've been gradually filling it with onion skins and potato peelings from the kitchen and it's now got about 25cm of vegetable matter in the bottom.
I would suggest you put a piece of mesh between its base and the soil to ensuse rats do not invade it for food.
I saw a good description of what ratio of stuff to put in the bin.
You need a mixture of browns and greens - think of it like a sandwich with more browns ( dry stuff ) and less green stuff ( veg scraps)
Leaves when dry help to balance things. Excess leaves contained in a pile will rot on thir own especially if kept damp. In the summer I mix cross cut shreading of A4 paper and brown bags with my grass cuttings and that seems to stop the slimy mess.
I avoid putting tomatoes in the bin as the seeds all survive and ready grow everywhere.
>> A few small insects flit about inside, and I've seen the odd worm in there (the bin has a base that allows them in from the soil beneath) but there's not much sign of decomposition going on.
Probably fruit flies. Decomposition will be slow this time of the year. Worms tend to hide but if you fork it over they will probably appear.
I have had two bins for years and am well pleased with the results.
Because I put weed killer treated grass cuttings in the bin I only use the compost on my lawn.
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I'm no gardener but I remember when we were composting years ago we used an 'accelerator' to speed up the process. I think it was called 'Garotta' or something like that. I expect garden centres have that sort of thing.
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Yep you can buy accelerators and they do work. If you're not fussy urinating on the compost works just as well.
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BBC's Bob Flowerdew recommends cider, but drink it first.
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KEEN GARDENER CHARGED WITH INDECENT EXPOSURE FOLLOWING COMPLAINTS FROM NEIGHBOURS
'I'm not fussy' plea leads to doubled sentence
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Yes ! A neighbour reported - "I was just standing there innocently trimming my bush when that disgusting man..."
:-))
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You also need to attract a certain type of worm! they`re called "Brandlings" you can tell them from "Earth-worms" because they have distictive rings around thier body, these "bands" range in colour from red to Cream/Yellow. In fact Earthworms are no-good in your compost and wont stay there, they`ll pretty soon "leg-it" if you pop them in!
Also the worms dont like it too wet, they need dryish bedding, straw shredded paper are excellent. You will know if the bin is too wet, any worms will have crawled out of the compost and are usually up the sides and under the lid of the container.
No worms = virually no compost! just black smelly wet mess! - if you find you are short of worms you can buy some here!
wigglywrigglers.com
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>> Yep you can buy accelerators and they do work. If you're not fussy urinating on
>> the compost works just as well.
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>>Garotta was the well known brand.
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In the growing season I bought several packets of accelerator in the 99p shop.
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My 'good life' pal does worse than that, honestly! He gave me a book to read back along called 'Humanure'. I couldn't bear to look at it.
On Monday his wife's Pug 406 wouldn't start because she left the ignition on so I went round with the booster box and fired it up for her. As a thank-you he gave me a bag of home-grown potatoes - which may just never get eaten...
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When I was young and lived in Ilford my dad used to buy a product call Dagfert which was a fertiliser made by Dagenham Sewage works. I think Dad stopped buying it because of the huge number of tomato seeds it contained which germinated amongst his prize dahlias.
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I think we can guess what Dagfert's nickname was...
Although, as I said above, I am personally not a gardener I am allowed to carry out various menial tasks. Hence, I have been watering our flowers with washing-up water for months because we have a drought here and I now have one magnificent tomato plant in a flower bed which, believe it or not, has 21 tomatoes on it. Some of them are even turning red. No tomato I have ever tried to grow has ever had more than three or four.
No doubt the snow will get it in a week or two.
Incidentally, we have septic tanks here and I know when pumping-out is due when we start to get tomato plants around the drainfield system...
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It wasn't so long ago that sewage works products were sprayed on farmers' fields. It was untreated stuff IIRC. You could identify it by it's smell. I believe it's not permitted now. The bacteria in the soil would quickly break down anything likely to cause harm, just like earth lavatories.
Also the water we drink around here has been through half-a-dozen people before, although that is treated.
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>> Also the water we drink around here has been through half-a-dozen people before, although that
>> is treated.
Same around here. They built a sewage recycling works just down the road. It makes good sense to plan for the future if we continue to get low annual rainfall in the south east. It doesn't concern me, although I admit that the water isn't the best I've tasted, but I'd rather that than have a major water shortage. It's the price you pay for having such an overpopulated corner of a dry part of the country.
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>> It wasn't so long ago that sewage works products were sprayed on farmers' fields. It
>> was untreated stuff IIRC.
I guess it would have been treated to a degree, at least filtered for condoms, sanpro stuff etc and then settled.
There's been cash in sewage for years though. In the days when Bradford still had woolen mills the city sewage plant at Esholt extracted the lanolin washed out in wool processing and sold it on for soap etc.
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20-ish years ago I was involved in an investigation of an alleged scam involving pumping out plane loos at Heathrow and transporting the stuff to the Westcountry, where it was sprayed, untreated, straight onto fields. Apparently there was a lot of money in allowing it to happen. The health risks certainly sounded horrendous.
Unfortunately, I left that job for another part of the world and never did discover whether anything was ever proved.
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>> Unfortunately, I left that job for another part of the world and never did discover
>> whether anything was ever proved.
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were you a member of the privy council?
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Car as composter - Kithmo
