Selfsufficientish.com

1) My hanging baskets have falling apart liners made from coconutty type fibre (coir?). Can I put them in the composter?
2) I have been told that urine is good for the composting process so have been emptying my youngest sons potty into the composter (No.1's only). If I rinse the potty would emptying the water into the compost help the process or would too much liquid dilute all the bacteria?

Thanks

JuzaMum

1) Yes
2) yes and no (You can use urine in compost as it supports the process of breaking down. And watering compost is beneficial as long as it doesn't saturate it enough to exclude oxygen).

Carry on

Was reliably told at horticultural college that male urine is better for breaking down compost than female urine!! Not sure if its the actual urine or the logistics of men or women peeing on the heap.....

How wet is your compost already? Mine tends to get quite dry so adding liquid from time to time helps.

You can also use urine directly on the ground to feed plants and, in that case, it is recommended to dilute it first.

Wulf

I think our compost has too much liquid in it. I only really put in it kitchen waste as we don't get a lot of garden waste at all (we have a concrete yard with pots as opposed to having a garden with grass). How can I keep it as it's supposed to be?

Hi Pumpkin and piglet

I think you need to get the right mix of greens and browns in your composter. Bits of veggy waste are all greens. You could try adding stuff like egg boxes, shredded newspaper, empty toilet roll tubes etc.

JuzaMum

Thanks very much, I'll give it a go, I'd read newspaper was good but we don't have one regularly and I resented buying one just to put in my compost bin.
We have egg boxes though, I can shred them and pop them in!

You don't even need to shred them up too much - one of the contributions of "browns" is to create air gaps. If you do find that recognisable bits of egg box make it through to the finished product, just pick them out and throw them in with the next batch of fresh stuff.

Wulf

Great thanks, life is even easier now!

Pumpkin&Piglet wrote:Thanks very much, I'll give it a go, I'd read newspaper was good but we don't have one regularly and I resented buying one just to put in my compost bin.

You might have a neighbour who's happy to get rid of some.

Another idea is to get a bale of straw from a farmer and occasionally throw in a handful or ten of the wonderfully-smelling stuff.

Just to add on the end, I have a question.

We have a home-made compost bin. I bought the cheapest plastic bin i could find and drilled as many holes I could get into it. It seems to work pretty well and we were very happy with the selfsufficientish aspect of it.

My question though is what about all those compost bins you see that don't seem to have holes? such as this one

http://www.primrose.co.uk/220l-small-co ... ml?src=lhc

Could I use a cheap plastic bin with no hole drilled into it?

Hi

I have two bins like the one you linked to. They have no base and sit on the soil so the worms can get in and excess moisture drain out.

JuzaMum

JuzaMum wrote:Hi

I have two bins like the one you linked to. They have no base and sit on the soil so the worms can get in and excess moisture drain out.

JuzaMum

We have a couple of those too, as well as three or four other compost heaps on the go.

They work really well providing they're not let get too dry.

Pumpkin&Piglet wrote:I think our compost has too much liquid in it. I only really put in it kitchen waste as we don't get a lot of garden waste at all (we have a concrete yard with pots as opposed to having a garden with grass). How can I keep it as it's supposed to be?

Hi

I was thinking that maybe there is not enough drainage with your bin, now knowing how it is constructed, maybe more holes would also help as well as more browns. If i get veg in paper bags I put the next bit of waste for the composter in the bag and throw the whole lot in

Happy composting

JuzaMum

the trouble with shredded paper is it goes soggy and creates a mass that will not compost, loosely screwed up newspaper creates better air pockets and will compost readily. a way to speed the proccess up would be to add a bucket of horse manure before starting a new heap (the worms just cant resist it) and occasionally i like to add a bucket full of manure especially when adding large quantities of grass clippings.

one way to cope wwith large quantities of grass clippings is mulch between the potato rows as they part rot by the time the potatoes are ready to be harvested and they get dug in at the same time.