I hope this is an appropriate ng, if not apologies and could somebody point
me to an appopriate one?

I've moved in to a new flat recently with a garden but frankly don't know
much about gardening at all really. Many of my family have gardens, but the
only time I've myself previously had one was for a couple of years, and the
ex knew all about it so she did the intelligent stuff and I just did the
heavy work as instructed, usually involving a spade and a bad back IIRC.

The garden isn't in bad shape but had got rather weedy as the previous
resident had died and thus neglected his gardening duties. Having been
concentrating on decorating and moving and stuff, I'd sort of left nature
alone a bit in the garden but was finally spurred into action as a phalanx
of fierce looking couch grass was marching down the garden and I began to
fear that one night it would march into the house and strangle me in an
unnervingly sticky way. So I started weeding and ended up with lots of
weeds. I initially bagged them up to go to the tip, but I don't drive so
have to rely on the kindness of others, and press-ganging family members
into transporting bags of rotten weeds can get tiresome. Also I thought it
makes more sense to use my waste myself rather than needlessly(?) take it
somewhere else, so I decided to get with the groove and become a composter.

So I've bought a compost bin, which is an impressive square self-assembly
black plastic thing with doors in the sides and a lid, and started it off,
and looked on the internets for advice; but although there is an elegant
sufficiency of advice available it's a bit confusing for a berk like me. I'm
particularly concerned about this brown/green ratio and what counts as
brown. Some sites say the brown/green ratio should be about equal. Others
seem to say that the required ratio is 30:1, which doesn't sound right as in
my bin that would be basically filling it with twigs then putting about a
quarter of a lettuce in the middle. I'm also not sure what counts as brown.
Some sites say, "leaves", while others tell me to put my leaves in plastic
bags with holes poked in and compost them seperately. Also, a lot of sites
say not to put weeds in it, but if that's the case it kind of destroys the
point as I'd be hefting big bags of weeds off to the tip and my impressive
bin would have 3 tea bags and a carrot top in it. Also, there's no lawn so I
can't put lawn clippings in it either, which might be a good thing as
apparently too many of them turn it to green slime.

I constructed my bin yesterday evening and put it in a corner of the garden
which is a bit shady, which is apparently wrong also, but that's the only
reasonable place it can go. I started off with a layer of brown leaves that
happened to be conveniently lying around, which are mostly berberis from the
forbidding anti-miscreant hedge at the bottom of the garden. I moistenened
them, then flung in some of my weeds, which are apparently all things that
aren't supposed to go in for fear they'll live a zombie existence in the
bin; couch grass, dandelion, some creeping thing that sort of tangles around
everything, a few nettles including some from the untended thicket that
borders my garden since I read they're very nitrogenous and quite a lot of
what I thought were weeds but my sister thinks are poppies, so I've stopped
pulling any more of them up; also some bits of cardboard, a few twigs which
various sites say shouldn't go in either because they take years to break
down, and several tea bags. And some more brown leaves and so on, then mixed
it around a bit. This latter seemed to be against the principle of layering,
but I don't quite understand that either as the advice seems to be to make
layers, then keep mixing it all up, so I don't quite see the point of the
layering; is this two different approaches or am I missing something?

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.

Other than while I was asleep I've been looking in the bin far more often
than I need to but nothing much seems to be happening yet, though at least
it hasn't produced any nasty smells so far. Perhaps my bin is faulty

I'm really looking for some people who are composting in small gardens (mine
is about 27 foot square in the old money); what they put in their bins in
what order and amounts and so on. Or am I on a hiding to nowhere and should
I just take the whole lot to the tip?

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

--

On 2008-05-09 15:53:21 +0100, "Ian B" said:

I hope this is an appropriate ng, if not apologies and could somebody point
me to an appopriate one?

I've moved in to a new flat recently with a garden but frankly don't know
much about gardening at all really. Many of my family have gardens, but the
only time I've myself previously had one was for a couple of years, and the
ex knew all about it so she did the intelligent stuff and I just did the
heavy work as instructed, usually involving a spade and a bad back IIRC.

The garden isn't in bad shape but had got rather weedy as the previous
resident had died and thus neglected his gardening duties. Having been
concentrating on decorating and moving and stuff, I'd sort of left nature
alone a bit in the garden but was finally spurred into action as a phalanx
of fierce looking couch grass was marching down the garden and I began to
fear that one night it would march into the house and strangle me in an
unnervingly sticky way. So I started weeding and ended up with lots of
weeds. I initially bagged them up to go to the tip, but I don't drive so
have to rely on the kindness of others, and press-ganging family members
into transporting bags of rotten weeds can get tiresome. Also I thought it
makes more sense to use my waste myself rather than needlessly(?) take it
somewhere else, so I decided to get with the groove and become a composter.

So I've bought a compost bin, which is an impressive square self-assembly
black plastic thing with doors in the sides and a lid, and started it off,
and looked on the internets for advice; but although there is an elegant
sufficiency of advice available it's a bit confusing for a berk like me. I'm
particularly concerned about this brown/green ratio and what counts as
brown. Some sites say the brown/green ratio should be about equal. Others
seem to say that the required ratio is 30:1, which doesn't sound right as in
my bin that would be basically filling it with twigs then putting about a
quarter of a lettuce in the middle. I'm also not sure what counts as brown.
Some sites say, "leaves", while others tell me to put my leaves in plastic
bags with holes poked in and compost them seperately. Also, a lot of sites
say not to put weeds in it, but if that's the case it kind of destroys the
point as I'd be hefting big bags of weeds off to the tip and my impressive
bin would have 3 tea bags and a carrot top in it. Also, there's no lawn so I
can't put lawn clippings in it either, which might be a good thing as
apparently too many of them turn it to green slime.

I constructed my bin yesterday evening and put it in a corner of the garden
which is a bit shady, which is apparently wrong also, but that's the only
reasonable place it can go. I started off with a layer of brown leaves that
happened to be conveniently lying around, which are mostly berberis from the
forbidding anti-miscreant hedge at the bottom of the garden. I moistenened
them, then flung in some of my weeds, which are apparently all things that
aren't supposed to go in for fear they'll live a zombie existence in the
bin; couch grass, dandelion, some creeping thing that sort of tangles around
everything, a few nettles including some from the untended thicket that
borders my garden since I read they're very nitrogenous and quite a lot of
what I thought were weeds but my sister thinks are poppies, so I've stopped
pulling any more of them up; also some bits of cardboard, a few twigs which
various sites say shouldn't go in either because they take years to break
down, and several tea bags. And some more brown leaves and so on, then mixed
it around a bit. This latter seemed to be against the principle of layering,
but I don't quite understand that either as the advice seems to be to make
layers, then keep mixing it all up, so I don't quite see the point of the
layering; is this two different approaches or am I missing something?

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.

Other than while I was asleep I've been looking in the bin far more often
than I need to but nothing much seems to be happening yet, though at least
it hasn't produced any nasty smells so far. Perhaps my bin is faulty

I'm really looking for some people who are composting in small gardens (mine
is about 27 foot square in the old money); what they put in their bins in
what order and amounts and so on. Or am I on a hiding to nowhere and should
I just take the whole lot to the tip?

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,

Sheesh.

Relax Ian.

Just chuck everything in and don't look at it until next year. Give it
a stir if you can be bothered, but if you can't......don't worry about
it. It's compost - it's not going to miraculously change to loam
overnight.

Throw some worms in if you find any.

Burn the twigs and branches - although if you live in a fascist state,
you might not be allowed to. Do it anyway.

On Fri, 9 May 2008 22:04:26 +0100, adm wrote:



Burn the twigs and branches - although if you live in a fascist state,
you might not be allowed to. Do it anyway.


Environmental health now deal with bonfires (and noise) but in my
council they only work office hours. No out of hours service at all.
So the lesson has to be, burn out of office hours but make sure your
neighbour's washing isn't out.

However small branches can be used as kindling if you have friends
with a log burner. Offer them on your local freecycle and they'll
probably go.
--
http://www.orderonlinepickupinstore.co.uk
Ah fetch it yourself if you can't wait for delivery
http://www.freedeliveryuk.co.uk
http://www.holidayunder100.co.uk

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

"Ian B" wrote in message
...
I hope this is an appropriate ng, if not apologies and could somebody point
me to an appopriate one?

I've moved in to a new flat recently with a garden but frankly don't know
much about gardening at all really. Many of my family have gardens, but
the
only time I've myself previously had one was for a couple of years, and
the
ex knew all about it so she did the intelligent stuff and I just did the
heavy work as instructed, usually involving a spade and a bad back IIRC.

The garden isn't in bad shape but had got rather weedy as the previous
resident had died and thus neglected his gardening duties. Having been
concentrating on decorating and moving and stuff, I'd sort of left nature
alone a bit in the garden but was finally spurred into action as a phalanx
of fierce looking couch grass was marching down the garden and I began to
fear that one night it would march into the house and strangle me in an
unnervingly sticky way. So I started weeding and ended up with lots of
weeds. I initially bagged them up to go to the tip, but I don't drive so
have to rely on the kindness of others, and press-ganging family members
into transporting bags of rotten weeds can get tiresome. Also I thought it
makes more sense to use my waste myself rather than needlessly(?) take it
somewhere else, so I decided to get with the groove and become a
composter.

So I've bought a compost bin, which is an impressive square self-assembly
black plastic thing with doors in the sides and a lid, and started it off,
and looked on the internets for advice; but although there is an elegant
sufficiency of advice available it's a bit confusing for a berk like me.
I'm
particularly concerned about this brown/green ratio and what counts as
brown. Some sites say the brown/green ratio should be about equal. Others
seem to say that the required ratio is 30:1, which doesn't sound right as
in
my bin that would be basically filling it with twigs then putting about a
quarter of a lettuce in the middle. I'm also not sure what counts as
brown.
Some sites say, "leaves", while others tell me to put my leaves in plastic
bags with holes poked in and compost them seperately. Also, a lot of sites
say not to put weeds in it, but if that's the case it kind of destroys the
point as I'd be hefting big bags of weeds off to the tip and my impressive
bin would have 3 tea bags and a carrot top in it. Also, there's no lawn so
I
can't put lawn clippings in it either, which might be a good thing as
apparently too many of them turn it to green slime.

I constructed my bin yesterday evening and put it in a corner of the
garden
which is a bit shady, which is apparently wrong also, but that's the only
reasonable place it can go. I started off with a layer of brown leaves
that
happened to be conveniently lying around, which are mostly berberis from
the
forbidding anti-miscreant hedge at the bottom of the garden. I moistenened
them, then flung in some of my weeds, which are apparently all things that
aren't supposed to go in for fear they'll live a zombie existence in the
bin; couch grass, dandelion, some creeping thing that sort of tangles
around
everything, a few nettles including some from the untended thicket that
borders my garden since I read they're very nitrogenous and quite a lot of
what I thought were weeds but my sister thinks are poppies, so I've
stopped
pulling any more of them up; also some bits of cardboard, a few twigs
which
various sites say shouldn't go in either because they take years to break
down, and several tea bags. And some more brown leaves and so on, then
mixed
it around a bit. This latter seemed to be against the principle of
layering,
but I don't quite understand that either as the advice seems to be to make
layers, then keep mixing it all up, so I don't quite see the point of the
layering; is this two different approaches or am I missing something?

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.

Other than while I was asleep I've been looking in the bin far more often
than I need to but nothing much seems to be happening yet, though at least
it hasn't produced any nasty smells so far. Perhaps my bin is faulty

I'm really looking for some people who are composting in small gardens
(mine
is about 27 foot square in the old money); what they put in their bins in
what order and amounts and so on. Or am I on a hiding to nowhere and
should
I just take the whole lot to the tip?

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

I've got two gardens and two very different compost bins. My city garden is
about the size of yours, no lawn, and compost made from mostly kitchen
stuff, plus weeds and the leafier bits of anything I cut back. I also chuck
seaweed in when I can be bothered to cart a sackful up off the beach (only
100 yards, but people wonder what you are up to). The mix is a bit wet,
sluggy and niffy but packed with worms, and seems to benefit from a good
stir.

The other compost bin is on a grassy caravan plot where I have gardening
obligations - mostly rough grass and hedging. The grass clippings DO
eventually turn into clumps of crumbly stuff looking a bit like old manure.
Big heaps of fresh grass clippings get really hot.

I suppose in an ideal world I'd have all these things in one composter, but
they both seem to produce something worth putting back into the soil.

"Ian B" wrote in message
...
I hope this is an appropriate ng, if not apologies and could somebody point
me to an appopriate one?

I've moved in to a new flat recently with a garden but frankly don't know
much about gardening at all really. Many of my family have gardens, but
the
only time I've myself previously had one was for a couple of years, and
the
ex knew all about it so she did the intelligent stuff and I just did the
heavy work as instructed, usually involving a spade and a bad back IIRC.

The garden isn't in bad shape but had got rather weedy as the previous
resident had died and thus neglected his gardening duties. Having been
concentrating on decorating and moving and stuff, I'd sort of left nature
alone a bit in the garden but was finally spurred into action as a phalanx
of fierce looking couch grass was marching down the garden and I began to
fear that one night it would march into the house and strangle me in an
unnervingly sticky way. So I started weeding and ended up with lots of
weeds. I initially bagged them up to go to the tip, but I don't drive so
have to rely on the kindness of others, and press-ganging family members
into transporting bags of rotten weeds can get tiresome. Also I thought it
makes more sense to use my waste myself rather than needlessly(?) take it
somewhere else, so I decided to get with the groove and become a
composter.

So I've bought a compost bin, which is an impressive square self-assembly
black plastic thing with doors in the sides and a lid, and started it off,
and looked on the internets for advice; but although there is an elegant
sufficiency of advice available it's a bit confusing for a berk like me.
I'm
particularly concerned about this brown/green ratio and what counts as
brown. Some sites say the brown/green ratio should be about equal. Others
seem to say that the required ratio is 30:1, which doesn't sound right as
in
my bin that would be basically filling it with twigs then putting about a
quarter of a lettuce in the middle. I'm also not sure what counts as
brown.
Some sites say, "leaves", while others tell me to put my leaves in plastic
bags with holes poked in and compost them seperately. Also, a lot of sites
say not to put weeds in it, but if that's the case it kind of destroys the
point as I'd be hefting big bags of weeds off to the tip and my impressive
bin would have 3 tea bags and a carrot top in it. Also, there's no lawn so
I
can't put lawn clippings in it either, which might be a good thing as
apparently too many of them turn it to green slime.

I constructed my bin yesterday evening and put it in a corner of the
garden
which is a bit shady, which is apparently wrong also, but that's the only
reasonable place it can go. I started off with a layer of brown leaves
that
happened to be conveniently lying around, which are mostly berberis from
the
forbidding anti-miscreant hedge at the bottom of the garden. I moistenened
them, then flung in some of my weeds, which are apparently all things that
aren't supposed to go in for fear they'll live a zombie existence in the
bin; couch grass, dandelion, some creeping thing that sort of tangles
around
everything, a few nettles including some from the untended thicket that
borders my garden since I read they're very nitrogenous and quite a lot of
what I thought were weeds but my sister thinks are poppies, so I've
stopped
pulling any more of them up; also some bits of cardboard, a few twigs
which
various sites say shouldn't go in either because they take years to break
down, and several tea bags. And some more brown leaves and so on, then
mixed
it around a bit. This latter seemed to be against the principle of
layering,
but I don't quite understand that either as the advice seems to be to make
layers, then keep mixing it all up, so I don't quite see the point of the
layering; is this two different approaches or am I missing something?

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.

Other than while I was asleep I've been looking in the bin far more often
than I need to but nothing much seems to be happening yet, though at least
it hasn't produced any nasty smells so far. Perhaps my bin is faulty

I'm really looking for some people who are composting in small gardens
(mine
is about 27 foot square in the old money); what they put in their bins in
what order and amounts and so on. Or am I on a hiding to nowhere and
should
I just take the whole lot to the tip?

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

--

Ian the pictures in the following might help:-

http://www.myalbum.com/Album=OQFDHPQP

Easy really :-))

Mike

adm wrote:
On 2008-05-09 15:53:21 +0100, "Ian B" said:

I hope this is an appropriate ng, if not apologies and could
somebody point me to an appopriate one?

I've moved in to a new flat recently with a garden but frankly don't
know much about gardening at all really. Many of my family have
gardens, but the only time I've myself previously had one was for a
couple of years, and the ex knew all about it so she did the
intelligent stuff and I just did the heavy work as instructed,
usually involving a spade and a bad back IIRC.

The garden isn't in bad shape but had got rather weedy as the
previous resident had died and thus neglected his gardening duties.
Having been concentrating on decorating and moving and stuff, I'd
sort of left nature alone a bit in the garden but was finally
spurred into action as a phalanx of fierce looking couch grass was
marching down the garden and I began to fear that one night it would
march into the house and strangle me in an unnervingly sticky way.
So I started weeding and ended up with lots of weeds. I initially
bagged them up to go to the tip, but I don't drive so have to rely
on the kindness of others, and press-ganging family members into
transporting bags of rotten weeds can get tiresome. Also I thought
it makes more sense to use my waste myself rather than needlessly(?)
take it somewhere else, so I decided to get with the groove and
become a composter.

So I've bought a compost bin, which is an impressive square
self-assembly black plastic thing with doors in the sides and a lid,
and started it off, and looked on the internets for advice; but
although there is an elegant sufficiency of advice available it's a
bit confusing for a berk like me. I'm particularly concerned about
this brown/green ratio and what counts as brown. Some sites say the
brown/green ratio should be about equal. Others seem to say that the
required ratio is 30:1, which doesn't sound right as in my bin that
would be basically filling it with twigs then putting about a
quarter of a lettuce in the middle. I'm also not sure what counts as
brown. Some sites say, "leaves", while others tell me to put my
leaves in plastic bags with holes poked in and compost them
seperately. Also, a lot of sites say not to put weeds in it, but if
that's the case it kind of destroys the point as I'd be hefting big
bags of weeds off to the tip and my impressive bin would have 3 tea
bags and a carrot top in it. Also, there's no lawn so I can't put
lawn clippings in it either, which might be a good thing as
apparently too many of them turn it to green slime.

I constructed my bin yesterday evening and put it in a corner of the
garden which is a bit shady, which is apparently wrong also, but
that's the only reasonable place it can go. I started off with a
layer of brown leaves that happened to be conveniently lying around,
which are mostly berberis from the forbidding anti-miscreant hedge
at the bottom of the garden. I moistenened them, then flung in some
of my weeds, which are apparently all things that aren't supposed to
go in for fear they'll live a zombie existence in the bin; couch
grass, dandelion, some creeping thing that sort of tangles around
everything, a few nettles including some from the untended thicket
that borders my garden since I read they're very nitrogenous and
quite a lot of what I thought were weeds but my sister thinks are
poppies, so I've stopped pulling any more of them up; also some bits
of cardboard, a few twigs which various sites say shouldn't go in
either because they take years to break down, and several tea bags.
And some more brown leaves and so on, then mixed it around a bit.
This latter seemed to be against the principle of layering, but I
don't quite understand that either as the advice seems to be to make
layers, then keep mixing it all up, so I don't quite see the point
of the layering; is this two different approaches or am I missing
something?

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.

Other than while I was asleep I've been looking in the bin far more
often than I need to but nothing much seems to be happening yet,
though at least it hasn't produced any nasty smells so far. Perhaps
my bin is faulty

I'm really looking for some people who are composting in small
gardens (mine is about 27 foot square in the old money); what they
put in their bins in what order and amounts and so on. Or am I on a
hiding to nowhere and should I just take the whole lot to the tip?

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,

Sheesh.

Relax Ian.

Just chuck everything in and don't look at it until next year. Give it
a stir if you can be bothered, but if you can't......don't worry about
it. It's compost - it's not going to miraculously change to loam
overnight.

Well, I'm just trying to get it right you know...


Ian

beccabunga wrote:
Ian B;790373 Wrote:

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

--



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.

Oops. There are dandelions in there. Fortunately OTOH I had my weeds mixed
up and it's goose grass (cleavers) not couch grass. Thank you, internet!

Second comment - shred any cardboard/paper that you put in. If you
don't, you will end up with lumps of gunge.

I've done that. Torn it up into little bits, anyway.

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.

Okay.

"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.

Okay. Stirring I will do

Re poppies; see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppy

The problem is I haven't got any flowers and most pictures on the internets
are flowers. All I have are these rosettes of leaves whch, to one as
ignorant as I, could be anything frankly. They might be non-weeds that have
seeded themselves, or just weeds. They look a bit too kosher for weeds, so
I'm leaving most of them for now.

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://tinyurl.com/4czbz9

Thanks, that actually looks about the right colour for one type. There are
two types; those ones are more "bushy" while the other type has more
vertical stems, but not tree peony type. I guess I'll just wait and see what
the flowers look like

Many thanks,


Ian

Duncan wrote:
"Ian B" wrote in message
...
I hope this is an appropriate ng, if not apologies and could
somebody point me to an appopriate one?

I've moved in to a new flat recently with a garden but frankly don't
know much about gardening at all really. Many of my family have
gardens, but the
only time I've myself previously had one was for a couple of years,
and the
ex knew all about it so she did the intelligent stuff and I just did
the heavy work as instructed, usually involving a spade and a bad
back IIRC.

The garden isn't in bad shape but had got rather weedy as the
previous resident had died and thus neglected his gardening duties.
Having been concentrating on decorating and moving and stuff, I'd
sort of left nature alone a bit in the garden but was finally
spurred into action as a phalanx of fierce looking couch grass was
marching down the garden and I began to fear that one night it would
march into the house and strangle me in an unnervingly sticky way.
So I started weeding and ended up with lots of weeds. I initially
bagged them up to go to the tip, but I don't drive so have to rely
on the kindness of others, and press-ganging family members into
transporting bags of rotten weeds can get tiresome. Also I thought
it makes more sense to use my waste myself rather than needlessly(?)
take it somewhere else, so I decided to get with the groove and
become a composter.

So I've bought a compost bin, which is an impressive square
self-assembly black plastic thing with doors in the sides and a lid,
and started it off, and looked on the internets for advice; but
although there is an elegant sufficiency of advice available it's a
bit confusing for a berk like me. I'm
particularly concerned about this brown/green ratio and what counts
as brown. Some sites say the brown/green ratio should be about
equal. Others seem to say that the required ratio is 30:1, which
doesn't sound right as in
my bin that would be basically filling it with twigs then putting
about a quarter of a lettuce in the middle. I'm also not sure what
counts as brown.
Some sites say, "leaves", while others tell me to put my leaves in
plastic bags with holes poked in and compost them seperately. Also,
a lot of sites say not to put weeds in it, but if that's the case it
kind of destroys the point as I'd be hefting big bags of weeds off
to the tip and my impressive bin would have 3 tea bags and a carrot
top in it. Also, there's no lawn so I
can't put lawn clippings in it either, which might be a good thing as
apparently too many of them turn it to green slime.

I constructed my bin yesterday evening and put it in a corner of the
garden
which is a bit shady, which is apparently wrong also, but that's the
only reasonable place it can go. I started off with a layer of brown
leaves that
happened to be conveniently lying around, which are mostly berberis
from the
forbidding anti-miscreant hedge at the bottom of the garden. I
moistenened them, then flung in some of my weeds, which are
apparently all things that aren't supposed to go in for fear they'll
live a zombie existence in the bin; couch grass, dandelion, some
creeping thing that sort of tangles around
everything, a few nettles including some from the untended thicket
that borders my garden since I read they're very nitrogenous and
quite a lot of what I thought were weeds but my sister thinks are
poppies, so I've stopped
pulling any more of them up; also some bits of cardboard, a few twigs
which
various sites say shouldn't go in either because they take years to
break down, and several tea bags. And some more brown leaves and so
on, then mixed
it around a bit. This latter seemed to be against the principle of
layering,
but I don't quite understand that either as the advice seems to be
to make layers, then keep mixing it all up, so I don't quite see the
point of the layering; is this two different approaches or am I
missing something?

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.

Other than while I was asleep I've been looking in the bin far more
often than I need to but nothing much seems to be happening yet,
though at least it hasn't produced any nasty smells so far. Perhaps
my bin is faulty

I'm really looking for some people who are composting in small
gardens (mine
is about 27 foot square in the old money); what they put in their
bins in what order and amounts and so on. Or am I on a hiding to
nowhere and should
I just take the whole lot to the tip?

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

I've got two gardens and two very different compost bins. My city
garden is about the size of yours, no lawn, and compost made from
mostly kitchen stuff, plus weeds and the leafier bits of anything I
cut back. I also chuck seaweed in when I can be bothered to cart a
sackful up off the beach (only 100 yards, but people wonder what you
are up to). The mix is a bit wet, sluggy and niffy but packed with
worms, and seems to benefit from a good stir.

I've got a feeling mine might go a bit whiffy, we'll have to see...

The other compost bin is on a grassy caravan plot where I have
gardening obligations - mostly rough grass and hedging. The grass
clippings DO eventually turn into clumps of crumbly stuff looking a
bit like old manure. Big heaps of fresh grass clippings get really
hot.

I suppose in an ideal world I'd have all these things in one
composter, but they both seem to produce something worth putting back
into the soil.

Okay thanks. My original post was because all the instructions make it seem
like a rather precise art. Maybe I can relax a bit?


Ian

'Mike' wrote:
"Ian B" wrote in message
...
I hope this is an appropriate ng, if not apologies and could
somebody point me to an appopriate one?

I've moved in to a new flat recently with a garden but frankly don't
know much about gardening at all really. Many of my family have
gardens, but the
only time I've myself previously had one was for a couple of years,
and the
ex knew all about it so she did the intelligent stuff and I just did
the heavy work as instructed, usually involving a spade and a bad
back IIRC.

The garden isn't in bad shape but had got rather weedy as the
previous resident had died and thus neglected his gardening duties.
Having been concentrating on decorating and moving and stuff, I'd
sort of left nature alone a bit in the garden but was finally
spurred into action as a phalanx of fierce looking couch grass was
marching down the garden and I began to fear that one night it would
march into the house and strangle me in an unnervingly sticky way.
So I started weeding and ended up with lots of weeds. I initially
bagged them up to go to the tip, but I don't drive so have to rely
on the kindness of others, and press-ganging family members into
transporting bags of rotten weeds can get tiresome. Also I thought
it makes more sense to use my waste myself rather than needlessly(?)
take it somewhere else, so I decided to get with the groove and
become a composter.

So I've bought a compost bin, which is an impressive square
self-assembly black plastic thing with doors in the sides and a lid,
and started it off, and looked on the internets for advice; but
although there is an elegant sufficiency of advice available it's a
bit confusing for a berk like me. I'm
particularly concerned about this brown/green ratio and what counts
as brown. Some sites say the brown/green ratio should be about
equal. Others seem to say that the required ratio is 30:1, which
doesn't sound right as in
my bin that would be basically filling it with twigs then putting
about a quarter of a lettuce in the middle. I'm also not sure what
counts as brown.
Some sites say, "leaves", while others tell me to put my leaves in
plastic bags with holes poked in and compost them seperately. Also,
a lot of sites say not to put weeds in it, but if that's the case it
kind of destroys the point as I'd be hefting big bags of weeds off
to the tip and my impressive bin would have 3 tea bags and a carrot
top in it. Also, there's no lawn so I
can't put lawn clippings in it either, which might be a good thing as
apparently too many of them turn it to green slime.

I constructed my bin yesterday evening and put it in a corner of the
garden
which is a bit shady, which is apparently wrong also, but that's the
only reasonable place it can go. I started off with a layer of brown
leaves that
happened to be conveniently lying around, which are mostly berberis
from the
forbidding anti-miscreant hedge at the bottom of the garden. I
moistenened them, then flung in some of my weeds, which are
apparently all things that aren't supposed to go in for fear they'll
live a zombie existence in the bin; couch grass, dandelion, some
creeping thing that sort of tangles around
everything, a few nettles including some from the untended thicket
that borders my garden since I read they're very nitrogenous and
quite a lot of what I thought were weeds but my sister thinks are
poppies, so I've stopped
pulling any more of them up; also some bits of cardboard, a few twigs
which
various sites say shouldn't go in either because they take years to
break down, and several tea bags. And some more brown leaves and so
on, then mixed
it around a bit. This latter seemed to be against the principle of
layering,
but I don't quite understand that either as the advice seems to be
to make layers, then keep mixing it all up, so I don't quite see the
point of the layering; is this two different approaches or am I
missing something?

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.

Other than while I was asleep I've been looking in the bin far more
often than I need to but nothing much seems to be happening yet,
though at least it hasn't produced any nasty smells so far. Perhaps
my bin is faulty

I'm really looking for some people who are composting in small
gardens (mine
is about 27 foot square in the old money); what they put in their
bins in what order and amounts and so on. Or am I on a hiding to
nowhere and should
I just take the whole lot to the tip?

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

--

Ian the pictures in the following might help:-

http://www.myalbum.com/Album=OQFDHPQP

Easy really :-))

Mike

Thanks



Ian

"Ian B" wrote in message
...


Ian the pictures in the following might help:-

http://www.myalbum.com/Album=OQFDHPQP

Easy really :-))

Mike

Thanks



Ian


It really is easy. I am not a gardener, as many here will tell you. 'Her
outdoors' is the green fingered one :-)

A few things to remember, I have put on the pictures and 'her outdoors' is
showing what to do with them :-))

Best wishes

Mike
"Concrete the lot and paint it green" :-)

If they are annual poppies, they are worth having anyhow, and if they are perennials, they are fantastic.

Enjoy them.

Ian B wrote:

The garden isn't in bad shape but had got rather weedy as the previous
resident had died and thus neglected his gardening duties.

Best bet for the first year is only pull out the things you can
recognise as obvious weeds. Give the unrecognised stuff time to flower
and don't hit it all with herbicide there may be some hidden gems.

So I've bought a compost bin, which is an impressive square self-assembly
black plastic thing with doors in the sides and a lid, and started it off,
and looked on the internets for advice; but although there is an elegant
sufficiency of advice available it's a bit confusing for a berk like me. I'm
particularly concerned about this brown/green ratio and what counts as
brown. Some sites say the brown/green ratio should be about equal. Others
seem to say that the required ratio is 30:1, which doesn't sound right as in
my bin that would be basically filling it with twigs then putting about a
quarter of a lettuce in the middle. I'm also not sure what counts as brown.

Many internet sites, particularly Amercian ones obsess about the green
to brown ratio. You can put just about anything that once grew as a
plant into a compost heap and if it is a big enough one you can
practically ingore all this brown to green ratio rubbish. A small one
and you need to get conditions more nearly right if it is to rot quickly
and not go slimy smelly and anaerobic. To be on the safe side put the
heap as far from your back door and house as possible.

If you don't have a hot heap then dandelion and other prolific seed
heads are best not composted.

Some sites say, "leaves", while others tell me to put my leaves in plastic
bags with holes poked in and compost them seperately.

Leaves are best off composted in black bin bags - many contain powerful
antifungal agents and rot slowly which slows down the heap (2 years to
get decent leaf mould which is wonderful stuff and worth keeping
separate if you have the space). I use my recycling "green" bin for this
as I already compost much more stuff than you are allowed to put in it.

Also, a lot of sites
say not to put weeds in it, but if that's the case it kind of destroys the
point as I'd be hefting big bags of weeds off to the tip and my impressive
bin would have 3 tea bags and a carrot top in it. Also, there's no lawn so I
can't put lawn clippings in it either, which might be a good thing as
apparently too many of them turn it to green slime.

Although there is this myth that "too much grass clippings will turn to
green slime" it seems only to be a problem for small values of "too
much". I put around 1-2m^2 of grass clippings on my heap every week or
two and it is almost all gone by the next grass cutting. Reaches 70C
internally and will destroy thick woody stems - once it even started to
smoulder!

A good hot heap smells a bit strange for a couple of days at peak
fermentation sort of stale caused by volatile short chain fatty acids
escaping. If you take the top couple of inches off it can be too hot to
touch inside.

I constructed my bin yesterday evening and put it in a corner of the garden
which is a bit shady, which is apparently wrong also, but that's the only
reasonable place it can go. I started off with a layer of brown leaves that
happened to be conveniently lying around, which are mostly berberis from the
forbidding anti-miscreant hedge at the bottom of the garden. I moistenened
them, then flung in some of my weeds, which are apparently all things that
aren't supposed to go in for fear they'll live a zombie existence in the
bin; couch grass, dandelion, some creeping thing that sort of tangles around
everything, a few nettles including some from the untended thicket that
borders my garden since I read they're very nitrogenous and quite a lot of
what I thought were weeds but my sister thinks are poppies, so I've stopped
pulling any more of them up; also some bits of cardboard, a few twigs which
various sites say shouldn't go in either because they take years to break
down, and several tea bags. And some more brown leaves and so on, then mixed
it around a bit. This latter seemed to be against the principle of layering,
but I don't quite understand that either as the advice seems to be to make
layers, then keep mixing it all up, so I don't quite see the point of the
layering; is this two different approaches or am I missing something?

You want some porosity and air in the heap thin twiggy stuff or
scrumpled up strips of newspaper are OK for this.

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.

I wouldn't worry too much about this balancing brown and green there is
a huge amount of rubbish written about it. You might get the compost bin
to go a bit faster by adding a proprietory starter culture like
"Garotta", but for a big heap it is unnecssary.

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.

At that size there is a good chance it will heat up well enough to kill
weed seeds provided that you add large amounts of material all in one go
(and do not compress it).

I would bag the leaves for leaf mould or if there are far too many of
them put them into green recycling. They take at least 2 years to rot.

Other than while I was asleep I've been looking in the bin far more often
than I need to but nothing much seems to be happening yet, though at least
it hasn't produced any nasty smells so far. Perhaps my bin is faulty

It should not unless you allow it to get too wet and too compacted (this
is a common mistake with small gardens adding tiny amounts of grass
clippings and squashing it down).

I'm really looking for some people who are composting in small gardens (mine
is about 27 foot square in the old money); what they put in their bins in
what order and amounts and so on. Or am I on a hiding to nowhere and should
I just take the whole lot to the tip?

No. It will work perfectly well, you just have to be patient. You may
need a second one next year or at least space to dig out what is in now
to get the good compost out of it.

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

If in doubt do nowt. When it flowers you can quickly tell if it is
likely to be an ugly invasive weed with masses of seeds or a pretty flower.

bin. Is there an online poppy foliage indentifier site? Also what to do with
heaps of twigs and small branches from the trees. Tip?

I put small twigs and hedge trimmings in my compost heap helps the
airation (and counts as this mysterious "brown" material). Mine runs hot
so it will destroy chunky pieces of wood - though I generally burn
anything bigger than 2" diameter.

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.

They should be flowering any time now. Enjoy.

Regards,
Martin Brown
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **