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Permalink Reply by John on May 30, 2012 at 20:39

Worked there today, so managed to get a photo'

John www.acegardenservices.co.uk said:

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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Permalink Reply by pete on May 30, 2012 at 22:02

John - that's about as enlightening as the rambling old dope head in Duncan's link

(difficult this internet communication stuff innit)

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Permalink Reply by John on May 31, 2012 at 21:06

Not sure what you mean Pete, ?

The structure is laid out in a square, and the cuttings etc are first piled

into the second half of the square up against the wall, then turned over

at a suitable time, into the front half where it is allowed to continue composting

with perhaps another quick digging over to speed up things.  

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Permalink Reply by Brigitt Stevenson on May 31, 2012 at 21:15

It's a Wonderful thing to Compost, called the "Lasagna Garden", layer and adding right humus, soil and beneficial things like peels and egg shells plus more, so YES all gardens should be composting !!!  :)))

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Permalink Reply by John on June 2, 2012 at 16:29

Yes Brigitt it is a wonderful thing to compost, but the shackles

have to be removed in order to show how easy it is.

Basically throw grass cuttings and shrub and perennial cuttings/dead headings

and uncooked veg waste into a large pile, mix and wait.

The bigger the pile the better, no need to cover !!!!!  -especially with

imporous plastic to prevent the leaching of nutrients, as this will quite often

stop the decomposition process.

Brigitt Stevenson said:

It's a Wonderful thing to Compost, called the "Lasagna Garden", layer and adding right humus, soil and beneficial things like peels and egg shells plus more, so YES all gardens should be composting !!!  :)))

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Permalink Reply by pete on June 3, 2012 at 11:01

 John, it looks like a waste of space to me – if you'd no more sleepers why didn't you stand some pallets on it and make it a cube? – I don't understand but I'm sure you have a reason...

The chap in the 'Making Thermophilic Compost' video says at the beginning: “this has been built so we can actually get air flowing all the way through the whole system” (what?) then he rambles on about making compost for forty minutes and finally... he forgets to show it to us. (but he seems alright, I might tag Karen's film on the end for him:)

I think a good workable size for bins you want to turn is about four foot square – that's pallets sitting on breeze blocks for me - and to speed the cooking process you need the heap insulated and the rain out.... I butt all the laths up on our pallet bins so there are no gaps which only serve to dry out the outside edge and don't really let the air get in – so after the initial bake, the only way to get oxygen back into the heap to feed the fast acting heat loving bacteria is to turn it, and hopefully, this kills off pathogenic bacteria and the weed seeds - but it's fine to just pile it up and leave it for a year or so, just not so much fun – every grower should know how good it feels to add his home made compost to his soil.

Though as Tim said, the idea of turning does become less appealing when you're faced with tons of it

  ....What do you think about the covering in woodchip film? – takes a long while I guess.

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Permalink Reply by John on June 3, 2012 at 12:18

Pete this is not for everyone I admit, but it works amazingly well

and has some real benefits. Firstly the pile at the back against the wall

can be piled up to a height of about four feet with a slight slope on it,

and this can be done straight from a wheelbarrow from either side, and

then with the aid of a small compost ramp, the wheelbarrow can be pushed

right up to the top of the pile, so all through the growing season and Autumn

it is piled up easily and quickly. Turning it over into the empty front section is also

easy as nothing gets in your way, and then shovelling out via the gap when ready is

also easy.

This is a three acre garden and there is plenty of space to do this, but it should work

if it was a third of the size and up against a wall. 

I just wanted to show that there are alternatives to the green plastic bins,

  - Many people like to use old wooden pallets and just nail them together.

pete said:

 John, it looks like a waste of space to me – if you'd no more sleepers why didn't you stand some pallets on it and make it a cube? – I don't understand but I'm sure you have a reason...

The chap in the 'Making Thermophilic Compost' video says at the beginning: “this has been built so we can actually get air flowing all the way through the whole system” (what?) then he rambles on about making compost for forty minutes and finally... he forgets to show it to us. (but he seems alright, I might tag Karen's film on the end for him:)

I think a good workable size for bins you want to turn is about four foot square – that's pallets sitting on breeze blocks for me - and to speed the cooking process you need the heap insulated and the rain out.... I butt all the laths up on our pallet bins so there are no gaps which only serve to dry out the outside edge and don't really let the air get in – so after the initial bake, the only way to get oxygen back into the heap to feed the fast acting heat loving bacteria is to turn it, and hopefully, this kills off pathogenic bacteria and the weed seeds - but it's fine to just pile it up and leave it for a year or so, just not so much fun – every grower should know how good it feels to add his home made compost to his soil.

Though as Tim said, the idea of turning does become less appealing when you're faced with tons of it

  ....What do you think about the covering in woodchip film? – takes a long while I guess.

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PRO MemberPermalink Reply by Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance on June 3, 2012 at 12:40

I think the ideal size of a compost heap is about 1m3. The sides should be solid and insulating if possible and there should be a roof of some sort to enable the moisture content to be controlled. Turning is required for a good end product as is watering whilst turning. I have seen heaps that have been rained on all day and the middle is still dry.

I find shredding to be essential for a quality end product to be produced in a reasonable time. I screen all compost i make with various sizes of weld mesh depending on the end use of the compost. The larger bits get put back into the composting cycle.

As well as watering when turning i have been known to add extra material such as grass clippings, comfrey or nettle leaves to help it get up to a high temperature again. The nitrogen rich materials never need as long to compost in my opinion so adding more in the process is acceptable and seems to work well.

I have built bins from pallets with the holes boarded up and these have worked ok but the best in my experience is those built using straw bales. They take up more room and don't last forever but the best compost i make consistently comes from bins of this nature. The bales breathe a little, insulate extremely well and can be used as the carbon ingredient in a new heap when they are no longer in good condition.

Next i am going to experiment making compost and leaf mould in the builders ton bags.

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Permalink Reply by John on June 3, 2012 at 12:46

Another compost area in a corner of a wall, using just two railway sleepers

that were lying around in the garden.

Everything is piled up for a couple of years, then the top of one side is

shovelled across on top of the other side to expose the compost,

 then reversed to get to the other side.

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Permalink Reply by pete on June 3, 2012 at 13:58

Three acres, plenty of room then John... I have noticed the fat worms that get into old leaves on pavements up against walls – and I agree about those green plastic daleks - must have disillusioned such a lot of people.

Stuart – a 4ft cube, (which conveniently is pallet size) - will make 2 ½ times as much usable compost as a 3ft cube, while still not being too high to get at.

I'll suggest you “find shredding to be essential for a quality end product” perhaps because you have a decent shredder :-) thanks for your considerate comment on my Maktia thread btw  

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Permalink Reply by John on June 3, 2012 at 14:07

The second compost area is in a much smaller garden at

the top of the back corner where there is a jungle

hideaway. It is the dark area in the top right.

pete said:

Three acres, plenty of room then John... I have noticed the fat worms that get into old leaves on pavements up against walls – and I agree about those green plastic daleks - must have disillusioned such a lot of people.

Stuart – a 4ft cube, (which conveniently is pallet size) - will make 2 ½ times as much usable compost as a 3ft cube, while still not being too high to get at.

I'll suggest you “find shredding to be essential for a quality end product” perhaps because you have a decent shredder :-) thanks for your considerate comment on my Maktia thread btw  

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Permalink Reply by Tim Haywood on June 3, 2012 at 15:56

Some of my composting area:

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