Selfsufficientish.com

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

I don't think the bread is necessary, any soggy material will rot in a foul smelling anaerobic brew, and eventually rot down to a level where plants can absorb the nutrients. In its simplest form its done with one plant specially to make liquid plant feed - e.g. comfrey or nettle tea (or manure tea). The advantages of doing compost in any 'proper' way is the time from fresh material to usable compost is reduced, and more pleasant to handle and smell. Aerobic composting is probably the better way, but not always convenient, and easy to do without the right balance of material (carbon/nitrogen) and texture (open/dense/wet/dry). If you want to know some more about a better anearobic composting method (costing money in special activator) which is less smelly and the bacteria don't give off methane, look at this website about Bokashi and Effective Micro organismns.
http://www.livingsoil.co.uk/

Also check this website for lots of useful info on gardening, and here the link to the liquid fertaliser page
http://www.keirg.freeserve.co.uk/diary/tech/manure.htm

Thanks Judy,

Two interesting websites. The first would be a must if I had a higher output of compostable material and it is really an attractive and useful product, but being a single person and not a great eater I found the second site had a lot of interesting ideas, I have marked it and will retun to study it further.

Someone now tells me that the council here are selling big black plastic composting bins which heat up material but you would have to proactivly find ways of feeding them, i.e. not only kitchen material but grass cuttings, old straw or hay, cut weeds, newspapers. I am going to look at one once I have moved.

But I want to check your second site to see their suggestions first.

Going out with a wheelbarrow to collect autumn leaves at the end of the year is something I intend to do as well.

Thanks for your advice
mountaingirl.

G'Day Mountaingirl,

I have two of those black plastic bins and they are great!
Nev

O well, that settles it Nev.........I'm going to get one when I get to the new place.

The more I think about it the more the idea makes sense and I'm sure you could recycle all non-plastic paper and newspapers as well as cuttings and peelings, thanks

No worries,

Yeah you just need to shred the paper to increase the surface area so that it does not just clag together in a lump and take forever to rot down.

Nev

Well there you go Nev!

I would'nt have thought of that!

But sure, the more I tear the stuff up the quicker it will compost and the better it will mix.

My current composting plan looks a lot less successfull now, especially when I burn so many papers, cardboard and all the wasteful wrappings from my shopping.

The beauty of the big black compost bin is that you can feed it a greater variety of stuff.

Yep, they are a cool idea. I tried many ways of composting before settling on them as being the best for my situation.

Don't be too hard on yourself! Any composting is good, and if you do burn some stuff (unless it is plastic ) you can add the ashes to the veggie patch, they are a good source of potassium.

Nev

Thanks Nev,

Actually you raise a point there which has been causing a degree of agonising and worry to me and that is using ashes from plastic in the compost.

I had a fear in my mind that this might be a source of carcinogens entering the plants and so I started disposing of plastic seperately. In the light of what you say that seems to have been a good idea.

Something tells me instinctivly that burning plastic is not a good idea in pollution terms. If you dont have refuse collection (I live up a longish lane and dispose of my own rubbish, i.e. let tins rust etc, then you are however stuck with it.

Burning any type of plastic releases poisons, but the worst of the lot is PVC, which creates dioxins when burnt at less than very high incinerating temperatures, which is a very dangerous and long lasting poison which can enter the foodchain I believe. A lot of food wrapping plastic (some punnets, clingfilm and more) are made of PVC. If I'm not mistaken, agent orange, the defolient used in the Vietnam war left dioxins in the soil, which are still causing birth defects, and, I believe, cancer. Its probably better to bury it in one little corner (or a dedicated bin, and using a sledghammer occasionally to compact the content), than to burn for the few BTUs you get from plastics, if you can't get rid of it any other way.

I agree Judy with all you say and if I can get a new house.....and things are looking far from promising at the moment....I will not burn plastic anymore.

There are council schemes to take it away I think in a certain colour wheelie-bin. I could always wait until it is full and then put it out......if that course is on offer.

One more thing; catalogue paper. You know the sort like an Argos catalogue. I wondered if the thin paper and tons of shiny inks dont contain petrolium product or other poisions for the soil?

Would you think that it better not to compost certain types of paper as above, or say possibly plasticised paper like catalogue covers?

G'DAy Mountaingirl,

I agree with Judy about the plastics, although over here at least clingfilm is the more benign polyethylene rather than PVC. Do you have any food coops or the like in your area so that you could reduce the amount of packaging you get?

As for the paper, I will have to do a bit of research, I used to do work with the paper industry, but it was a long time ago....my gut feel is that it would take quite a while to compost down and I would be tempted to leave it out (just in case).

Nev

Thanks Nev,

Every product practically is wrapped in a degree of plastic here due to EU hygene regs. Then of course you get big plastic such as that from silage bags from the tenant farmer and fertilizer bags, as well as milk cartons....I get half in plastic so I can refrigerate them (have milkman once a week). It mounts up.

Thanks for checking on the shiny paper.

One great thing for the compost heap is ashes from the fireplace in the house, I even collect my neighbours when I visit her!
mountaingirl

As far as paper is concerned, coloured inks (red and yellow) may possibly contain cadmium, a very toxic heavy metal. As for coating, I only have my nose to go by, which is very sensitive to perfumes and many noxious chemicals, and when glossy paper burns, it smells of polystyrene burning, making me think it may have a thin coating of it. Personally, I don't put any coloured and/or glossy paper on the fire or on the compost, to be on the safe side. I do have a seperate 'dirty' compost heap, where I put that type of cardboard, which the council do not recycle, and just leave it there in the pile, away from food plants. It mostly feeds trees and ivy, nothing much in the wild food chain either.

Excellent post judy and cogently expressed, that makes perfect sense.

P'raps even just dump it in the hedges or part of a thicket where it can't affect smaller plants and the roots are too deep to be affected by it.

I think slugs and things may like it to sleep under.
mountaingirl