Dead compost bins

[Barry]

Here's an odd thing...
I make compost bins by lashing together four pallets then chucking in absolutely all my unwanted green stuff, leave it 2-3 years and then use it. Always works, never a problem. I have just completed digging out three of my six bins. All were full of dry green matter, with virtually no composting having been achieved at all! Even despite all the recent rain, the bins were totally dry!
I haven't done anything differently, so what has gone wrong? I have a horrible feeling the really hot summers over the past couple of years have tried the bins out to such an extent that the composting process just stopped!
I need the contents in a hurry, so have taken to burning them and using the ash.

[Colin_M]

Although large quantities of garden waste are supposed to compost well because of the heat generated, I thought that most piles benefited from being turned & circulated?

I'm sure you're right about the dry summers, but would the stuff in the centre really have dried out that much? Shame about the end results though

Colin

[richard p]

if the "green " stuff was too dry when it went in ie half dead or wilted , its possible it heated just enough to completely dry itself out. good compost needs both moisture and air

[Primrose]

I suspect that last year's very dry hot summer, when most of the composting process takes place, was responsible, and as I suffered from exactly this situation a couple of years ago in a previous hot dry summer, I made a point last summer of regularly adding water to my compost heap which does seem to have helped it rot down. I guess that a ready supply of water is not always easy if your compost heaps are on an allotment though, although forking it over and mixing up the contents would probably help a little, at least exposing them to what little rain is available.

[Chantal]

Barry,you could pee on it whenever you're there as that will accelerate the composting and keep the moisture content up.

[oldherbaceous]

If you drink three pints of water before you start, you should be able to give it a good soaking and also not get dehydrated.

[Johnboy]

Hi Barry,
I feel that it is a mistake to burn it. Transport it and pick as many young Stinging Nettles to form a nucleus under each pile after dampening them. I suggest it would be best to spray the contents with diluted Liquid Amber but do not saturate. I feel that they will go down quite quickly after that.
JB.

[Barry]

I always make a point of peeing on my compost bins! This one just happened to be in the wrong place. However, I want the bin stripped down and away by mid-next week and I am already having to transport massive amounts of stuff between allotment sites.
It really is remarkable how much stuff you accumulate during a 10-year period on an allotment. I did think of abandoning the lot and starting again, but then it struck me I would have to rob a bank to finance it, so went to the other extreme and decided to take the lot! That in itself is not easy, since it takes so long!
Anyway, I desperately needed the compost in the bins for the new raised beds I am building, so it was a pity to find the compost wasn't compost after all...

[lynne]

I take it that ladies can tinkle on compost heaps too?
What do you think my worms would make of it? Would it kill them?
I could happily send the Asst. Est Mgr up to the wormery regularly

[Chantal]

I pee on mine all the time, or rather I pee in a bucket and then take it with me to the compost heap

[Tigger]

Oh!

[Chantal]

Tigger, what do you mean by "oh"? You know what goes on at la mia casa as you've stayed here. AND taken a couple of useful wee wee receptacles (courtesy of Rosie cat) home with you too!

[alan refail]

Pee: the book



Alan

[Chantal]

Alan

That's my bible.

[lynne]

can I wee on my worms though?