Make your own compost. (General Garden)

Member Name: SuffolkPunch

Product:	General Garden
Date:	27/07/01 (99 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Helps recycling programs, No cost

Disadvantages: Smelly

Recently the Ipswich Borough Council delivered a second (Brown)wheelie bin. This second bin is for materials that can be used to make compost for their Composting Scheme.

On a set day they will collect the contents of the compost wheelie bin just in the same way as normal household rubbish. The material is treated and matured to produce compost which then is sold. This is a very useful means of recycling that in the end produces organic compost. It also may reduce the council spending, but not by much.

Items that should go into the Brown wheelie bin:

Fruit and vegetable peelings.
Spoilt fruit and vegetables.
Egg shells.
Tea bags and coffee.
Food scrapings (i.e. bread, rice & pasta.
Grass cuttings.
Leaves.
Weeds, dead flowers and plants.
Light garden prunings.
Hedge trimmings.
Untreated wood Chipping’s.
Sawdust and pet straw.

Items that should not go into the brown wheelie bin.

Meat, fish or bones.
Soil ,turf, sand, rocks or building rubble.
Dog faeces or cat litter.
Plastics.
Fats and oils.
Contents of vacuum cleaners.
Disposable nappies and dressings.
Cardboard.
Newspapers/magazines.
Metals.
Glass.
Textiles.
Ashes.
Batteries.
Cosmetics, pharmaceuticals & dyestuffs.
Sand based animal bedding.


What I have done is collect all the grass cuttings etc. in the bin and allow it to rot down which only takes six weeks. The compost is then emptied out and used on the garden as compost.

With a little ingenuity a suitable plastic bin the size of a wheelie bin or larger could be used in your garden. If you do not have enough appropriate materials to make the compost you could approach your neighbours and use theirs.

Ideally the plastic bin should have some ventilation or you could find the bin on fire due to spontaneous combustion (A large amount of heat is generated while the material is d
ecomposing).

If its possible fit a tap to the bottom of the bin so you can collect the liquid (Some gardens produce nettle water in the same way). This liquid then can be used like ‘Baby bio’ or fertiliser in potted plants and hanging baskets. If you find that there is not very much liquid try dampening the compost material with water on a weekly basis.

Happy gardening.

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