Composting.....new to it!! Help!!
 

Please, I wonder if anybody can help. I'm asking this on behalf of my parents. They have recently started a compost heap, you know local council incentive to recycle etc. I'd say they've had it 2-3 months. They've only put fruit/veg scraps, tea bags and egg shells on it, nothing from the garden as yet.

Mum said she went to it the other day, lifted the lid and closed it VERY QUICKLY as there was, what she thought looked like loads of mosquitos in it. She's not 100% sure, could have been tiny flies or similar.

Sorry to be so vague, it's making me itch just typing about it. Mum has been badly bitten by something over the past week and now she's beginning to connect the compost with the mossie???? Sorry if I sound dim, but any advice would be most welcome, and i'll pass it on to my parents.

Thanks so much in advance!

I wouldn't put in egg shells because they don't rot down, but I put in
everything else. All those little bugs are doing the good work of
composting, let them get on with it.

If you have only small quantities of kitchen waste why not go for a wormery
instead?
http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/





"Lady Penelope" wrote in message
...

Please, I wonder if anybody can help. I'm asking this on behalf of my
parents. They have recently started a compost heap, you know local
council incentive to recycle etc. I'd say they've had it 2-3 months.
They've only put fruit/veg scraps, tea bags and egg shells on it,
nothing from the garden as yet.

Mum said she went to it the other day, lifted the lid and closed it
VERY QUICKLY as there was, what she thought looked like loads of
mosquitos in it. She's not 100% sure, could have been tiny flies or
similar.

Sorry to be so vague, it's making me itch just typing about it. Mum
has been badly bitten by something over the past week and now she's
beginning to connect the compost with the mossie???? Sorry if I sound
dim, but any advice would be most welcome, and i'll pass it on to my
parents.

Thanks so much in advance!


--
Lady Penelope

Fungus Gnats
A real PIA in overwatered houseplants but no real problem outside.
See if you can find some grass clippings to mix in .

or Fruit Flies....every batch of bananas we get from Wal-Mart carries their
eggs in and annoys the crap out of me a few days later. Kitchen scraps are
probably staying wet and fruity which they like :)

Grass clippings are good but are also high in nitrogen. I'd suggest a good
carbon source that is also dry to help dry it out a bit -- dead leaves for
instance...my neighbors toss nicely collected bags of them weekly :)

hth
John


wrote in message
oups.com...
Fungus Gnats
A real PIA in overwatered houseplants but no real problem outside.
See if you can find some grass clippings to mix in .

I had a gnat problem in my compost pile when I threw in melon rinds. I
learned that to help with the problem, be sure to bury the rinds
underneath the other materials.
Also, she might want to look into adding some grass clippings (if not
hers then the neighbors?) or some dead leaves.

Good luck,
Jenn

Lady Penelope wrote:
Please, I wonder if anybody can help. I'm asking this on behalf of my
parents. They have recently started a compost heap, you know local
council incentive to recycle etc. I'd say they've had it 2-3 months.
They've only put fruit/veg scraps, tea bags and egg shells on it,
nothing from the garden as yet.

Mum said she went to it the other day, lifted the lid and closed it
VERY QUICKLY as there was, what she thought looked like loads of
mosquitos in it. She's not 100% sure, could have been tiny flies or
similar.

Sorry to be so vague, it's making me itch just typing about it. Mum
has been badly bitten by something over the past week and now she's
beginning to connect the compost with the mossie???? Sorry if I sound
dim, but any advice would be most welcome, and i'll pass it on to my
parents.

Thanks so much in advance!



--
Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe -
the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. - Immanuel Kant

Could be fruit flies, or something like that. get your parents to add some
lawn clippings and leaves.and get someone to stir things up. If your
municipality has a compost center you usually can get a couple of bags for
free or very cheap. it will help speed up your parents own compost.

--
:) Lynn
!

"Lady Penelope" wrote in message
...

Please, I wonder if anybody can help. I'm asking this on behalf of my
parents. They have recently started a compost heap, you know local
council incentive to recycle etc. I'd say they've had it 2-3 months.
They've only put fruit/veg scraps, tea bags and egg shells on it,
nothing from the garden as yet.

Mum said she went to it the other day, lifted the lid and closed it
VERY QUICKLY as there was, what she thought looked like loads of
mosquitos in it. She's not 100% sure, could have been tiny flies or
similar.

Sorry to be so vague, it's making me itch just typing about it. Mum
has been badly bitten by something over the past week and now she's
beginning to connect the compost with the mossie???? Sorry if I sound
dim, but any advice would be most welcome, and i'll pass it on to my
parents.

Thanks so much in advance!


--
Lady Penelope

Please, I wonder if anybody can help. I'm asking this on behalf of my
parents. They have recently started a compost heap, you know local
council incentive to recycle etc. I'd say they've had it 2-3 months.
They've only put fruit/veg scraps, tea bags and egg shells on it,
nothing from the garden as yet.

The insects are probably not mosquitos; more likely fruit flies or
fungus gnats. Your mention of "cover" and the description of what's
in it lead me to believe you're trying to compost in a sealed container
in smallish batches. Eventually, you will get compost that way, but
it's pretty stinky because the anaerobic bacteria are doing a lot of work.

There are a number of ways to compost. Probably most suitable for a
single household's kitchen scraps is a worm bin:
http://yucky.kids.discovery.com/flas.../pg000223.html

Traditional hot composting involves enough mass to get the compost up to
temperature... in my experience that's about a one meter cube, probably
too much for what your kitchen is producing. If you do it that way,
keep the compost turned so oxygen can get into the center -- you'll get
nice compost with little or no stinkiness. If compost heats to a
high enough temp, it also kills weed seeds, plant diseases, etc.

A third option is to simply dig a shallow trench in between rows of plantings,
drop the scraps in the trench and cover. I find in our climate (which is
similar to the climate of southern England), about a one year rotation to
get back to the same spot for digging a new trench works perfectly.

Kay

Kay

Ensure your compost mix is correct. The contents need to be balanced. You need greens and browns. Greens are soft grassy, leafy, kitchen waste, veg peelings and the like. Browns are the twiggy things, shrub prunnings, scrunched up newspaper, egg boxes, straw, cardboard tubes (loo roll insides).

Turning the top spit (nothing energetic!!) once a week will help, so will male "night water".

So where should I put my bin?
Your bin needs to be near enough to the house so that the habit of diverting kitchen waste from the dustbin becomes second nature. It should be placed directly onto soil, to allow access to worms and other soil organisms. Ideally the bin will also receive some direct sunlight; otherwise the composting process will progress more slowly.

A bin that smells is most likely to have an imbalance in its three main ingredients: air, moisture and materials.

A lack of air causes the composting micro-organisms to be replaced with ones that work anaerobically. A by-product of this is a smell of rotten eggs. Re-introducing air into the bin should resolve this problem.

An excess of moisture, (which can be caused by too many “greens”, as these have high moisture content) can clog up the pore spaces which would allow air to circulate and may produce a strong smell of ammonia. Adding more “browns” should resolve this problem.

Arh, my compost bin doesn’t heat up.
The heat in a compost bin is generated by the activity of the composting bacteria. If they stop producing heat it is usually because they are waiting for some more material to be added. If material is added regularly then the problem is usually insufficient air.

The balance of greens and browns is also important, as too many greens will quickly deplete the oxygen available and too many browns will prevent the decomposition process from getting started.

Finally, a compost bin which has been allowed to dry out will see little activity. Slowly adding water over a number of days should bring it back to life. The compost bin’s contents should feel as damp as a wrung out sponge.

Have fun,