Compost additives

A place to chat about anything you like, including non-gardening related subjects. Just keep it clean, please!

Moderators: KG Steve, Chantal, Tigger, peter, Chief Spud

User avatar
KG Steve
KG Editor
Posts: 238
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2005 4:35 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

So I was doing a bit of gardening this morning before work and emptying a compost bin. Near the top I found two big bits of clay pot and a nearly new hand fork (nearly new when it went in anyway)! My other half uses a trug when she is pottering around weeding etc and often drops tools etc into it. It then all gets emptied out into the compost. She'll also put thick sticks and plant labels in there too...I've told her she has to change her ways! :P
Have you ever found a long lost gardening tool or anything else unexpected in the compost heap? :?
Steve Ott
Kitchen Garden Editor
User avatar
Pa Snip
KG Regular
Posts: 3091
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2014 8:20 pm
Location: Near the big house on the hill Berkshire

Retrieved secateurs before it was too late. Quite an expensive pair so I would have been quite cut up if I had not found them again

Mrs S has taken to emptying the contents of the vacuum cleaner onto the compost heaps. Had to ask her to stop as dogs hair does not break down quickly, if at all.

Annoying things I have found in muck delivered from stables before I started using my current supplier of composted manure was one odd plimsoll, numerous horse brushes and baling twine (grrrr on the last one)

The danger when people start to believe their own publicity is that they often fall off their own ego.

At least travelling under the guise of the Pa Snip Enterprise gives me an excuse for appearing to be on another planet
User avatar
KG Steve
KG Editor
Posts: 238
Joined: Tue Nov 22, 2005 4:35 pm
Location: Lincolnshire

I've also got a worm bin for kitchen scraps and it works brilliantly....except. I've learned that it is pointless putting uncrushed eggshells into it. Obvious I suppose that the poor old worms might struggle with those, but no matter how long you leave them in the bin, they will always come out looking as fresh as the day they went in!
Steve Ott
Kitchen Garden Editor
User avatar
Tony Hague
KG Regular
Posts: 691
Joined: Mon Dec 05, 2005 5:26 pm
Location: Bedfordshire
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 13 times
Contact:

Found my wife's secateurs - an expensive Japanese carbon steel pair I bought for her - whilst digging mine out. Fortunately the Japanese steel was good enough that with a wire brush and some fine abraisive paper, they look like new.

Often find cutlery from the kitchen waste, potato peelers especially. The odd hand brush that was probably in the wood shavings from my workshop :oops:
User avatar
Geoff
KG Regular
Posts: 5574
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2005 5:33 pm
Location: Forest of Bowland
Been thanked: 129 times

Secateurs seem to be a favourite, had those and a knife as well as labels of course.
PLUMPUDDING
KG Regular
Posts: 3269
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 10:14 pm
Location: Stocksbridge, S. Yorks

Mum was blind so seemed to clear lots of teaspoons away with the veg scraps. I also found her long lost wedding ring when spreading compost.

My partner is an entomologist and can spin out the job of emptying and turning the compost heaps into an all day job. This week he's found a colony of small pink woodlice and about 15 pseudo scorpions in my compost bins. At least I don't have much trouble getting him to do the job I just wish he could be a bit faster.
PLUMPUDDING
KG Regular
Posts: 3269
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 10:14 pm
Location: Stocksbridge, S. Yorks

I once had some manure delivered from a local farm that had lots of baler twine and several dead piglets in it. I've not got it from him since.
User avatar
Primrose
KG Regular
Posts: 8053
Joined: Tue Aug 29, 2006 8:50 pm
Location: Bucks.
Has thanked: 37 times
Been thanked: 281 times

Oh I have a favourite Victorinox potato peeler which regularly goes missing and turns up in the compost heap about 18 months later long after the potato,peelings which were in the bowl with it have dissolved. I solved the problem by buying two more identical peelers so that when their companions are doing penance in one of the heaps I always have a reserve to call on.
User avatar
Pa Snip
KG Regular
Posts: 3091
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2014 8:20 pm
Location: Near the big house on the hill Berkshire

PLUMPUDDING wrote:
My partner is an entomologist and can spin out the job of emptying and turning the compost heaps into an all day job. .


PP if he likes emptying the heaps that much are you sure shouldn't be called a emptymologist

The danger when people start to believe their own publicity is that they often fall off their own ego.

At least travelling under the guise of the Pa Snip Enterprise gives me an excuse for appearing to be on another planet
Westi
KG Regular
Posts: 5908
Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2008 4:46 pm
Location: Christchurch, Dorset
Has thanked: 671 times
Been thanked: 238 times

I've just opened up my big compost bin & straight off found my favourite trowel! I had put it down between the pallets & it slipped down lower so when I ripped that off that side, out it fell! A wee bit rusty but all intact & my sharpened edges were very sharp still. Nice to have it back actually!

Pa! That's why we like your posts, you can see humour in anything!
Westi
sally wright
KG Regular
Posts: 722
Joined: Tue Nov 29, 2005 7:32 pm
Location: Cambridge

Dear All,
we find all sorts of stuff in our compost bins, aside from the usual tools and litter the heaps often have items that the students have mislaid. The most notable of these of late have been a pair of black lacy scanties in a size and style that I could only dream of wearing if I had been to weight watchers for about 20 years! It is amazing what the leaf clearing machine will pick up and not get indigestion.
Regards Sally Wright.
robo
KG Regular
Posts: 2808
Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2012 10:22 pm
Location: st.helens
Has thanked: 9 times
Been thanked: 56 times

Love in a compost heap sounds interesting sally
Westi
KG Regular
Posts: 5908
Joined: Thu Oct 30, 2008 4:46 pm
Location: Christchurch, Dorset
Has thanked: 671 times
Been thanked: 238 times

Sally!

:) :) Now if they were natural material & not man made they would have composted & helped the heap! Can you sent any house rules to say cotton bloomers only! ;)
Westi
User avatar
Pa Snip
KG Regular
Posts: 3091
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2014 8:20 pm
Location: Near the big house on the hill Berkshire

Defining what type of underwear ladies should wear for the benefit of the compost heap..................... if that isn't the last straw

The danger when people start to believe their own publicity is that they often fall off their own ego.

At least travelling under the guise of the Pa Snip Enterprise gives me an excuse for appearing to be on another planet
User avatar
peter
KG Regular
Posts: 5842
Joined: Fri Nov 25, 2005 1:54 pm
Location: Near Stansted airport
Has thanked: 18 times
Been thanked: 33 times
Contact:

Not in compost, but found dad's favourite garden penknife that'd been missing for three years when I cut the lawn one notch lower than usual with the Hayterette.

Stainless blade with a solid orange plastic body, big hefty item.
Still got it nearly thirty years later, it gained a notch in the plastic handle that day. :D
Do not put off thanking people when they have helped you, as they may not be there to thank later.

I support http://www.hearingdogs.org.uk/
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic