any experience with a compost bin or wormery?

Re: ..

I never counted them! I don't think that we have an inordinate number than other gardens. I don't really know though. They don't bother us and I find them interesting to observe. Mind you I also noticed some ants crawling over me last night while I was watching telly but they were coming in from the front and not from the compost bin.
 
Re: ..

I am using a can-o-worms layered wormery with good results. It took some trial and error and helpful advice from Wigglywigglers but it seems fine now. The castings are nutrient rich and I water them down to use as plant food in place of baby bio. I started off with 1000 worms also but haven't done a headcount either. They don't like citrus fruit peelings or onions (too acidic) and the pH can be regulated by adding ground eggshells. I keep mine in the kitchen as it is more convenient to add to and the worms eat more when they are warm.
 
Greencone?

Has anyone tried the Greencone as featured on Pat Kenny this morning? Apparently it takes everything, cooked food waste, peelings, teabags, dog turds, kitty litter, bones, skins and all sorts of yucky stuff. It doesn't smell, breaks everything down and doesn't look too awful in the garden. What I want to know is does it really work?
 
Re: Greencone?

It doesn't smell, breaks everything down and doesn't look too awful in the garden.

Regular compost bins don't smell either as long as the right ingredients are added and you turn the contents (e.g. with a garden fork) from time to time. Not do most of them look any more intrusive than a Green Cone. The main difference seems to be that the latter takes some stuff that a regular compost bin does not (e.g. meat/dish, This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language etc.).

One other thing to note is that a compost bin can be bought from Dublin City Council (and perhaps other local authorities) for something Eur 28 including delivery. This is a lot less than the price charged for compost bins in most shops and, I suspect, for the Green Cone.
 
Re: Greencone?

(e.g. meat/dish, This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language etc.).
Click to expand...
Haven't used a Greencone before but I fairly sure you cant put a 'dish' into it?

It also says to use doggy doo in moderation, does this mean two little piles a day or less than that?
 
..

The dude flogging them was on Matt Copper a while back. Someone texted in at the time and said the biggest issue was the flies. I guess thats because you have rotting meat etc.
 
Wormery: tiny garden!

Hi there,

Had a look at the key posts, but I have one more question.

I was of the opinion that I couldn't compost because my "garden" measures 4 x 0.8 metres! But I'm really keen on reducing waste, and cook a lot, so kitchen waste is one of our main by-products. The yard is concreted over, so we're looking at a few small pots for herbs, and something green and leafy, but not a whole lot more organic matter.
Any thoughts on whether it's worth having a wormery to munch our waste and feed our herbs? Colleagues at work assure me that it is - and it'd be a handy answer to my boyfriend when he says he wants a pet.

Thanks everyone.
 
I put a compost base at my place last Summer and have regretted it. Myself and a colleague dug a meter out of the back corner or the garden and put large gravel and small pebbles mixed with larger fist sized stones to a depth of about 20cm at the bottom. We then put in a 3 sided metre high wooden fence (one side is the boundary wall). We have 2 dogs so the leftovers go into them mostly, and anything organic goes into the base, including figs and apples from the garden and also grass, leaves and dead flowers. I don't like to put paper into it but sometimes do. Overall it seems to be working, I know we could use it as mulch or some such, but the dogs do their best to take care of that!
 
Re: ..Composting

Can anyone list for me , the everyday items around the house that are suitable for putting into a compost bin in my garden.
Are cooked potatoes ok? will green peppers compost ?............I dont have a clue ........................
 
Re: ..Composting

allthedoyles said:
Can anyone list for me , the everyday items around the house that are suitable for putting into a compost bin in my garden.
Are cooked potatoes ok? will green peppers compost ?............I dont have a clue ........................
Click to expand...

Our rule of thumb is no cooked foods, no meat, no fish. What we do put in are basically anything that grew and has not been cooked (so any plant/vegetable matter and also includes paper/cardboard) as well as ashes from the fire. But as Niallman said Google it as there are plenty of more detailed answers out there.
 
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