Composters

Gryzor

i got a composter about 3 months ago.....great for getting rid of the cut grass....the grass at the bottom has turned into slimey muck...is this normal?? I'm using some sort of enzyme additive to treat the grass after i dump fresh stuff in....will it become compost or will it eventually be a big bin of slimey crap. :eek: ??

saibhne

Hi there,
You need to put other things in your compost bin to create a decent mix - grass alone will just turn to mush. "Green" material such as garden and vegetable waste needs to be balenced with "brown" material like paper, wood, eggshells etc..

give it a stir every now and again and in 6 - 12 months you'll have some decent compost at the bottom of your bin..

Take a look at:
http://www.raceagainstwaste.ie/take_action/at_home/composting/

Next time you cut the grass, if you're bored and a bit of a nerd like me - throw the grass into your compost bin, go back an hour later and and put your hand down into the grass you have just added - the heat that is generated as it decomposes is amazing!

Cheers,

S.

Gryzor

sound for the reply saibhne.....the majority of material i put in is grass...i do put in eggshells, bits of veg etc, but the grass is still 99% of the waste that goes in....must go hunting and see what else i can find to throw in there...nothin thats not nailed down is safe now

MorningStar

Not sure about this but I was told if you mostly put in grass and need brown waste don't collect the grass after a mow and let it dry out. Apparently by letting it dry you are creating brown waste or basic straw. Anybody else know?

astec123

Call to neighbours and encourage them to recycle, offer some compost for their assisting to get a good mix. We have 2 bins here and for the grass cuttings we take it to the back of the house and use it as a weed surpressor. Also the dry stuff works great as composting material at the bottom of plant pots.

Gryzor

MorningStar wrote:

Not sure about this but I was told if you mostly put in grass and need brown waste don't collect the grass after a mow and let it dry out. Apparently by letting it dry you are creating brown waste or basic straw. Anybody else know?

Interesting,,,might give that a go....can you put newpaper in there as brown waste or would the ink be bad??

gregos

Gryzor wrote:

Interesting,,,might give that a go....can you put newpaper in there as brown waste or would the ink be bad??

You can put in dried grass, twigs, newspaper, cardboard, egg boxes, eggshells, wood shavings, sawdust, tea-bags, coffee, pine needles. You can even empty your vacuum cleaner into it. Make sure the paper and cardboard are pretty well shredded. The best way to ensure a good mix is to keep a container in the house for everything organic you intend to recycle and just keep adding to it. When it's full, throw the whole lot into the composter.

Tip: you can accelerate the composting process the time-honoured way if you're willing to piss in it occasionally! Otherwise, an occasional fistful of granular fertiliser will help.

Enii

Mine is a black slime at the moment aswell, will have to try and fix it with some "browns". Will it actually turn out like compost you buy in the shops?

doshin

So in other words have a breakfast with scabbled eggs and throw all your cornflakes in the composter (

gregos wrote:

You can put newspaper, cardboard, egg boxes, eggshells, wood shavings, sawdust, tea-bags, coffee)

gregos

doshin wrote:

So in other words have a breakfast with scabbled eggs and throw all your cornflakes in the composter (

gregos wrote:

You can put newspaper, cardboard, egg boxes, eggshells, wood shavings, sawdust, tea-bags, coffee)

What are scabbled eggs?

Gryzor

Enii wrote:

Mine is a black slime at the moment aswell, will have to try and fix it with some "browns". Will it actually turn out like compost you buy in the shops?

i had a go at trying to add paper and dry stuff.....jesus does it smell aswell.. :eek: i think if the weather is dry i'll leave the lid off and just keep turning it till it dries out a bit...wish i'd known this at the start!!!

GreeBo

Gryzor wrote:

i had a go at trying to add paper and dry stuff.....jesus does it smell aswell.. :eek: i think if the weather is dry i'll leave the lid off and just keep turning it till it dries out a bit...wish i'd known this at the start!!!

Yeah, you are supposed to turn them allright, in fact the good ones are on a bit of a spindle to let you rotate them every few months.
As the others have said, try to mix it up a bit, twigs and cardboard will all break down eventually and you will have a nice organic matter compost, probably better than what you get in the shops, certainly cheaper!
Just make sure you are mixing the ingredients.
another thing to do with grass clippings is leave them in a plastic bag half covered with water for a few weeks, the water that you drain off with be liquid fertilizer as it will have all the nutrients leached from the grass.