Garden compost

[PeterC]

Needs to be manpee though - just as well with a dalek!

[alan_m]

Drill some holes in the wheelbarrow :)

[alan_m]

I have a variety of bins and about the only time I get hot composting is when the weather gets a lot warmer and there is a _lot_ of material to compost in one go. It helps if I don't let the grass cuttings form a compact layer of just grass. When a bin is full, and has been left a month, I just take out the top third and place it in another bin as a starter for subsequent heap. I do ensure that the card and shredded paper I put in the bin is damp and thoroughly mixed.

For most of the year a lot of the breakdown of the material is from red worms. wood lice etc. and I don't worry about ants nests in the compost as they do some good by aerating it.

[alan_m]

On 17/03/2021 23:21, Graham Harrison wrote: r)

More like there is also an element of effort/work required in fast composting unless you have masses of material to compost. Even commercial operations will use a JCB to regularly re-mix the heap.

As you say, the correct mix of material, bulk and water is required as well as maybe turning the heap at some stage will get a faster result. Otherwise just operate it as a cold heap and wait longer.

[Andrew]

Or do what was done to 'oliver', Hammonds car used on the Top Gear Botswana trip - shoot a hole in the floorpan with a BB cartridge.

[fred]

The National Trust property, Castle Coole, have a neat way with composting and leaf mould making. They have a circular yard with a high wall. Starting at the left hand side they gradually move the composting material round it turning it over as they go using a JCB with forks on the front

[fred]

I used to subscribe to an allotments group and I remember a discussion on how women could widdle on their compost heap. Turned out to be no big deal

[newshound]

I used to have a "tumbler" type one which coped OK although I only really used it for grass cuttings. No insulation, needed feeding with "accelerator" to keep it going well.

[nothanks]

Search for "shewee" - very cheap and (I'm assured) worrying to use but (mostly) successful

[Robert]

My cats have caught a very small number of rats but the

Do yours leave the tail and the spleen ?

[Graham Harrison]

It seems to depend on the age of the rabbit. Young ones are devoured whole from head to tail including fur leaving only "offal". Older ones are (obviously) tougher and as well as offal we've had backbones left.

I have to admit I find their hunting habits rather interesting. Like I say, rabbits disappear almost completely. Small mice, shrews and the like just disappear. They only eat the heads of rats. The occasional bird will usually leave some feathers. We've also found 3 moles and 2 stoats dead where we might normally expect to find rabbit remains but uneaten. We assume they were caught by the cat who does most of the hunting but we can't prove it.

When we first moved here from a suburban location to rural we had an aged cat. I don't think she had ever done any hunting in the suburbs but, despite her age, she caught and devoured a couple of rabbits.

There was a short period when we were "commuting" between the two locations - about 100 miles. Initially we were careful about letting her out but she very quickly adapted to the two locations. For the first couple of miles of the journey she'd be miaowing and then settle down only to wake up and start miaowing again when we got to about 2/3 miles from the end of the journey. How she knew the journey was nearly over I have no idea.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Clerk is my pet peeve for USA types. Brian

[PeterC]

A girl-friend had 2 allotments with a shed. She kept a bucket in the shed for her own use and convenience. When I was there she asked me to hold it until we went to the allotments as she wanted my pee for the compost. She was the one who told me about women's pee not being much good - she used to do a lot of research for HDRA and was rather knowledgeable about such things.

[Steve Walker]

Lieutenant - US "loo-tenant", UK "lef-tenant" (from the original French).

[Rednadnerb]

We pronounce buoy as 'boy', the Americans pronounce it as 'booee'. I'm not sure but I think they might have gotten that from the way the French say it.

[Marland]

My brother got one of those a few years back and doesn?t rate it that highly , it does work but not well enough to justify the cost over the plain daleks or if you have room a plain old heap or a diy bin from pallet wood. You could knock up a hot one by making an insulated layer from insulation or even use some of those boxes made from an insulation material that fish etc are transported in.

Basically that is what that composter is made of except the panels are black not white , look closely at the photo in your link and you can see the surfaces are not smooth. Its a lot of money for a custom shaped fish box.

GH

[Marland]

There appears to be an ? as seen on TV? missing on that blurb. It doesn?t look much different from a normal Dalek with some extra panels. You could achieve the same effect obtaining one of those and adding some insulation like a cylinder jacket. Daleks are often to be found free as people got them free or cheap on subsidised schemes and then lost enthusiasm.

I turned our two plain Daleks into hot ones semi accidentally, made a surround for them from some pallet wood and lawn clippings just get tipped around them. The heat from the grass decomposing around the Daleks speeds up the composting of what is actually put in them nicely though you have to watch it doesn?t get too hot so the worms cook or they get too dry.

GH

[Marland]

Ours sit on a stainless steel mesh whose first life was some sort of filter in a food processing plant so worms can pass but Rats cannot, though occasionally one is tenacious enough to get in by the access flap . The bins sit on a boundary with a field and are not that close to the house or sheds, having odd the rat around is part of living in the country and at least they haven?t been living in the filthy environment amongst bins and sewers that urban ones do . As long as they stay down there they can be lived with , the odd rat tunnel in the bin helps with aeration. Once the numbers start to increase then the air rifle comes out but recently they are controlled by the incursion of some neighbourhood cats who are good ratters ,they get them when they first emerge from the nest still young and small and take the remains their ?prizes? home as a present to their owner(servant). I know when it has been a successful night as I hear her cries of discomfort.

GH