[twysted1]

i have always understood that Teabags make a good adition to a compost bin but i have a question. Without getting on to a debate on the correct way to make Tea.  Everyone in my household make tea by adding milk before removing the Teabag, my question is, Is it ok to use these teabags on my compost heap? The reason i ask is someone mentioned not to put animal fats in to compost and i wondered if milk would be considered the same.

[Heather_S]

It'd possibly make it smelly but I don't think it'd be detrimental to the garden unless you suddenly find wild animals running all over your compost wanting to eat milky tea bags  

[John]

I've had no problem with teabags - good source of slow release nitrogen. Never noticed any smell.

[yewtreemob]

Yes I put teabags in my compost (or sometimes just hurl them out of the window - very rural here!)

However, in Wales there has been a request at some local authority recycling sites not to put tea bags in with green waste.  yes you guessed it - there is a possibility however remote that contact with milk could introduce something alien into our compost.  So it's OK to drink the tea but.........

[John]

Green Waste!!!!

Our council offers to take green waste in a special brown bin for 20.00 a year. Personally they'd have to pay me more than that to get my compost raw materials.

You have to wonder what they could possibly think is in the alien milk?

Quick aside... returning to the Isle of Man when we lived there, we were stopped at the port and asked by very bored security officer if we had any firearms or explosives. No, says I - trying to keep a straight face and NOT say 'Yes we've an AK47 and a small atom bomb'
Then the security officer looks actually interested and says very seriously 'Do you have any meat, milk or milk products'. I managed to keep stoney faced as I answered 'no'. Yes, milk smuggling is big business over there. Psst? Want any sausages?

[Gwiz]

maybe he was hungry, and in need of a cup of tea? if you had said yes, i wonder how long it would have took from you handing them over, and then smelling it cooking as you drove away! :roll:

[shaun]

wierd the way little things jog your memory as i remember my old man putting a tea bag under each runner bean plant when he planted them out on his plot

[kooringa]

Yes tea bags are a great asset in the garden, 'neat' and in the compost bin.  You could always drop them in an old washed milk carton with some water in it (top cut off naturally so that you can get them in).  But really the amount of mik would be miniscule and then you have all the fluid from the other composting things, rain etc.  

Can't imagine that it could cause a problem

[mellowmick]

Can't let the subject of tea pass without sharing with you the joy of reading William Cobbett on tea. He was a famous political radical at the beginning of the nineteenth century and wrote wonderfully (except for flashes of anti-semitism and archaic {to us now} views on the role of women). His book 'Rural Rides' is a must for anyone living to the south and west of London, as he describes his journeys on horseback around the countryside in 1822, with a real eye for landscape and land use. But his gem is 'Cottage Economy' which is basically a guide to growing crops, keeping livestock, baking, brewing etc. His tirade against tea drinking is to die for. Part of the transcript is on line at http://www.jbsumner.com/html/brewinghistory/transcripts/cobbett.html , pages 16-18. If you see either book, don't hesitate to get them. I think they're both still in print.

[stompy]

I'v read some where that tea leaves are suposed to deter slugs, something to do with the tanin.

I'l be putting some tea around 50% of my lettuce and i'l see if there is any difference between the 2 lots.

[Amilo]

Rightly or wrongly, every thing organic from the kitchen and all paper goes into the compost after shredding it (it stops the ID thieves.

[jrko]

just rinse them out....or do plants prefer their tea black? 

[Growster...]

Mrs G and I rip them open, and spread the tea round the blueberries. (little more acidity).

It's amazing how much 'tea mulch' you finish up with after just a few weeks...

[Benandbill]

I'm having a very torrid and stressful time of it in work at the moment and have taken to drinking coffee instead of tea.  I'm sad to say, my compost pile is missing out on tea bags as a result of this 

[John]

I'm having a very torrid and stressful time of it in work at the moment and have taken to drinking coffee instead of tea.  I'm sad to say, my compost pile is missing out on tea bags as a result of this 

Sorry to read that - watch out for strong coffee though, I'm sure that was what started my blood pressure problems.