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Yup let nettles and tough types of weeds and plants to dry out and they become brown - after all straw was once a green plant wasn't it? You might want to chop up the dried nettles a bit though before adding them. Don't forget any cardboard you find or loo roll holders ripped up are brown too.

You did drill holes in the bottom of that didn't you to let worms in and excess liquid out, and some more holes all the way up would be best for air flow otherwise it could get rather stagnant. Good luck with it.

Good idea to add the soil, if there are worms in it, they'll soon get started on that lot.

Cheers
Zoe

darn, forgot about drilling holes, thanks! must look for some worms...

thanks about the brown confirmation... wasn't sure whether it was simply dry plants or something to do with their chemical component! :p

With the Bean trench method I do not know why, but it has never been dug up..
perhaps its because it is a bit deeper and the soil covers it completely..I do it during the winter so perhaps the diggers are hibernating..I never thought of it before now.

Millymollymandy wrote:loo roll holders

Oh dear I do write some gibberish sometimes, you know I meant the cardboard inner thingy not the holders!

Millymollymandy wrote:

Millymollymandy wrote:loo roll holders

Oh dear I do write some gibberish sometimes, you know I meant the cardboard inner thingy not the holders!

chuckle, i understood! :D

Cassiepod wrote:Pumpy/Pennylane, With the trench digging I've alway wondered, how do you stop any hungry animals coming in and digging it all up whilst you're mid trench?

If you "cover as you go", then it shouldn't really be a problem. However, even if they do, it will help to mix the stuff up..... also if the hungry blighters are herbivores, then their "poo" will add to the mix!!

Brown stuff needs to be a bitmore than dry, a bit woody will do (or cardboard even? bit of shredded paper)
Best is always horse poo, can't help but mention it!

Peggy Sue wrote:Brown stuff needs to be a bitmore than dry, a bit woody will do (or cardboard even? bit of shredded paper)
Best is always horse poo, can't help but mention it!

no horse poo.
like i said previously, i have plenty of hand torn paper and cardboard. the only other thing i have are weeds (nettles mostly) which i can leave to dry out until brittle.

what do you mean by 'bit more than dry'. extremely dry, or something else as well as dry? :)

I'm trying to make the best of what i have.

We add paper from the shredding machine, all the bills etc with personal details on - I've heard of identity thieves going through dustbins, but never compost bins!

What I think she means is that there are dry leaves from weeds etc which will still be 'green', then there are the stems of certain plants/weeds which when dry will go woody i.e. straw, probably nettles, anything that goes quite brittle and would best be broken up or chopped up before composting. That would be considered your brown stuff.

In my humble opinion that is and I stand to be corrected.

ok, thanks for the clarification... so something, like leaves, being completely dry and brown aren't necessarily Brown... good grief. so look for brittle slightly woody stems.... got it... i think :)

Don't worry about being too scientific Nikki with your mixture , and try not to put anything in that is too hard and twiggy unless it has been really chopped up. You can add a few fallen leaves in autumn too although they do take longer to compost down, but to be honest one year old leaf mould is pretty good stuff anyway and you don't necessarily want perfect potting compost type mixture. It's quite good to have a mix of quite rough stuff to dig into the veg patch and the better stuff for pots and flower bed mulch but that does take longer to produce.

This morning I have been adding in layers of chopped up gone to seed curly kale (stems getting quite woody now) layered with grass clippings and weeds from the garden, some of which I've left till they got a bit dried out and some are fresh. I personally count the curly kale as woody stuff (even though it is purple ) and probably still a little bit pliable.

So long as you turn it fairly frequenly to aerate it, water it now and again when you are adding new material, you should end up with useable stuff. Good luck!

thanks Mmm. :)

i'm not too concerned about getting great compost, rather composting our waste, mostly kitchen waste. it's just not having much to compost and seeing stuff go mouldy that concerns me. perhaps i need to add more cardboard. if i can get away with just kitchen waste and paper and cardboard, with a little soil i'll be happy, because i have plenty of all of them.

I think you'll be fine and in time you will have more stuff to add when you are growing great veg and they have gone over cos all those brown stems of finished beans and gone to seed winter brassicas etc are all good in the compost too and quite woody.

Just don't put in anything diseased like blighted toms!!!