Open Association of Landscape Industries
Should all gardens be composting ?
In the age of sustainability it seems crazy to through away
vegetation that can be composted and returned to the soil.
Adding compost rather than chemical granules will benefit the
soil and the environment, and will save so much money.
There is no transportation costs to the tip/recycling centre
( And then back out to another garden when composted)
Replies to This Discussion
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance on -
Yes , yes, yes. Takes a bit of effort and knowledge to compost things well. This puts most people off. Plus space is valuable and some people don't want compost bins taking up areas that could be used for other things. Compost bins are not pleasing to the eye. I try to promote composting to all my customers but these are the issues i run up against most of the time. A shame really. To make good compost you really need a shredder, time to turn it and ideally a screen to grade it. I have all these things but still come across barriers put up by customers who just don't want this foul smelly stuff on their property.
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Permalink Reply by John on -
I have never known compost bins or areas to have a foul smell Stuart.
I personally hate the plastic compost bins, they are too small and they
are hard work, and don't always work unless the water content is kept
at the correct level.
I think that everyone should be aware of the alternatives, like using corners
of walls or structures built from wooden pallets. An ugly garden should be one
that does not have a compost area !!!!
Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance said:Yes , yes, yes. Takes a bit of effort and knowledge to compost things well. This puts most people off. Plus space is valuable and some people don't want compost bins taking up areas that could be used for other things. Compost bins are not pleasing to the eye. I try to promote composting to all my customers but these are the issues i run up against most of the time. A shame really. To make good compost you really need a shredder, time to turn it and ideally a screen to grade it. I have all these things but still come across barriers put up by customers who just don't want this foul smelly stuff on their property.
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by David Cox on -
I have much the same issue as stu - also alot of customers have gardens where everything is visible from the house or the Patio and so they simply dont want a compost bin in sight, no matter how attractive it may be :)
Most of mine is either taken for composting or kept and composted by myself for my allotment.
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Permalink Reply by Geoffrey King North Yorkshire on -
Composting, (which we do) requires pro active participation in your garden, something that many people seem to have an in built reluctance to do.
The idea that your garden and household green waste turns into a rich organic food for your garden, saves you money, makes your plants grow and makes your veg extra tasty, is not a new one, but seems to bypass much of modern society, where dis connection from natural living cycles & ecological mechanisms is normal.
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance on -
I hope my response was not taken as a moan or anti composting. My view is quite the opposite - composting is very important. My comment about compost areas being smelly was not my own view but it is mentioned by people who know nothing about composting. I don't know where they get the idea from but possibly from ill-informed people who have tried to make compost out of piles of grass clippings and nothing else.
COMPOSTING RULES
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Permalink Reply by Jez Young on -
I couldn`t agree more , it always astounds me the amount of people who see grass cuttings and leaves as a burden rather than free mulch or compost dressing.
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance on -
I have yet to come across a customer who has made good compost. They don't have the knowledge or inclination to put the effort in to making beautiful compost. I see bins made out of unsuitable materials where all the moisture is allowed to evaporate away. When a bin gets hot it needs generous amounts of water to stop it drying out. People also do not have a clue about what should be going in it and that they should be turning it once in a while. Oh well, it gives me something to do.
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Permalink Reply by Geoffrey King North Yorkshire on
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I make bins with timber painted with black bitumen paint on the inside, this helps preserve the wood and stops moisture soaking into the timber.
Constructing the bin with a double wall allows, insulation material to be inserted, thereby raising the internal temperature, I think I saw Bob Flowerdew & Geoff Hamilton does this on the old Gardener's World Programe.
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by David Cox on -
does anyone here ever use partialy composted material as a mulch - I use it on my allotment and in some gardens to keep bare soil areas weed free - as the partially rotted material temp consumes the Nitrogen in the soil - as well as covering it. Works well when their is nothing on a patch of earth.
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Permalink Reply by John on
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We have built a wide basic compost area out of four railway sleepers
placed on a tarmac drive up against an old wall. The two outer ones were
butted up against the wall and the third created a square with the forth
cutting the square in half. Everything is piled up against the wall in the first
section and then turned over into the second section when half composted.
If you have a big enough garden with enough rubbish then this is an easy way
of composting.
Just to the right of this structure is the corner of the wall where we put all
the leaves.
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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Pip Howard on -
I've been with a team that play around with partial compost or green wood chip in controlling nitrate in an urban park close to a river and with alluvial soils, hence the control (mainly to help control very heavy usage by dogs). I think there is huge potential for practitioners to use this as a technique in regulating leachate. as one of our compost heaps is at the high end of the garden (only gradual slope) which included some chicken poop in it, plus we had sub surface consolidation, so I dug a sort of swale and filled with green wood material (mashed up prunings using a chainsaw) - the soil tests after proved there wasn't a problem with nitrate flow,
As a digression but relevant to this thread I came across the following pdf when doing some work on urban dog toilets; this is based on solid research and is a very intense method of composting - understandable as it is for dog waste. But in the US there are several private companies that do this as a service and make good money from it. Would it work in the UK? maybe it even already exists.
ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/AK/Publications/dogwastecomposting2.pdf
David Cox said:does anyone here ever use partialy composted material as a mulch - I use it on my allotment and in some gardens to keep bare soil areas weed free - as the partially rotted material temp consumes the Nitrogen in the soil - as well as covering it. Works well when their is nothing on a patch of earth.
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Permalink Reply by pete on -
We compost wherever we can but I think some people might associate rotting compost with the farmyard manure smell ?
I learned from Dick Kitto's “Composting”... that's what the edition I had in the eighties was called, it's called Composting the Organic Natural Way now...lol – I made finished compost inside a month by turning twice a week – and got paid, I didn't have a shredder then- Dick reckoned you could do it in twelve days with three turns.
This is at our allotment where our time is free (sorry chaps, I'm not overly proud of this but it's always good to see our women work..)
I know a lot of folk here are clued up on permaculture but if you're interested and haven't seen Paul Gautschi's film “Back to Eden” please do have a look and don't let his religious thing get in the way for you.
This below is a trailer and -- this is a a link to his film --
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