Composting
Next to growing and harvesting, composting is the next essential aspect of an allotment. It enables you to dispose of vast quantities of green waste – the weeds, the spent plants, plant debris (and almost any other bio-degradable matter) and turn it into something very useful – it costs nothing and relatively little effort is required to produce it. In fact it’s just about the nearest you’ll get to “something for nothing”!
So why doesn’t everyone do it? What are the barriers to this “money for old rope”?
It’s not the intention of this site to re-invent the wheel – there are a huge number of excellent web sites with excellent advice on where to site your compost heap, how to build a compost compound, what to put in it and what not to put in it, how to manage your compost heap and what to do with the finished product.
On this page we invite you to tell us about “your compost heap” – is it just a simple heap, a constructed compound or a high tech tumble? What works for you & what doesn’t? How do you use it? So please send us your “compost communiqué”. It is hoped that those who aren’t composting might be inspired and gain confidence through the experience of others.
J126 said,
January 20, 2010 @ 7:02 pm
I made my double compound from small branches, layered between 2 rows of posts ( part of necessary tree trimming on my plot) on 2 sides, a bank on 1 side and plank slats at the front which seems to give enough protection and insulation for the composting process as well as allow easy access when emptying the finished compost or turning. I keep a lid on each side – heap of carpet on the “cooked side” and n easily removed sheet of corrugated metal, on the “currently in use side”. The initial layer is a bed of twigs, to ensure drainage on a heavy clay soil. I put all my allotment weeds except perennial nasties such as bind-weed, roots of dock, comfrey & dandelion – I aim to get these before they set seed – as well as any spent crops, general biodegradable waster including cardboard, egg boxes, shredded paper. Although I have a wormery & Bokashi system at home sometimes I find I generate too many veg peelings, so they go to the allotment compost heap as well. I sprinkle in some rock dust, left over wood ash from Bonfire night and chicken-poo pellets. We also have a “tidy jar” in the shed; so urine goes in regularly too. I turn the heap 2 or 3 times a year transferring from one side to the other. That enables me to adjust the mix if necessary, aerate the contents, remove compost which is ready for use and return any un-composted material to the empty bay, to start again.