On 15/12/2015 7:41 PM, Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article ,
Chris Hogg wrote:

As others have said, cooked veg on the compost heap is fine, but the
recommendation is to avoid meat products, cooked or raw, as they can
attract vermin, and flies if left exposed. But even they will
eventually decompose if you're prepared to risk it.

Nah. That's one recommendation and it is largely an old wife's
tale. Composting meat products is fine, and does NOT attract
vermin any more than any heap will - unless you start putting
slabs of meat on it! Rats are attracted to the warmth and worms,
both of which are inherent aspects.

I was talking to a Member of our Parliament about composting and he told
me that his brother (who ran an eatery of some sorts) used to put the
contents of his grease trap into his (the brother's) compost bin.
Having cleaned out our grease trap out a few times, this horrified me as
the stuff looks like it's just pure solid fatty nastiness IMO. When I
made a comment about how doing so was supposedly a no,no, The MP said
that although it didn't compost as such, the worms in the compost bins
loved the greasetrap offerings and very quickly sought out the fat and
seemed to thrive on it.

I'm not going to make comments about how MPs are all liars because I've
found that old wive's tales that are supposedly gospel truth in how to
operate in the garden are a load of rubbish.

For just one example, I use fresh manure and have yet to kill anything
because it's 'hot' or 'burns'. A modicum of commons sense has to be
used. I wouldn't use fresh chook poo rorm under the perches on
seedlings, but I have used it under bushes and hte bushes have not died
or doen anytng other than to look happier.

I've also always put orange and lemon shells into my wormery and my
worms seem to scoff into them as happily as they scoff into anything.