[willnbirdie]

Hi

First time of having a compost bin and it is working very well however the contents do appear to be quite wet.

We have been adding the usual, peelings, old fruit, teabags, rhubarb leaves etc as well as some cardboard and egg boxes.  

I guess we are going to need more "brown" material, but what, apart from carboard and egg boxes can count as brown?  Can you put in newspaper?  We were wondering if you could use household shreddings ie bills, bank statements etc or would the ink be no good for the compost - any help and advice appreciated.

Cheers

willnbirdie

[PhilRW]

I'm no expert, but I bung all my shreddings in - worms seem to love them and they seem also to stop the compost getting too soggy - especially if you have a lot of lawn mowings like me. Mix shredded paper with the green stuff.

[compostqueen]

You can dry off the grass clippings on the ground when it's sunny and then add them to the bin when they've dried off a bit. Same with weeds.  I've been drying weeds on my plot today, turn them over a few times and they soon crisp up.  It should sort itself out if there's a good mix of stuff in there.  You could get some of it out and give it a stir  

[lincspoacher]

ordinary paper is ok, but glossy stuff isnt. Shred it up well. Hedge trimmings well shredded are good brown stuff. to balance it all out if you have an excess of kitchen green.

If its REALLY wet, you can always mix it up with some really dry cheap commercial compost to soak it up a bit.

[Adrian]

Is it getting wet because it's not covered? If it has some sort of cover and it's still wet, watch out that stuff isn't rotting, rather than composting.

Mixing wet green things with dryer brown things usually takes care of things, as well as a bit of occasional mixing.

Cheers,

Adrian

[willnbirdie]

Hi

We have a plastic compost bin with a lid on it.  Can you please tell me how I would know the difference between rotting and composting?  Now I am really confused.  :?

willnbirdie

[Adrian]

Well, if it's rotting, it will look slimy and smell horrible. Usual culprit is too much dense green material - typically a pile of grass clippings.

Also, with a plastic bin, make sure there's plenty of ways air can get in. usually you need to drill some air holes in a couple of rows around the side.

Cheers,

Adrian

[willnbirdie]

Hi

Bin not overly smelly - just quite wet - going to lay off the green stuff for a few days and up the brown until we correct it - going to give it a good mix around too - think the large amount of rhubarb leaves may have something to do with it.

thanks for all the help

willnbirdie

[daveinbracknell]

Hi,

I had the same issue with a compost heap (In plastic box) last year. I built an open air one this year.

The difference is amazing, firslty I layer grass clippings, stick some compost maker on it, layer with veggie peelings, paper, then some more grass clippings.

It still went wet and a bit slimy. Then I covered it with an old corrugated cardboard box one evening, thinking it might need some help threw more grass clippings on it. Suddenly over the period of 2-3 days the temperature rocketed (59.3C at the highest), it then started to coold down again.

I then turned it with a fork (Injecting more oxygen) and it went back up again.

In short, I think sometimes composting issues are caused by a lack of oxygen. But I am a newbie and thats my gut.  :roll:

Dave