[chrissie B]

just having a poke around one of my compost bins to find it looked ok on the top but at the bottom it was soggy and smelly so what must i do with this , my other bin is full and i wanted to empty this one and start again when  i dug it out there was a cloud of flies hovering over me ive just popped it back in the bin for now , with the weather i didnt want it getting any wetter or attract any more flies
chrissie b

[Christine]

Sounds as if you have put a lot of "green material" in and not enough "brown material". You need things like twiggy cuttings, thicker stems, plain cardboard and crumpled up newspaper.

Sit yourself down and crumple up lots of newspaper and see if you can gather some thicker plain cardboard (local shop or supermarket?). Then turn out your bins, take anything usable out to one side. For the rest stir in your "brown" material and then put back into one of the bins.

Does that sound as if you can do it? Because it will certainly improve things. Also it's possible that your bins are in a shady place where they are not getting the sun to help them hot up fast enough.

Just a couple of suggestions.

[mattwragg94]

oooh christine beat me to it - i was going to say the same as her i.e not enough brown material.

[chrissie B]

thanks , although i do put some brown stuff in i will put in more infuture , as the top of one bin was ok so ive taken that off once ive delt with the bottom im going to transfer half of the other bin into that the thing with the darlek type bins is it is hard to turn over once you get it to the top , i didnt have any problems with the last lot  thanks again big help xxxx
chrissie b

[SnooziSuzi]

You might want to ask your local free newspaper delivery person if they've got spares... often the distributors send too many papers and when there's a lot of leaflets to put inside they usually come in small brown boxes.

[compostqueen]

I don't generally add newspaper to my bins.  I do put the boxes from the dishwasher tablets in and the loo and kitchen roll middles.  I do poke mine with a long metal rod quite often though 

If you take the lid off the flies will just disperse. You usually get flies if you add a lot of fruit in one go, but it's not a problem

Full sun is what you want as someone has pointed out. That will heat it up and it will cook fast so you don't get it sitting about stagnating

[Trillium]

As well as adding more brown material, it sounds like it could do with a turning for more air, which will help kill some of the smell and get it cooking again.

[Amilo]

One of the best garden tools I bought was a paper shredder. So every time (daily) some rubbish gets shoved through our letterbox I pass it through the shredder, it gives a good feeling to make good use of rubbish.

50% shredded paper to 50% grass cuttings works well and the heat generated is sure to kill of any nasties.

[chrissie B]

i tought you only compost plain none glossy types of paper becase of the dyes and so on , i can get some thin card from hubbys work and boxes as well i hope i already put in the inner tubes from the loo roll and kitchen roll and i compost my till reciets as well if anyone wants my details then they can get down and dirty to get them  .
chrissie b

[Trillium]

Oh, yeah. We really want to know how much you spent on tea this week   

[allotmentann]

i tought you only compost plain none glossy types of paper becase of the dyes and so on , i can get some thin card from hubbys work and boxes as well i hope i already put in the inner tubes from the loo roll and kitchen roll and i compost my till reciets as well if anyone wants my details then they can get down and dirty to get them  .
chrissie b

I think they used to say no glossies because of the ink, but the ink now is vegetable based. I use all the paper and card I can get (and I shred it in a paper shredder too, like Trillium). I was reading up about making compost a little while back and nearly everyone says that you need half to two thirds brown waste to green. Other things that count as 'brown' are straw, wood shavings, old bedding from animals like rabbits and guinea pigs. I realized I needed to add a lot more brown to mine. I also bought a fantastic tool - a Dolmen aerator which I love because unlike most aerators there is nothing to break. I was able to get right down to the bottom of my two daleks with this and have been making lovely compost ever since.

[Yana]

I thought that I had read in a forum posting that you shouldn't use wood shavings from animal bedding? If it is OK to use it, that suits me fine as I have a large bage full very week from the 2 house bunnies I have.

[Amilo]

I thought that I had read in a forum posting that you shouldn't use wood shavings from animal bedding? If it is OK to use it, that suits me fine as I have a large bage full very week from the 2 house bunnies I have.

I get my horse manurer from a local stable where about 80% is wood shaving and there is no problem, it rots down very fast, especially if its turned.

[compostqueen]

I kept my dirty hen bedding separate as it takes longer to rot down. I put mine in a builders rubble sack which was aged overwinter and then planted up with onions and garlic once the sting had gone out of it a bit. I didn't do anything to it, it just sat there ticking over    I have another batch covered over waiting to be used

[chrissie B]

i dont have rabbits for that but hubbys going to get me some cardboard from work so thats a start we get a huge ammount of takeaway leaflets so thats a good place to put them  
we get them on a daily basis
thanks for the help
chrissie b