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New to Composting
Janet Baraclough wrote: The message from "PieOPah" contains these words: compost bin from the council. It's doing quite well and nearly half full. but I have a couple of questions 1 - it appears that ants have made a home in my compost bin. Does this matter or should I try and get rid of them? They don't do any harm, but they indicate it's too dry for proper decomposition. Water the heap. Although the second point could indicate stagnant water with anaerobic soggy compost turning to smelly blck slime at the bottom. Many of these plastic dalek things have nothing like enough ventilation. 2 - It smells and with summer coming I'm sure it will get worse - what can I do to reduce the rotting odour? It shouldn't smell at all; possibly the smell indicates there isn't enough air in the process. This can be a problem with tightly enclosed plastic dalek composters. Try leaving off the exit cover at the bottom, and leave the lid open occasionally; stir the top around with a fork. I wouldn't say it should never smell. Mine smells of short chain fatty acids (slightly odd stale smell) for a few days whenever I add a cubic metre of grass clippings. It has an internal temperature fo 70C mid season. Best off placed at the far end of the garden rather than outside the back door. As you fill it, include some cardboard screwed up into fist sized balls (this will make air spaces). I'd favour screwed up newspaper too but something coarse will help aeration a lot. And don't ever include any meat or animal fat scraps as they will stink like, er, a decomposing corpse. And attract lots of flies too. One other thing that may help with a small heap is to use a starter culture like the proprietory Garotta stuff to help get it going in the right way. With luck you only need to start it once per season. Unnecessary with a large or established heap. Regards, Martin Brown |
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