HOT STUFF - COMPOST

[Compo]

I spent last sunday ripping out Ivy and brambles, pruning laurel, lavender etc. I decided to run over it all with my cheapie qualcast lawnmore which has a collector bag on the back.

As a neighbour (who pays for a green waste bin to the tune of £29 a year) gave me an unused black compost bin, I stuck it in there with a modicum of liquid gold.

One week on it is red hot, steaming and already going black and grey, I am thinking of buying a shredder, I guess this is how the councils do it?

I am looking forward to the results, surely this heat will kill any seeds / tap roots etc?

Compo (Hot stuff!!!)

[Geoff]

I've found Ivy very difficult to compost (she wouldn't keep still long enough) but I hadn't shredded it, only cut it up, so it will be interesting to see how you get on. I shredded lots of Mallow and Buddleia yesterday and that has heated up overnight.

[Compo]

You got an electric shredder or a petrol one Geoff?

[Monika]

Compo, I am not Geoff, but we do have a shredder, the largest electric one we could find some years ago. And it works to a point: it certainly shreds small straight branches and dry vegetation (say, of herbaceous plants) but it always has problems with softer stuff. Ivy tends to curl round the cutters. The resulting material heats up well and certainly makes very good compost when mixed with conventional green stuff.

We tried somebody's small electric shredder before we bought ours and it just wasn't worth the bother whereas a hired large petrol-driven one worked beautifully on everything, including ivy. But that had to be delivered on a low loading trailer!

[Colin Miles]

Interesting. I have a very large grass mound, most of which was created over the weekend, but it is already steaming! Normally my grass mounds (I have a large 'lawn') sit there and gently rot away into a rather sticky mess. Can I expect better of this lot?

[Compo]

I don't know much about it but you need plenty of soft green stuff. and some carbon based stuff also, so the green leaves of lavender, grass cuttings and ivy etc, combined with the woodier bits of shrubs etc is what makes the good mix and subsequent compost with body, I will let you know soon

Hmmm might hire a a shredder next time I have a lot of stuff just to try it out. Interestingly enough one week on this mixture of waste is steaming and stinking badly also, though I had a dead rat or mouse on the plot tonight!!!

Compo

Compo

[Geoff]

I have a 2500 watt Alko. It doesn't have feed rollers so requires a bit of pushing and prodding, I think there are probably better models, the magazine looked at them once I think. It copes very well with dry stuff like raspberry canes and mature shrub prunings but doesn't like too much green stuff. Having said that, I grow peas up birch twigs and it does that mixture at the end of the season; sweet corn are great fun; does the winter greens like sprout trunks - I strip off the leaves and split the thickest stems, mixed with the first grass of the season it makes a very hot and smelly compost. I have a small paper shredder and process all the junk mail through that, tear up things like sugar and flour bags and cardboard cartons. I have a lot of grass mowings so am always looking for enough stuff to mix with them and paper and comfrey work well.

[Granny]

I have vast amounts of grass mowings as well. I use shredded paper (am still picking shreds of envelope window out from my firsr efforts!). I was recommended to get a bale of straw to balance it out as well. Has anyone tried that?
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Granny

[Johnboy]

Hi Granny,
Straw is very good for mixing with grass cutting's.
If you have a rotary mower the best thing to do is lay a line of straw down your lawn or convenient area and run the mower over it. I have got a machine that pulverises straw which is even better and use this in conjunction with Comfrey as well a grass cuttings. I have got upwards of an acre of grass and there deal with quite large quantities of cuttings and straw as it is will not readily rot down easily but mixed with grass you get the best of both worlds. They both rot down and you do not get the slimy mess that you get if grass is rotted down on it's own.
JB.

[Geoff]

I decided not to bother about the bits from window envelopes - they don't seem to be building up in the soil so I think they must break down eventually. I used to be selective about what I shredded but this year I am doing shiny stuff as well so I'll have to see what it is like next Spring.

[Granny]

JB, what a good idea. I'll do that.

Geoff, shiny paper glues itself together in a hard mass. I've been picking that out as well and binning it. I just do plain paper with normal ink on it, it works much better.
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Granny

[mandylew]

I have a very good system, dirty straw from the rabbits and guinea pigs, shredded paper and grass clippings, it all seens to work very well together, no shredder, but i do tend to run the lawn mower over weeds and prunings if i am going to add those in too.