Composting.

[Matt2584]

Hi folks,

I may have made a post similar to this in the past and forgot. But anyway, new folk have joined since then and this post would be new to them :).

But anyhow, how many of you compost?

Composting is like... the most important thing for the planet but most people don’t really realise it.

We take, take, take from the planet but rarely give anything back and composting is THE way of giving back.

So all of the fruit or veg peels that you don’t use can be great food for the planet.

Now, putting all the peels in a compost bin is a good idea but it would take ages for a pile of compost to break down and feed worms.

It is so much quicker to chop the peels down smaller before getting rid of them, the smaller the better.

We used to put our peels in a blender and add water so we had a smoothie consistency. Perfect for the worms as they can get straight to it.

At home, we will compost anything biodegradable. Not just peels but even toe nails, finger nails, human hair and so on.

We even compost used toilet rolls. Well they are made from cardboard/trees and you can compost the tissue as well.

I do a lot of mail ordering so I get a lot of cardboard boxes. After I am done with them I take off the stickers and the tape and compost the box. We have a cardboard shredder at home which is great for cutting the cardboard into small pieces. :).

This world is slowly dying and I want everyone to pitch in and work with nature so this planet can thrive :).

EDIT- Just thought of something else.

What do you guys do with leftover food, natural or store bought?

We usually leave it outside for the fox to eat.

And if you leave out marmite sandwiches it can help treat there mange.

[Zest]

Hi Matt2584

Wow, you compost quite a lot of things - that's great. In Guernsey, we separate all our different waste - e.g. food waste; paper and cardboard; milk cartons and plastic etc for composting and re-cycling.

Zest

[Hidden]

You do this all at home?

[Matt2584 in reply to Hidden]

Yes, it’s all done at home in our back and front garden... mainly the back.

[Hidden in reply to Matt2584]

Very good, the council do it for us where I live.

[Matt2584 in reply to Hidden]

I have heard that our council is known to compost for us as well but I wouldn’t trust them to do it. Yeah, that might compost the basics but they wouldn’t compost everything, most likely.

[Hidden in reply to Matt2584]

They compost everything and do a very good job. They give out for free at certain times of the year.

It's a very good system.

[Whydothis]

Well done on starting a conversation about composting - it is important! My comments:

- I make compost in a row of three wooden compost bins, using all the kitchen peelings, plus all the leaves and stalks from vegetable plants, weeds, lawn mowings, and old leaves. I don't chop anything - it all breaks down to beautiful compost for the garden in about 3 months in the summer, it takes longer in the winter. You didn't mention the end product - it is essential for growing organic veg!

The only thing I put out for council compost is things like ivy roots and roots of other perennial weeds that would be a problem on the garden if they didn't break down properly, plus woody prunings.

- I do think you need to be careful about feeding foxes - it is fine if you know the fox will be the first animal on the scene, but not if there is any danger at all of feeding rats!

- I NEVER have any food to throw away - if it hassn't been eaten, it goes in the fridge and becomes part of a meal the next day (or the day after for people who don't like to eat the same thing two days running!) If we didn't waste food, there would be no hunger in the world!

[TheAwfulToad in reply to Whydothis]

You can actually compost aggressive perennial weeds because the heat kills them off (and their seeds too) ... but you do need an adequate amount of biomass to maintain the composting process, and you need to make sure stuff doesn't resprout by (a) turning it and (b) leaving it to "mature" for at least a year.

I regularly compost Napier grass (which roots from the leaf nodes given half a chance) and the compost heap always contains a few that take root. You just pull them up and add them back to the heap. Eventually the job's done.

[Whydothis in reply to TheAwfulToad]

In warm weather my compost usually makes itself, without turning, so I don't imagine it gets that hot - but I might get brave and try your method sometime!

[Matt2584 in reply to Whydothis]

Thanks :).

I know you say you don’t chop anything but if you do it will break down a lot faster.

Yes, I did forget to mention that about being essential to grow organic veg, thanks for reminding me :).

And not only is it essential for growing fruit/veg but also it can save you money too (no need for a spade or store-bought compost).

[TheAwfulToad]

Excellent post. It drives me nuts that most governments simply can't get their heads around simple stuff like composting. In the US there are several private companies that actually make a profitable business out of it ... whereas British local authorities continue to view waste "disposal" as an inherently loss-making proposition.

I'm just imagining the conversation between two foxes turning up in your backyard:

- What on earth is this stuff?

- Marmite. You should try it. It's awesome.

- Bleeeah. You're crazy. I'm going to look for some chickens.

[Whydothis in reply to TheAwfulToad]

Some local governments are better than others on this. Ours (West Norfolk) collects food waste (which I don't have) and garden waste if you pay for a bin for it, and produces compost which they sell cheaply at their recycling centres.

Love the reaction of the foxes to the Marmite!

[Matt2584 in reply to Whydothis]

I think our council does handle garden compost but we prefer to do it ourselves.

That is something I don’t understand though and I have heard this before but why would people let the council do all the composting so they can sell you a bag of compost/fertiliser when you can create your own at home for free?

I suppose it is probably a good idea for people who don’t really have the time to compost or can’t really be bothered.

I don’t really have a lot of faith in authority and councils could take your kitchen scraps, turn it in to lovely compost which they sell but I can imagine that compost would also be loaded with additives as well.

I suppose that’s why we would prefer to handle the composting.

I might be wrong though, and I hope I am, the council may do a good job at composting and they may sell organic compost.

[Whydothis in reply to Matt2584]

I agree, I much prefer to do my own composting, but it has to be better that the council are doing this with food waste which many people would otherwise put in the landfill bin, and with garden waste that would otherwise be dumped.

[Matt2584 in reply to TheAwfulToad]

Governments/councils could much better and wise up on some of these things.

Another thing I could have mentioned was that composting can help with flooding as well.

Think about it, you have all those worms underground, the rain water has to go somewhere :).

In the past whenever we had lots of rain we used to get a few centimetres of rain fill up the garden.

Now that we do much more composting, after it rains a lot we don’t get so much excess water.

The marmite sandwiches thing, I think this was a fact my mum read about some time. Not sure if she has fed the foxes marmite sandwiches or not really :).

[san_ray70]

Sorry I have a labrador and he eats all peels apart from potato and melon also he eats most of the left overs.

[Matt2584 in reply to san_ray70]

That is ok, if you have a dog that you feed your peels to then that is ok, no need to apologise.

You are still composting in some minor way :).