I don't know if my way of making compost is in any way different from most but as it includes a brewing process I would be interested to hear of the opinions of others as to whether the method is efficacious or worthy of the effort. I buy wheaten bread (hope to make my own if I get to have a range one day) and the bread is sliced and set wastefully in a plastic tray under the wrapping.
I leave the tray by the sink and put all my vegetable and potato peelings in it along with teabags and droppings from geraniums, including from time to time fruit, discarded peanuts and tissues.
Now I never put any cooked food in it because that only attracts the magpies to scatter the contents around the yard. Any cooked food (I'm a veggie) I put out and the magpies/birds eat it.
I have a large bucket with a handle against a wall somewhat sheltered from too much rain but getting enough rain for the peelings to float in, and I empty the trays into it. I leave the bucket until it is just overfull before carrying it down to the compost heap.
What interestingly happens is that the damp stuff at the bottom of the bucket starts to be affected by some dreadful smelling sliming bacteria which I never rinse out. Whenever I have some, I pour whatever sour milk the cats will allow (they love the stuff) into the bucket to feed the bacteria (loves rotting tomatoes as well) And it sorta brews.
So as it takes a few weeks before it is full the stuff rots away so that by the time it hits the heap it is rotted soft.
Because it rains a lot here I keep the compost in a shed and water it from time to time, always emptying the new stuff on the top layer. I add cut nettles, bits of manure and sometimes even some fertilizer from a packet to the indoor heap and I think its a reet good compost.
I wonder if anyone has accidentally as I have, or even deliberately added a process to composting? Or have suggestions to improve on it.
mountaingirl
) you can add the ashes to the veggie patch, they are a good source of potassium.