Too much compost!

[lovelygreenleaves]

Hi everyone, I haven't been on here much recently and it's lovely to see lots of new people! I have a problem. We eat LOADS of veg everyday so we always have a pile of veg peelings. We've filled all our compost bins now so I don't know what to do with it, I'm not going to send it to the landfill. I'm careful not to waste any food, it's literally just stuff like onion skins, tough peelings etc. Does anyone have any ideas about what to do with excess? Some amazing stock instructions or anything else I could use it for in the garden? Or homebrew recipes?? Onion skin wine??

[Green Aura]

Have you turned your compost? You'll find if you do that, and get someone to pee on it when no-one's looking (I generally find men are better at that sort of thing ) your compost will break down really quickly.

I'm a bit stunned at you filling everything - are your bins must be really tiny or are you throwing away edible bits? We've got three dalek type bins. The first on filled up quite quickly because we put loads of garden waste - cabbage stumps, bean plants, grass cuttings etc in. But by the time we were half way up the second one the first had collapsed right down. In spring we'll turn them both over into the third one and start again - there'll be some usable compost out of it, leaving the rest to have another year.

[sarahkeast]

May sound a bit counter productive, but you could consider adding some horse manure with straw bedding, should help it break down faster. Definately turn it a few times too.

And if you live anywhere near Lancashire I could help take some of it !

Sarah

[Harasimow]

You could just dig veg peelings straight into a trench in the ground where you are growing peas, broadbeans or runnerbeans. Usually its better to add kitchen waste to the compost heap first as they use up nitrogen as they break down but plants of the fabaceae (pea) familly can fix their own nitrogen from the air!

[Flo]

You need other things than veg peelings to make compost. I'd have a good read of this information which will help you to get your compost to rot down fairly rapidly.

You should be looking at all the other things listed on the link above along with all the information that you are given on making compost. That way you will end up with usable compost rather than just a heap which sounds a bit like your problem at the moment.

[snapdragon]

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Onion skin wine??

You can dye wool with onion skins but there'll still be onion skins left when you're done

[Mrs Moustoir]

You could just dig veg peelings straight into a trench in the ground where you are growing peas, broadbeans or runnerbeans. Usually its better to add kitchen waste to the compost heap first as they use up nitrogen as they break down but plants of the fabaceae (pea) familly can fix their own nitrogen from the air!

Don't put potato peelings in a bean trench though or you'll get loads of little spud plants popping up where you don't want them!

I learned this the hard way

[wulf]

Don't put potato peelings in a bean trench though or you'll get loads of little spud plants popping up where you don't want them!

Do you get a potato crop? Are the nitrogen fixing plants essential to the process? I'm interested because this sounds like a brilliant way to get extra value out of a bag of potatoes if the peelings are likely to germinate into something useful.

Wulf

[Mrs Moustoir]

Can say anything about the science Wulf, I just made a bean trench, lined it with newspaper/cardboard and dumped in all the peelings willy-nilly. Had loads of little spud plants (AND a a couple of tomato plants too) popping up here and there in amongst the runner bean plants.

I did leave a few in the hope that there would be some extra spuds, but when i dug them up - they were only marble sized.

[spider8]

How about setting up a wormery?

[liskeardjane]

Just dug ours over today and there's lots that hasn't rotted down yet but it has in the middle and at the bottom, that's now in huge pots ready for planting with spuds in march - they'll be put on a sunny patio to warm up and some has been thrown in a pile near to where we'll build a new bed - keep an old jug in the loo and pour urine into it, it will rot down quickly - I new have one empty bin and will leave the full one alonge - by summer it will be ready

[Peggy Sue]

I've been absent for a while too... new job so had to get organised! Still compost is my subject so what better to make a comeback!

I mix horse manure with my veggie stuff, and we eat shed loads of veg pluss all the old stalks etc from the allotment. At home I have a half size compost bin (made from small pallets so similar to a darlek) and given I put all that junk in I still don't fill it up completely, even with 4 sacks of manure a year mixed in. The manure really gets it going and makes lovely stuff in 18 months- crumbly, almost want to eat it!! (No sorry I really didn't mean that )

If you can get hold of chicken poo it's very concentrated so could do teh same job taking up less space....this is only hearsay not actaully tried by yours truely I must add. I've got my first shovel full this spring to add to the heap so time will tell....

[pelmetman]

We have 5 compost bins (we seem to gain one every time we move) and I don't think you can ever have too much compost, as another poster said if you turn out your bin you will probably find some stuff ready at the bottom
At the last house I named each bin after a political party as I find they are like compost, as they are full of useless c%^&p and if you want it to be of any good you have to turn the whole lot out on a regular basis
I prefer the traditional timber compost bins to the plastic dalek type.

Sue wants to add her bit

But from a ladies point of view, yes Dave has the brawn and brains to actually build the compost bins which are great, but us ladies mainly have to fill them. Who does the weeding, collecting all the veg peelings, tea bags, coffee grounds etc and fill the things! Oops forget the summer grass cuttings. What man doesnt love his lawn. Its mown one way then the other to make sure the stripes are just so. Yes it looks OK but me I'd prefer more flower beds. Still between us it all fills the compost bins.

[marshlander]

I'm sure I read that Blueberries like tea/tea leaves - we just planted 3 in a bungalow bath.