I didn’t know about the soil in compost bins! I thought it was actually a good thing as it brought in microbes to kick start the compost. Hopefully my bins will be better from now on. Thank you.
@@JanetKnapp-q1d yes you are right Janet it can do that but people put far too much in compost bins. There's enough bacteria and fungi clinging to plant roots and the plants themselves to start decomposition wouldn't do any harm to add a handful of soil at the start of a new bin but that is all the bin needs, just 10 bacteria can become 100 million in 24 hours which is how the heap heats up. As I have said people leave me their weeds in bags and from 5 bags of weeds when I shake the soil off there will be 1 bag of soil sometimes half of it will be soil. Thats why I say no soil as too much ends up being added overall. Too much soil is another reason why some people's compost is of poor quality there is as much soil as organic matter when the bin is full. Hope that is more clear cheers. 👍
I'm happy they don't, as they let me have all their weeds, unwanted produce & other green matter. Mixed with shredded cardboard for carbon content & it makes great compost.
You are so right about soil stopping or slowing the compost! It seems to act as an insulator that stops the carbon and nitrogen from interacting with each other. Also, I am tired of not having enough to compost, so I decided to grow green manure just for that purpose! Maybe that will help someone else! Thanks!
@@Ginger_McElfresh_Art yes soil won't help a compost heap I've heard people say use it as a brown but it's a poor substitute. This year I am companion planting certain plants such as Diakon radish and beans with my other veg just for green manure, the plants will also benefit each other in many ways. Cheers.
On the subject of fungus in the garden 2 seasons ago I bought a kilo bag of Strafaria wine cap grain spawn which i spread thinly over a woodchip pathway . To my delight it soon started spreading and now in the spring I get more Wine caps popping up than I can eat. I now take chunks of thick mycelium laced woodchip to other parts of my plot, for instance i planted 30 or so fruit trees and around each one I have about a 3 ft diameter of strawberries, oregano, catnip, verbena as a living mulch and now Wine caps to boot and the trees are growing nicely. I also add a chunk to each compost bay and leave it to do it's work
@@RobertSmith-rr4zt that's great Robert, first year on here after chipping the paths there were loads of different mushrooms growing on big patches in the paths. To scared to eat any though 😁 btw fruit trees and bushes need fungal dominant soil and do so much better in it. Woodchip is a great mulch for them. 👍
I use my 2 heaps as a dumpingplace to clean the backgarden, hedgecutting, kitchen scraps etc., we put a half kilo fishing worms on top couple of years ago and still its crawling with them. No heat but it still works. In spring i use the humus/soil and the rest goes back in 1 bin and there we go again for the next cycle.
@@jewoningzelfverkopen hi yes a friend of mine does the same at home he's in no rush and the worms have plenty of time to work though the heap makes really nice compost. Cheers.
Hi Loz, a Happy New Year to you! I love your compost vids. I received for Christmas Charles Dowding's book about composting which is excellent and describes exactly what you have described. I'm very fortunate to volunteer at my RDA to collect horse manure.
@Agui007 Happy new year to you agui. Yes I watch Charles videos wish I had the space he has. Even though he has those huge bins have you seen he has to bring in loads of compost to have enough for the ground, I'm full of cold at the moment but as soon as I'm able I will be heading out and collecting horse manure for the bins, that will go on the ground at the end of this year. Cheers.
@thevegplot Hi Loz, yes it's the old scenario of grow more, need more. I think you are both fantastic at what you do! I'm sorry you're filled up with cold. Mind you, this cold dry air will help clean the mucous. I'm learning the lessons of manure and shavings compost!
@@nickthegardener.1120 empty plots are treasure troves mate, maybe didn't say on the video but almost everything on site has rotted away now so onto the horse manure 👍cheers
Hi there, I visited Malta a few years ago more heat than i'm used to, different climate to here so I guess you will need to keep your compost watered. cheers.
I live in Sydney Australia. For 30 years I have had a compost bin, it is 2 x 1 x 1 in size. It has never over flowed even when my neighbour, a profession all gardener and lawn mower. While 90 + % of green wastes goes in the heap the most matter that goes into the compost bin is garden waste. By the end of summer it is just about over flowing. At the beginning of the next spring the height has dropped by 300 mm.
@@velcroman11 yes your right there, I recon I put 6-7 barrows into the bin and maybe get one out when that's done. If the heap is cooking right it soon shrinks. Cheers
Lovely Composting video for us compost addicts, subscribed now as I want to see more. Thats some great constant here there. Do you worry about Brown Rot from the Apples? I suppose if its not going around Apple trees it will be fine anyway.
@@daveshanks8205 thanks Dave, honestly mate I really don't worry about diseases in compost I'm sure that now and then there might be a risk of something but everything we do has risk anyways, understanding what happens between microbes and decaying plant matter allows me to put risks aside and look after the microbes in the soil by giving them food all year round, because In the end they will protect the plant from disease far better than humans can. For instance last year in a bed full of broad beans there was one plant noticeably smaller than the others which then became infested with blackfly, even plants surrounding it and touching it had none at all that plant was weak and it's roots had not made the connections it needed with the soil life to deter the blackfly, I left it in just too see if I could fix it but nothing stopped the fly from returning to just that plant. Cheers.
I've been gathering up loads of buckets of leaves that I found on an old tree lined concrete track. It's really the perfect source because it doesn't get swept up by the council and you're not removing material from an actual forest floor which I don't recommend doing.
Nice source you have there. I'm the same just along the road from the plots is a section off road lined with trees and every year they get blown into the same corner and pile up 2 foot high. I had 2 compressed ton bags full off there this year before someone removed them all. Cheers.
@@KPKENNEDY Great idea I'm just very wary of pesticide residue on field grown veg, don't want that in my soil at all, for instance the fields around here grow hundreds of acres of lettuce each year I've seen what is sprayed on it and would rather eat grass from the side of the road. If I could find an organic farmer that would be ideal the nearest one is too far a journey through. Cheers all the best. 👍
By placing in bags, in my counrty i use old fertiliser 500kg bags, filled with leaves, every fortnight shred newspaper and other office paper, store in old bin bags, collect coffee grounds from local cafe, only weeds are from the vegetable garden, collect stable manure, plus other animal manure, daggy wool, hedge trimmings, old hay, straw, silage and mulch larger branches. But my favourite addition are tiger worms.
Firstly thanks for the mention, it greatly appreciated. Secondly a question related to no dig. Shortly I’ll be adding a layer of compost to the beds in my polytunnel. I’m going for about an inch or so but if I repeat this year on year I could quickly over fill the beds. I know that the level will drop over time but will they drop by enough to offset the material I’m adding ? Tomorrow I’m off hunting for compost material 👍🏻
Hi Adam your welcome mate, its actually really difficult and takes a long time to raise soil levels with organic matter. Reason being the microbes and plants use almost all of it, some is left behind incorporated into the soil but the microbes use that when there are no plants growing, when plants return that is then taken up for them to grow. I have see on my site in just 2 1/2 yrs that 8 inches of compost has not raised the levels at all, the beds still being flush with the main path some are still below the path despite adding alot more to them, Same in the tunnel even more added in there and no change in level. left alone plants living and dying back to decompose might raise the level an inch in 20 years. Cheers.
I'm very lucky...we have horses and chickens....I have a big compost pit and all the extra food scaps that the chickens don't gets dumped into the pile...and most of it is 2 to 3 years decaying down....and in the winter time here in 🇨🇦 when I turn it over there's alot of steam....😊
Nice, animal manure keeps the heap cooking in fact French farmers would grow salad crops in the depth of winter on top of beds of horse manure. Cheers.
Happy prosperous new year. I’m going to be making my wife 😏 a 5/6 bay hot compost bin/ materials storage. and was thinking of building it on top of those 1.20 sq blue plastic pallets with the holes in the middle. fine mesh on the top of the pallet floor for the rats and 100mm insulation on top of that and compost on top. Or do you recommend straight on the ground I’d like advice please to build the “ultimate“ or something over kill. to last the costal weather that will hammer it in the winter and the sun bake it in the summer so need may need ventilation 🤷♂️etc advice would be very much appreciated many thanks 👍🇬🇬
@@stuartdelamare4072 hi Stuart as long as you wrap in mesh it should keep rats out, you could have the lid so it just sits on top of the bin or like mine that suits inside I will be putting mesh on the lid anyway to just make access more difficult. Although the rats only seem to tunnel in from the ground or sides. Regarding the floor I really don't think it's important to insulate it, besides a lot of water will end up in the base of the bin, as the heap heats up the compost it's always the wettest there. Just some hard surface to shovel off is really all you need. Hot bins really need to be turned at least once so the wetter base ends up on top and drains down again. You could use a pallet for the base and cover it with plastic etc which would be fine, think I'd worry about rats etc taking up residence under the pallet though unless you can stop them getting under. I'm half way through filming how I'm going to stop them but caught this flu so have had to leave it for now. Basically I'm wrapping them in the net everywhere. Good luck with the project sounds great. Cheers.
@ thank you for the advice hope the flu clears up quick. I may have inadvertently found a great rat deterrent. last afternoon I put up a 4 meter pole for a bat house to go on and the start of the bin project. but that night I caught an owl on the wildlife cam using it all night as a perch to capture its tea. there’s no big trees around just sloe tree hedge rows so had the best vantage point around. And during the day a kestrel has been perched there in turn with a buzzard. Build it and they will come. Only cost £20 for the pole and catches more rodents than a trap or my pellets 👍🇬🇬
The issue is that even though I have material, it's mostly leaves, some kitchen scraps a so basically almost nothing "green" (well we had fish at Christmas, so I've buried it's head), but it's also pretty chilly and bacterias are lazy to work in this temperature.
Hi, leaves do make good compost but break down with fungus on their own. keep them wet for the fastest results, microbes are still at work during cold weather its just they work slower. Cheers.
@thevegplot last year was my best compost I've done this year, it just hasn't worked. But then I haven't had as much time this year. So it's properly that
I didn’t know about the soil in compost bins! I thought it was actually a good thing as it brought in microbes to kick start the compost. Hopefully my bins will be better from now on. Thank you.
@@JanetKnapp-q1d yes you are right Janet it can do that but people put far too much in compost bins. There's enough bacteria and fungi clinging to plant roots and the plants themselves to start decomposition wouldn't do any harm to add a handful of soil at the start of a new bin but that is all the bin needs, just 10 bacteria can become 100 million in 24 hours which is how the heap heats up. As I have said people leave me their weeds in bags and from 5 bags of weeds when I shake the soil off there will be 1 bag of soil sometimes half of it will be soil. Thats why I say no soil as too much ends up being added overall. Too much soil is another reason why some people's compost is of poor quality there is as much soil as organic matter when the bin is full. Hope that is more clear cheers. 👍
I am always surprised by how many allotmenteers just do not compost, I hope a few take notice of your video.
your right, id say 40% of people on here have just spent the last 2 months burning everything on their site. crazy! cheers
I'm happy they don't, as they let me have all their weeds, unwanted produce & other green matter.
Mixed with shredded cardboard for carbon content & it makes great compost.
You are so right about soil stopping or slowing the compost! It seems to act as an insulator that stops the carbon and nitrogen from interacting with each other. Also, I am tired of not having enough to compost, so I decided to grow green manure just for that purpose! Maybe that will help someone else! Thanks!
@@Ginger_McElfresh_Art yes soil won't help a compost heap I've heard people say use it as a brown but it's a poor substitute. This year I am companion planting certain plants such as Diakon radish and beans with my other veg just for green manure, the plants will also benefit each other in many ways. Cheers.
Cool 😎😊 new to your Chanel .... Happy New Year and hope you're new season goes really well 😊
@@UKallotments1 hi there same to you bud the only thing we can't factor in is the weather. All the best. 👍
On the subject of fungus in the garden 2 seasons ago I bought a kilo bag of Strafaria wine cap grain spawn which i spread thinly over a woodchip pathway . To my delight it soon started spreading and now in the spring I get more Wine caps popping up than I can eat. I now take chunks of thick mycelium laced woodchip to other parts of my plot, for instance i planted 30 or so fruit trees and around each one I have about a 3 ft diameter of strawberries, oregano, catnip, verbena as a living mulch and now Wine caps to boot and the trees are growing nicely. I also add a chunk to each compost bay and leave it to do it's work
@@RobertSmith-rr4zt that's great Robert, first year on here after chipping the paths there were loads of different mushrooms growing on big patches in the paths. To scared to eat any though 😁 btw fruit trees and bushes need fungal dominant soil and do so much better in it. Woodchip is a great mulch for them. 👍
Excellent video again! It's a shame so many leave their apples to rot on the ground but their loss is your gain!
Thanks Charlotte, food for the birds also for the rats though. Cheers
Since watching your videos on composting i've been making some great compost thanks for the advice xx
@@pennythompson4790 that's great to hear penny 👍
Thank you for the video and the changes you made to your intro😊
@@justynaqra9402 hi there no problem I am only using these until I get the time to make some intros from clips shot on the allotment. Cheers.
I use my 2 heaps as a dumpingplace to clean the backgarden, hedgecutting, kitchen scraps etc., we put a half kilo fishing worms on top couple of years ago and still its crawling with them. No heat but it still works. In spring i use the humus/soil and the rest goes back in 1 bin and there we go again for the next cycle.
@@jewoningzelfverkopen hi yes a friend of mine does the same at home he's in no rush and the worms have plenty of time to work though the heap makes really nice compost. Cheers.
Hi Loz, a Happy New Year to you! I love your compost vids. I received for Christmas Charles Dowding's book about composting which is excellent and describes exactly what you have described. I'm very fortunate to volunteer at my RDA to collect horse manure.
@Agui007 Happy new year to you agui. Yes I watch Charles videos wish I had the space he has. Even though he has those huge bins have you seen he has to bring in loads of compost to have enough for the ground, I'm full of cold at the moment but as soon as I'm able I will be heading out and collecting horse manure for the bins, that will go on the ground at the end of this year. Cheers.
@thevegplot Hi Loz, yes it's the old scenario of grow more, need more. I think you are both fantastic at what you do! I'm sorry you're filled up with cold. Mind you, this cold dry air will help clean the mucous. I'm learning the lessons of manure and shavings compost!
It can be difficult for me to find material for compost this time of year, you have done good to scavenge what you have found. 👍👌😁
@@nickthegardener.1120 empty plots are treasure troves mate, maybe didn't say on the video but almost everything on site has rotted away now so onto the horse manure 👍cheers
Greetings from malta love making composts thanks for your advice.
Hi there, I visited Malta a few years ago more heat than i'm used to, different climate to here so I guess you will need to keep your compost watered. cheers.
Healthy compost for healthy foods happy new year 🇳🇿🙏🏼
@@dnawormcastings thanks All the best mate, have a good one, cheers
Wow that compost looks good
Thanks the 15 week old stuff is really nice this year. 👍
I live in Sydney Australia. For 30 years I have had a compost bin, it is 2 x 1 x 1 in size. It has never over flowed even when my neighbour, a profession all gardener and lawn mower. While 90 + % of green wastes goes in the heap the most matter that goes into the compost bin is garden waste. By the end of summer it is just about over flowing. At the beginning of the next spring the height has dropped by 300 mm.
@@velcroman11 yes your right there, I recon I put 6-7 barrows into the bin and maybe get one out when that's done. If the heap is cooking right it soon shrinks. Cheers
Lovely Composting video for us compost addicts, subscribed now as I want to see more. Thats some great constant here there. Do you worry about Brown Rot from the Apples? I suppose if its not going around Apple trees it will be fine anyway.
@@daveshanks8205 thanks Dave, honestly mate I really don't worry about diseases in compost I'm sure that now and then there might be a risk of something but everything we do has risk anyways, understanding what happens between microbes and decaying plant matter allows me to put risks aside and look after the microbes in the soil by giving them food all year round, because In the end they will protect the plant from disease far better than humans can. For instance last year in a bed full of broad beans there was one plant noticeably smaller than the others which then became infested with blackfly, even plants surrounding it and touching it had none at all that plant was weak and it's roots had not made the connections it needed with the soil life to deter the blackfly, I left it in just too see if I could fix it but nothing stopped the fly from returning to just that plant. Cheers.
thanks for the video its nice to see your corner of the world and your compost.hello from central british columbia
@@edlecomte3695 hello to you on the other side of the world. Thanks for the comment too. 👍
Nice vid there Woody. Will look out for the tatty storage vid as that sounds interesting too 👍🏻
Hmmm Rick M not sure who you are 😁 best way of storing them mate just like they were dug up we have new potatoes all year round. Cheers 👍
@ 3 letters, 1st letter a small fury aquatic animal that makes dams, 2nd letter the thing on top of your shoulders, 3rd letter 👌🏻
😁 shhh 🤫
@@RanDomRikM Ahh yea somehow knew it was you 😄
😊
👍
I've been gathering up loads of buckets of leaves that I found on an old tree lined concrete track. It's really the perfect source because it doesn't get swept up by the council and you're not removing material from an actual forest floor which I don't recommend doing.
Nice source you have there. I'm the same just along the road from the plots is a section off road lined with trees and every year they get blown into the same corner and pile up 2 foot high. I had 2 compressed ton bags full off there this year before someone removed them all. Cheers.
Ive got chicken manure and old woodchip bind weed goes on the community compost witch I made happy gardening Richardx
Hi Richard, chicken manure is top stuff, I add the manure from my pigeons every few weeks guaranteed to get the microbes active. Cheers.
I arranged for a fruit and veg shop to deliver their waste to the allotments. We get a lot of green waste each year.
@@KPKENNEDY Great idea I'm just very wary of pesticide residue on field grown veg, don't want that in my soil at all, for instance the fields around here grow hundreds of acres of lettuce each year I've seen what is sprayed on it and would rather eat grass from the side of the road. If I could find an organic farmer that would be ideal the nearest one is too far a journey through. Cheers all the best. 👍
By placing in bags, in my counrty i use old fertiliser 500kg bags, filled with leaves, every fortnight shred newspaper and other office paper, store in old bin bags, collect coffee grounds from local cafe, only weeds are from the vegetable garden, collect stable manure, plus other animal manure, daggy wool, hedge trimmings, old hay, straw, silage and mulch larger branches. But my favourite addition are tiger worms.
Thats a nice mix Helen and will make great soil food, the worms of course turn it into really excellent plant food. cheers
Firstly thanks for the mention, it greatly appreciated.
Secondly a question related to no dig. Shortly I’ll be adding a layer of compost to the beds in my polytunnel. I’m going for about an inch or so but if I repeat this year on year I could quickly over fill the beds. I know that the level will drop over time but will they drop by enough to offset the material I’m adding ?
Tomorrow I’m off hunting for compost material 👍🏻
Hi Adam your welcome mate, its actually really difficult and takes a long time to raise soil levels with organic matter. Reason being the microbes and plants use almost all of it, some is left behind incorporated into the soil but the microbes use that when there are no plants growing, when plants return that is then taken up for them to grow. I have see on my site in just 2 1/2 yrs that 8 inches of compost has not raised the levels at all, the beds still being flush with the main path some are still below the path despite adding alot more to them, Same in the tunnel even more added in there and no change in level. left alone plants living and dying back to decompose might raise the level an inch in 20 years. Cheers.
I'm very lucky...we have horses and chickens....I have a big compost pit and all the extra food scaps that the chickens don't gets dumped into the pile...and most of it is 2 to 3 years decaying down....and in the winter time here in 🇨🇦 when I turn it over there's alot of steam....😊
Nice, animal manure keeps the heap cooking in fact French farmers would grow salad crops in the depth of winter on top of beds of horse manure. Cheers.
Happy prosperous new year. I’m going to be making my wife 😏 a 5/6 bay hot compost bin/ materials storage. and was thinking of building it on top of those 1.20 sq blue plastic pallets with the holes in the middle. fine mesh on the top of the pallet floor for the rats and 100mm insulation on top of that and compost on top. Or do you recommend straight on the ground I’d like advice please to build the “ultimate“ or something over kill. to last the costal weather that will hammer it in the winter and the sun bake it in the summer so need may need ventilation 🤷♂️etc advice would be very much appreciated many thanks 👍🇬🇬
@@stuartdelamare4072 hi Stuart as long as you wrap in mesh it should keep rats out, you could have the lid so it just sits on top of the bin or like mine that suits inside I will be putting mesh on the lid anyway to just make access more difficult. Although the rats only seem to tunnel in from the ground or sides. Regarding the floor I really don't think it's important to insulate it, besides a lot of water will end up in the base of the bin, as the heap heats up the compost it's always the wettest there. Just some hard surface to shovel off is really all you need. Hot bins really need to be turned at least once so the wetter base ends up on top and drains down again. You could use a pallet for the base and cover it with plastic etc which would be fine, think I'd worry about rats etc taking up residence under the pallet though unless you can stop them getting under. I'm half way through filming how I'm going to stop them but caught this flu so have had to leave it for now. Basically I'm wrapping them in the net everywhere. Good luck with the project sounds great. Cheers.
@ thank you for the advice hope the flu clears up quick. I may have inadvertently found a great rat deterrent. last afternoon I put up a 4 meter pole for a bat house to go on and the start of the bin project. but that night I caught an owl on the wildlife cam using it all night as a perch to capture its tea. there’s no big trees around just sloe tree hedge rows so had the best vantage point around. And during the day a kestrel has been perched there in turn with a buzzard. Build it and they will come. Only cost £20 for the pole and catches more rodents than a trap or my pellets 👍🇬🇬
How do you rat-proof the bin? Do they not add air and manure? 😊
👍💚
Cheers 👍
The issue is that even though I have material, it's mostly leaves, some kitchen scraps a so basically almost nothing "green" (well we had fish at Christmas, so I've buried it's head), but it's also pretty chilly and bacterias are lazy to work in this temperature.
Get food scraps from schools, restaurants, food charities, and coffee grounds from cafes. Plenty of greens going to waste all around us.
Grocery stores as well.
Hi, leaves do make good compost but break down with fungus on their own. keep them wet for the fastest results, microbes are still at work during cold weather its just they work slower. Cheers.
Tip: replace green matter with (your) pee
I love composting, but could do with getting better at it.
you kind of get a feel for it after a while mark, like I showed in this video one thing is the smell you just know its going to be good. cheers.
@thevegplot last year was my best compost I've done this year, it just hasn't worked. But then I haven't had as much time this year. So it's properly that
@@markshaw5835 yea maybe so, I try and feed mine every couple of days mark the bigger the heap gets the better it composts. cheers
Trespassers.
@marlan5470 not with consent
@@thevegplot Trespassers consent in their own twisted little way... ;) j/k