Don’t be too fussy for your composting materials..
(It may be wrong but it works for me and makes a good compost)
At home my 2 dalek type compost bins just get manure, grass cuttings, shredded paper, vacuum cleaner contents, a bit of cardboard now and then, kitchen peelings (not from any blighted spuds), tea bags, egg shells, leafy hedge clippings, spent flowers, leaves, a bit of old soil and roots from pulled flowers etc. and a dash of fertilizer (occasionally). When I cut up and tidy my veg tops from the plot they all go into the bin as well. Basically anything compostable goes in to it. You are supposed supposed to turn it at least once a month or you can just aerate it by prodding through it wih steel rods to create air-holes.. but I normally forget and it still seems to work albeit a bit slower!! Meat and any cooked leftovers are not added at all – with the only exception of egg shells.. Keep it covered from rain to stop it turning into a sludge..
When I am potting up plants and seedlings I scrape a few shovel loads from the bottom hatches and mix it in with other bought compost. Once a year in Spring I empty the whole thing and most of it has become good compost. The top, newer non composted section I just use to start off the next lot. You have to keep topping it up because as the decay takes place it shrinks and makes space for mo to be added.. My large heap at the plot goes down about a foot a month!!
At the plot I have a huge new Compost heap started last year – it is 2 pallets long by 1 pallet wide. I have thrown in loads of bags of horse manure mixed with lots of shavings, leaves, weeds (without seed heads), cardboard and paper, veg cuttings, cut up sweetcorn plants, loads of leaves from the council leaf collection crews, etc. etc.. It is looking good at the moment and more stuff will be added by the Spring. It will then be used on my spuds, beans, peas and courgette family. I also also used it to top up my containers on my roof top garden.
So don’t worry too much to try to get the right combinations exactly right – just plonk it in and it will work.
These 2 pics were taken a few weeks
apart. The first shows how full it was. It went down and I filled with a huge pile of leaves.. A week later the leaves were down by about 9″..
