After 18 months our green darlek compost bin is a quarter full of
beautiful rich soft black compost. What might be the *best* use for this
lovely stuff?
TIA for any tips
--
Paul reply-to is valid

"Paul" wrote in message
...
After 18 months our green darlek compost bin is a quarter full of
beautiful rich soft black compost. What might be the *best* use for this
lovely stuff?
TIA for any tips
--
Paul reply-to is valid

We either spread it on the beds in the form of a deep mulch. Feeds the soil
and prevents the weeds growing. Any weeds which do pop up are easy to remove
with finger and thumb;-))

or

When the raised veg beds are clear and ready for cleaning up, we spread the
compost on those, either to dig in straight away or to let the worms do it
for us ;-)

any left over, we bag in old compost/peat bags and keep it dry to use it
later.

Hope that helps ;-)

Mike
Isle of Wight

--------------------------------------
Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association
www.rnshipmates.co.uk
www.nsrafa.com

"Paul" wrote in message
...
After 18 months our green darlek compost bin is a quarter full of
beautiful rich soft black compost. What might be the *best* use for this
lovely stuff?
TIA for any tips
--
Paul reply-to is valid

Should have added Paul, when you do come to empty it all out, ....... don't
;-) Leave some of the compost in the bottom, about a bucket full, as this
will act as a starter for the next lot as you load it up. Don't worry about
chucking the little worms out with your compost, some will remain in the
bucket full you are leaving in, and more will 'arrive'

Mike
Isle of Wight


--------------------------------------
Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association
www.rnshipmates.co.uk
www.nsrafa.com

"Paul" wrote in message
...
After 18 months our green darlek compost bin is a quarter full of
beautiful rich soft black compost. What might be the *best* use for this
lovely stuff?

Does the compost get warm?
I only ask because I have a similarly sized bin and it never gets warm
at all and getting warm is supposed to kill the weed seeds and it
doesn't with my compost even though it still turns a wonderful
sweet smelling crumbly dark brown mixture. So I don't now use
it direct on the borders but use it for planting and more especially
for filling pots for annuals/bulbs, followed by a couple of inches
top dressing of bought compost.

Col

Does the compost get warm?
Col

I have four of those large plastic compost bins and they get red hot -
certainly too hot to hold your hand on when the sun is out and when they are
up to full heat. I even break the rules and put in things like dandelion and
dock roots and they compost too no problem. The only occasional survivors
are tomato seeds. The secret seems to be to add and mix lots of lawn
clippings with weeds, household peelings and existing mature compost then
add lots of diluted compost accelerator. I don't waste money buying an off
the shelf compost accelerator, but prefer a liquid one that is freely
available in every household and costs nothing ;-) though perhaps collecting
the stuff and putting it onto compost may not be for the squeamish. And no
I'm not taking the p*ss - well I am actually ;-)
--
David
.... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
.... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/

"David (in Normandy)" wrote in
message ...
Does the compost get warm?
Col

I have four of those large plastic compost bins and they get red hot -
certainly too hot to hold your hand on when the sun is out and when they
are up to full heat. I even break the rules and put in things like
dandelion and dock roots and they compost too no problem. The only
occasional survivors are tomato seeds. The secret seems to be to add and
mix lots of lawn clippings with weeds, household peelings and existing
mature compost then add lots of diluted compost accelerator. I don't waste
money buying an off the shelf compost accelerator, but prefer a liquid one
that is freely available in every household and costs nothing ;-) though
perhaps collecting the stuff and putting it onto compost may not be for
the squeamish. And no

How large is large?
I think I have a reasonably healthy mix of grass, weeds, soft prunings
and vegetable household waste. But to make it work I need to add
layers of newspaper at intervals. Before I tried this I only got a nasty
soggy twiggy mess. Bought compost acellerators didn't work.
The urine idea is interesting, I think I can handle the collection process


Col

How large is large?
Col

I think the bins are 330 litres each. I bought them at a heavy discount via
the local council from a firm called Blackwall. They are so good we found
room on the removal lorry and brought them to France with us! Every couple
of months I pull the bin off the compost and re-fill it (the little lift up
door on the front is useless). Then mix the partly composted material with
grass clippings etc, so around 75% of the volume is taken up by new
material, then give it a good soaking in approx 30% solution of urine. If
the weather is hot and sunny the heap shrinks by half within a few days. It
doesn't half chuck some steam out! Continue to keep the heap moist and it
soon goes down. You can then either let it rest and wait a few more months
for it to become black gold, or, if you are like me and always in need of
fertiliser type compost, it is good still in its "live" state under potatoes
or in runner bean trenches etc. Best if you keep the compost bin away from
the house though - with the urine it can whiff a little at times,
reminiscent of a farmers "muck heap" - but then I was brought up on a farm
so it doesn't bother me. The wife on the other hand prefers to keep farmyard
odours at a distance :-)
Thankfully our current plot is over an acre, so the bins don't need to be
near the house.
--
David
.... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
.... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/