I've not got the hang of this composting.
Had a bin for about 3 years. Contents are mostly a mix of 50% veg trimmings/peelings (no spuds), 25% grass cuttings, 20% garden leaves/soft prunings, 5% plain cardboard (mostly recycled egg boxes)
I initially had a problem with it being too dry (so I now water it sporadically), but it still seems to be a home for a colony of ants and woodlice.
I got it to full and it's all composted down (the bottom has been composting for 2+ years - is that too long?).
The problem is, when I've gone to take the compost from the hatch at the bottom, I've found the compost is full of roots. Roots which have grown upwards from the ground, from the trees that are near it. As well as making the compost difficult to extract (and having to remove dozens of roots from it), those roots will have been nicking all the nutrients in the compost.
Has anyone had a similar problem?
I nearly canned the whole thing and took the bin to the tip but, after calming down a little, I've tried a fix by tipping out all the compost onto a tarp and removing the larger roots. I've put an old piece of chipboard down and placed the bin on top of that, then re-filled the bin with the remaining compost.
I get that this is going to block access to to worms burrowing up from underneath and these are vital to successful composting (if I see any in the garden, I'm going to relocate them into the bin!), but the alternative is to have tree roots continue to invade from the bottom.
Martin
Home: St Helens (26m asl) Work: Manchester (75m asl)
A TWO addict since 14/12/01
"How can wealth persuade poverty to use its political freedom to keep wealth in power? Here lies the whole art of Conservative politics."
Aneurin Bevan