Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 4Aug 10, 2011 12:09 pm We have two 120L plastic rubbish bins that I cut the bottom out of. I don't add all the grass clippings at once, just add the required amount as I add kitchen scraps. If your neighbour's bin is smelly, they haven't got the mix of poop/green waste/kitchen waste right (should be equal quantities of each). While ours doesn't smell like roses you can't smell anything when the lid is on, and even with it off it's not offensive. You don't need an expensive purpose-built bin IMO. Any reason you don't want to go back to the style you're comfortable with? Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 5Aug 10, 2011 7:10 pm Thanks to all who replied The only reason not to go to our previous style is that we don't have a "hiding place" for this little boxed heap in the backyard any more (we've shuffled things around). We used to have it right behind the shed, so it was a perfect location - completely out of the view, but with very easy access. Yeah, now I do think our next doors haven't got it right. In fact, the smell is almost constant and so offensive that I'm seriously thinking of approaching them and asking to relocate it to a further away area (there are plenty! ). Wondering what rights do we have re. this ... it's probably a case of "bad luck what happened" My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 6Aug 11, 2011 12:20 am Add some dolomite, sand and things will change fast. Also, you guessed it, some molasses diluted in water That stuff will boost the composting process no end! Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 7Aug 11, 2011 6:39 pm I have two compost systems going. One is large and looks like the makings of a huge bonfire. On it goes all the large stuff chopped as fine as I can but is still pretty course. I mix that with horse manure and lawn cuttings and anything else except kitchen scraps. It's breaking down quite nicely but I work pretty hard at it - mixing it around at least once every couple of days. Second lot is in a smallish black bin a la Bunnings and is for kitchen scraps / more lawn/ pruned stuff/ straw/ dirt from overloaded drains etc etc. Add molasses per Fu's recommendation some time ago and is composting quite hot. I don't think worms would survive the temperature. There don't seem to be any in there. Didn't think to add sand. Will do that too. I also mix it around almost every day. Smells really nice. I have it set right into the vegie garden and will move it every 6 months or so. Love compost. Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 8Aug 11, 2011 7:45 pm Our old one smelled really nice too (funny saying that about a compost heap! ). It was quite a healthy heap and if you just scratched the surface, there would be thousands of worms When we were moving some of the compost into the gardens, we always had to just add the lot (with the worms ). My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 9Aug 11, 2011 9:49 pm On the topic of compost bins. From what is being learned here in WA it is fair to say that the humble compost bin is not a very effective tool in a domestic urban garden. OMG you say? Well a worm farm will take care of anything from the home kitchen far quicker than a compost heap. Anything from the garden, well forget it. Buy a mulcher and mulch all your clippings back onto the garden straight away as a mulch. You just don't get a better source of nutrients for plants than from the plants themselves It also becomes a very waterwise mulch as well as enviro sensitive This method is of far greater use to the gardener as alll nutrients return to the plant. This doesn't happen with compost. So lawn clippings? What do you do with that Fu? well have you ever seen a golf course collect clippings? No. Does that lawn clipping pile magically appear like Alchemists gold? No, it used to be soil and now we throw it away so flippantly. Once you stop using fertilisers, lawn beetle killers, fungicides like they are going out at half price, you will see the lawn can compost back into the soil with out a problem in the world. It feeds itself You cut down on work and slow the growth rate right down. It's the transition between methods of turf care that is the toughest time. Synthetic man made McFertilisers are not what will get a lawn at its best. So use an organic approach to the lawn, no clippings to deal with. Worm farms are more effective to compost house hold waste and can mean you put a bin out every two weeks or more. Plant clippings should be mulched and returned straight back under the trees they came from. One of the best lawns I have seen was a Sir Walter Buffalo in Scarborough. I had the pleasure of doing a waterwise audit on this home and the lawn had never seen a McFertiliser in its life. Perfection. Water? Once a week. Looked better than the couch next door that got watered 3 times weekly by bore, pumped full of crap and had all the sustenance taken away with the lawn mower man. If only lawn mowing contractors worked this stuff out! They would save a fortune on running costs and have happier customers Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 10Aug 11, 2011 10:09 pm Worm farm is top of my list at the moment. My next purchase next week. Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 11Aug 11, 2011 10:59 pm That's so right Fu, thanks for this info. And now that you've named it, our compost heap was more like a worm farm than compost ... and so true, they would munch through quite a bit of scraps, and just multiply endlessly, so we ocassionaly added some "balance" to the happy commune by adding some grass clippings (yes ) and some other green waste or autumn leaves (not too much so that we don't make the heap too dry and have the worms go away uninsterested). Otherwise, the mix was just too wet and ... well, more like a worm farm! You mention the turf which was never fertilised and watered once a week. Well, ours was never fertilised either and actually never watered except literally a few times during those drought years pre-2005 or so But we didn't do this conscientiously, it was more out of ingorance . I guess we were lucky, as we did have quite good soil But what do you mean by this: "You cut down on work and slow the growth rate right down."?? How do you slow the growth rate? Mow less often? My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Compost bins - What do you have? 12Aug 13, 2011 9:29 am Nearly everyone pumps fertliser onto lawns at rates often 10-20 times what lawns need. A study was done on lawn fert products here in WA and found the recommended application rates on the bags were 4-10 times higher than lawns actually require. Most will apply much heavier. Then the lawn has an enormous growth spurt. That is not a healthy situation for a lawn or environment. By not fertilizing and taking off the catcher. You even out the growth rate. So it doesn't go from extremes of looking great to looking terrible. Weed sprays and the reasons why weeds get going and the copious pesticides many use to combat so called lawn pest problems just make lawns a quagmire of conflicting info, expense, and work. If you never fertilized then you are doing the best you can to slow growth. If lawn clippings must be removed then that's where composting is of a benefit. Once composted it should be raked back over the lawn. One compost heap/bin is really tough going to get to work. Having two so one can cook and the other be used is better. Having multiple heaps that are turned as they mature is better still. That takes up a heap of space though. Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 13Aug 13, 2011 9:22 pm Worm Farm is the thumbs up for us, we never have any smells and we have built up enough worms that we can add raw matter daily and they eat their way through it. As for lawn clippings we mulch mow, so we don't need to catch clippings. Plus from the worm farm we have our own fertliser - worm wee.... Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 14Aug 16, 2011 9:42 am Thanks Lex for starting this thread. Fu Manchu From what is being learned here in WA it is fair to say that the humble compost bin is not a very effective tool in a domestic urban garden. Fu you changed my mind again i have been thinking of compost bins for a little while,It will be worm form now. Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 15Aug 16, 2011 10:15 am Glad you find it useful, raj_27 Thanks Fu - you have, along the way, also answered many tiny questions I had about all those fert/environment "warnings/issues" that you've been mentioning in most of your posts - I never really got it until now (well, I suspected something, but was not really aware of the pollution effects of fertilisers on the env and also the effect on the lawn itself ). Also, thanks for reminding us of something we knew but completely forgot about - multiple heaps instead of one! I think we should explore the idea of doing this (somewhere in the backyard!! ) before we jump and buy a bin (I really don't like the bins though ... I much prefer well made & proportioned and well maintained heaps). My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 16Aug 16, 2011 12:55 pm I would love to have heaps.. but we are moving between two houses whilst we build and our worm farm travels with us LOL... composting on the move. In our new place we will not have a lot of yard space for heaps, so we may just add another worm farm to our worm family. in writing this note I decided to check out my worms.. they have increased in production.. its great to see them munching at such a great rate... just had to add a heap more from our worm food waste bin. We have a kitchen top bin that we have for worms only and I was able to throw all of it in today. I also add crushed egg shells and papertowel... Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 17Aug 16, 2011 1:18 pm Worm farms are great aren't they? I was given one a few months ago, then a second one last month...although the latter hadn't been kept very well (had plastics and all kinds of stuff in there) and it was really on the nose. After 4 weeks, it's smelling sweet again but I did have a few days where I found it hard to hold my nose while cleaning it out...too many bad smells to do it in one day. The only thing I don't put in mine are citrus, onion and meat....oh, and plastics, everything else goes in a separate small bin under the kitchen sink and then into the worm farm every second day along with shredded paper (which was once envelopes etc). I've got a few 3 x litre milk bottles filled with worm wee now and have just mixed this and watered onto the orchids and everything else in the shadehouse. The worm farms sit on the concrete slab between the rainwater tank and HWS, which is under the eaves, out of the rain and protected from cold winds down the southern side of the house. Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 19Aug 16, 2011 1:51 pm Lex I'd love to say you have to chase the worms with a container at the ready and ask them nicely!!!! ROFLMHO!! Actually, each level of the worm farm has a perforated base, except the very bottom tank, so all liquid waste drains to this tank which has a simple on/off tap for collecting the worm wee which is a dark brown colour and needs to be diluted 10:1 before watering your plants/garden etc. Hope this helps? Re: Compost bins - What do you have? 20Aug 16, 2011 2:01 pm Glad I made you ROFLYAO But hey, now I see that this farm is a carefully engineered structure with a handy floor plan My worms were just rolling in the scraps in the heap, but because there were millions of them, that was quite some worm farm (or a munching factory ). A friend once complained that their heap has little or no worms, so they took "a bunch" of them to her home and transferred to their heap, but it didn't work!! they refused to multiply, so they remained 'wormless' ... Anyways, maybe this liquid could also have some / lots of that "compost tea" that Fu was mentioning here and there?? That would be so good to have (and easy to collect!) ... My signature is distracting people from my wise posts ... Thanks mate. Yeah good points! Leaning towards Option 3 to get a bit extra space in the cabinets but not going too crazy high (and expensive). Would require a mini… 13 41514 Hi All, I just wanted to close this topic out with an update. So we ended up agreeing to a number with the insurance company, and after an extensive amount of hand… 8 24632 You have mandatory building inspections and privately engaged building inspections. The difference between the two comes down to inspecting the building so it's safe and… 3 18738 |