I first heard of the HotBin several years ago, when I was discussing gardening with the owner of the local convenience store. Chris is a keen gardener, and in-season grows nearly all the veg he sells his village shop. It was spring, and the conversation soon turned to getting the garden ready. Chris told me …
Dig around for a bit on the net, or bury your head in a few gardening books, and you’ll soon start to unearth some fascinating facts about composting. Here’s some of our favourites… 1. There’s a bird that makes compost to incubate its eggs Evolution can head in some weird and wonderful directions. Perhaps there …
22 Fascinating Facts About Composting You Probably Didn’t Know Read More »
A cold compost heap can take months or even years to reach perfection. The good news is that you don’t have to wait that long – in fact one composting system produces finished compost in just 14-21 days (although you’d ideally let it mature for a while before using it for the first time). If …
My first compost pile wasn’t great. A corner of my garden behind my garage had three walls around it, and I simply dumped my garden waste there. I didn’t pay much attention to the intricacies of composting, but when I dug down after two years I got compost. You see while you can dig deep …
Read most compost guides, and you’ll be advised you need size to compost effectively. And this is true – to an extent. I can attest to this. I used to struggle to get my smaller compost heaps going. But when I built a large compost heap using pallets, I would find, when I turned my …
Can you micro-compost in small bins? We did an experiment – here’s what happened… Read More »
You don’t need an in-depth understanding of composting terms in order to compost successfully. But if you’re keen on developing your composting skills and knowledge, and understanding of key terms can quickly come in useful. In this post we explain many of the terms used in more in-depth guides. Do note we haven’t included bins, …
In the summer I can haul several wheelbarrows of weeds in a day to my compost heap, rapidly building up its size. But things are very different in the garden in winter. Having just come back from a pleasurable hour in the garden, I’ve only managed to pull up a small bucketful of weeds and …
The process of making compost can take anything from a couple of weeks to several years – it all depends on which composting process you use, and how much work you put into it. Let’s dig into the details… Compost in two weeks One of the fastest ways to make compost is to use the …
There’s a lot of choice when it comes to choosing a compost bin. But there’s no single bin which is right for everyone – it all depends on your needs, how much you want to compost and how fast you want to compost it. So in this article we’re going to review some of the …
If you read much about composting, you’ll soon come across the terms carbon:nitrogen ratio (often shortened to C:N ratio). Everything you put in your compost has a different carbon:nitrogen ratio. Materials such as grass and manure, known as ‘greens’, have a higher level of nitrogen, and ‘brown’ materials, such as paper, have a higher level …
You can minimise or eliminate the smell of indoor compost bins, if you take the right steps. Fortunately, it’s not hard to produce indoor compost without stinking your kitchen out. In this article we’ll cover everything you need to stop your compost from becoming smelly. I’ll be honest, I’m not allowed to compost in the …