[coldandwindy]

As title - please record your own experience of home-made seed or potting compost. Which recipe worked for you (or didn't) ?

Thank you!

[Subversive_plot]

I really don't have a fixed recipe.  For potting compost, I do sometimes mix either city compost or mushroom compost with other ingredients on a case-by-case basis, but it sort of depends on what I'm growing.  Common additions to mix with the city or mushroom compost might include sand, or clay soil, or pelleted lime.

[coldandwindy]

My own attempt on this so far is for seed sowing
1 bucket home made compost (sieved)
1 bucket coir
1/3 to 1/2 bucket perlite

Seems to work ok, although I'm finding it a bit tricky to tell how wet it is. As soon as the top dries out it looks like it needs watering, whatever is going on further down.

Most of the recipes I see from Googling include huge quantities of leaf mould.
I've got what I'd guess is an above average amount of trees & I manage to make about three spoonfuls of leaf mould a year so I'm presuming most people don't use the on line versions?
I'm hoping that everyone else has their Granddad's special concoction for their sweet peas etc, do they?

[vikingraider]

My homemade compost from my garden is about 80% grass clippings and 20% shredded paper. Seems to do well

[Grubbypaws]

My husband is a compost fiend, nothing is allowed to go to waste! Grass clippings, prunings, kitchen waste, shredded paper,cardboard and weeds  I have fought against the weed thing, especially the dandelions but to no avail. He has built a hot bin at the centre of one of the compost heaps which he puts the weeds in and claims that this makes it OK. Hopefully he is right.

[Subversive_plot]

I also compost weeds but I tend to compost on a long cycle (2 or 3 years start to finish) so seeds and sprouting weeds don't become a problem.  The hot composting probably handles this as well.

I make leaf mould by chopping and bagging fall leaves and grass with a lawn mower.  I pile on the ground/soil, let the worms do their work, turning occasionally.  The final leaf mould volume seems to be 1/3 to 1/2 the original volume of chopped leaves when done.

[AnneB]

Ours is a mixture of grass cuttings, vegetable matter from the kitchen and the allotment, coffee grounds, tea leaves (we use leaf tea), egg shells and leaf mould.  We keep the leaves in bags for a bit then mix it in with the rest.
I know you are warned against eggshells for attracting vermin, but we don't seem to have a problem.

[Subversive_plot]

This past weekend, I raked up green trimmings from about 100+ feet of holly hedge onto our pavement, mulched them with the mower, gathered them up and hauled three 40-gallon trash cans to our long-term compost pile.  That will contribute to the leaf mould supply.