"Judith" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 3 Jul 2011 17:04:55 +0100, "'Mike'"
wrote:



"Derek" wrote in message
. ..
On Sun, 3 Jul 2011 15:47:23 +0100, "'Mike'"
wrote:


I am now asking the same question on established bins. Very few worms.
Why?


Too wet, Too dry. Too hot , Too Cold.

Mine tends to be on the damp cool side, and have plenty.

Nothing has changed.

Not too wet, Too dry. Too hot or Too Cold

No problems in the past http://www.myalbum.com/Album=A7TCLLF7 same bins,
same garden, same TLC

(I have even got my daughter and son in law composting with great
success!!)

?????????????????????????????????????????????

Mike



Does the content of the bin smell offensive; if so that is a good sign
that
things are not quite right.


No it was OK Judith and it has taken some time to sort it out.

It was in fact too dry, the Ants told me that, but why?

we had to stand back to see the problem. The hedge, an Escallonia, had gone
mad and whilst we trimmed it back at ground to eye level, it had gone up and
over so that it shielded the compost bins and prevented the rain getting in.

Spent about 3 weeks attacking it back to bare wood, exposing the compost to
the air and sky, shredding and adding to the compost, in fact had to make
another compost stack.

Well over a month later, with plenty of rain and watering can water, and
more greenstuffs added, an inspection shows hundreds of worms, almost to the
top.

Hedge will now be kept reduced. Trouble there is that the birds liked it :-(

As you all know, we only have a small area for our gardens, but we seem to
produce plenty of composting material. What people do with anything larger
than our postage stamp I don't know ;-}

Mike


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Don't take life too seriously, you'll never get out alive.

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