Kitchen Garden Forum

I am sorry you locked the thread about John Walker's article. I wanted to thank John for answering the points raised. I myself compost much as he does, but I try to keep mine wetter on top. Worms from my wormery reproduce and many then get put into the bins. I'm not sure how important that wetness is, because as more stuff gets put on top, the material gets compressed and joins wetter material below.

I have produced two harvests of compost this year, filling five 40 litre bags from 2 bins. There are another 2 on my allotment, which get more sun and have produced about the same amount of compost in a shorter time. That does onto the beds on top of cardboard, much as John suggests, but I'm afraid I do dig because there's so much bindweed still in the beds and I have to get the spuds out somehow.

I put in everything organic that will decompose quickly. There are some forms of plastic wrapping that are labelled "compostable" but decompose too slowly - I now put these in the orange recycling bags our local authority provides. I avoid glossy bits of packaging but have no qualms about the cardboard. I also empty the vacuum cleaner into the bins, as I am virtually 100% sure that everything picked up is of organic origin.

The acid test of it all, as JB says, is how it is used and what happens. Well, I've used it for repotting housepants and potting on brassicas. All these have done very well and they seem to be thriving [of course, the brassicas are now in the allotment]. I have also used the compost for sowing and the squashes produced have done well this year. So I shall use it again next year for the same purposes.

Lastly, I must say that I have learnt far more from John's response than I learnt from his original article! But shuldn't it all have come under "Best practices"?

Still on the topic of organic composting, can anybody tell me what they do with their discarded shellfish shells (prawns, shrimps, etc). They make such an awful pong, however well they're wrapped, if they're put in the dustbin and left to linger for a week. As we're rather partial to the occasional mixed shellfish platter, I've taken to sticking them in the heart of my compost bin and covering them well so they're not exposed and attract flies. They do still pong a little bit in the heat of summer but the bin's at the bottom of the garden and they seem to rot down fairly quickly. I like to think that eventually they will add some nutrients back into my soil. I can't think of any other suitable way of disposing of them.

I rinse them and put them in a bag and bash them into small pieces with a hammer, then just mix them through the compost.

I had a similar problem to solve but for a different reason. I collect seashells and I once brought one home which had half a hermit crab in it. My solution for [a] getting the crab out and [b] avoiding the pong was to bury the thing about 6 inches in soil. The organisms cleared it out and by the end of the summer I was able to add it to my collection tasteless and odourles [though still with its original colouring].