Quote:
Originally Posted by Ian B
Does all this sound right? I've got more green in there than brown, if green
is weeds and brown is leaves, but I haven't got any more brown to offer,
unlike the government, sadly, but like them I've still got more weeds to go.
Since the garden is overlooked by huge lime trees that my neighbour tells me
will cover us later in an deep autumnal carpet (he shifted 30 bags of leaves
from his garden last year) I'll presumably have heaps of brown then but I
can't do much about that now. My bin is about 3 foot square and currently
filled something approaching 3 foot deep.
I'd also like some beginners' advice on how to tell weeds from real plants
before I fling a potentially beautiful summer display in my disfunctional
bin. Is there an online poppy foliage indentifier site? Also what to do with
heaps of twigs and small branches from the trees. Tip?
Also I have several peonies which are quite big (about 3 foot round and
something over 2 foot high) which are budding like mad; do I need to do
anything special for them? I have no idea what variety they are, sadly.
Many thanks for any replies,
Ian
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First comment - do not under any circumstances put the roots of either couch grass or nettles into your compost bin. It will not get hot enough to rot them down. The tops of nettles are great. Avoid putting dandelions in as well - they will continue to develop and seed and you will end up with a garden filled with them.
Second comment - shred any cardboard/paper that you put in. If you don't, you will end up with lumps of gunge.
Soft twigs [this year's growth]will rot down. Woody twigs are best burned or taken to the tip. If you have a local tip that takes garden waste for composting, even better as they can deal with woody stuff.
"Layering" means don't fill your bin with just green stuff. In a small bin like yours, stirring each means that the decomposing materials are mixed into the new ones, so getting the process going faster.
Re poppies; see Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppy
RE Peonies: these sound like the cottagey herbaceous ones. They need very little attention, apart from some good compost/manure in spring, and removing their dead leaves in late summer.
http://www.gardenersworld.com/plant-...paeony-/-peony