{"id":321,"date":"2015-09-02T00:36:34","date_gmt":"2015-09-02T07:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=321"},"modified":"2015-08-25T05:53:39","modified_gmt":"2015-08-25T12:53:39","slug":"mistakes-making-compost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/environmental-gardening\/mistakes-making-compost\/","title":{"rendered":"Mistakes Making Compost"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a title=\"compost bins by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/4821239592\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4143\/4821239592_e9dac132a0.jpg\" alt=\"compost bins\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Another wet and rainy day and all I can think about is the compost heap (well may be not all).<br \/>\nWe all slip up, drop clangers and get it wrong so I thought I would list some of my own compost errors or lash-ups.<\/p>\n<p>Gardening can be like that so I try not to beat myself up when things go wrong. There is always another season and a worse clanger elsewhere.<\/p>\n<h3>Soggy Compost Mistakes<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>An over wet compost heap will smell something rotten, really stink and I mean badly.<\/li>\n<li>Nutrients will be washed out at the bottom of the heap and lost.<\/li>\n<li>The composting process will be slowed almost to a stop.<\/li>\n<li>I wish I had covered my heap before all this heavy rain.<\/li>\n<li>Good compost needs air so it may help to turn and drain the wet heap.<\/li>\n<li>Belatedly I have been putting some torn up newspaper in the heap as roughage and to soak up some excess fluids.<\/li>\n<li>Because this time I have built the heap on soil I can reclaim some of the goodness by taking a level of soil when I spread the compost.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Construction Mistakes<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>In the past I have relied on a heap with no sides just a pile. This flattens out and spreads without ever getting to a good heat except perhaps in the center<\/li>\n<li>As you may see from the picture below some wood has rotted. You need to use tanalised or treated wood to prevent the structure from rotting.<\/li>\n<li>A plastic bin where &#8216;you can draw clean compost from the bottom whilst refilling at the top&#8217; was an unmitigated, uncomposted disaster but I may not have followed the rules<\/li>\n<li>For the first time I have two discrete piles. For too many years I made do and mended with one. Now I wish I had three piles &#8211; ho hum!<\/li>\n<li>Compost heaped on a concrete base is easy to work, turn and collect for spreading.<\/li>\n<li>Leave room for your barrow so you can unload and reload comfortably<\/li>\n<li>Do not build too near your neighbors kitchen window or cover your own air grates (mistakes I have previously made).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Compost Content Mistakes<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>I do not put meat products on the heap but last winter a family of rats made a nest in the warm pile<\/li>\n<li>For several years I did not compost rhubarb leaves as I heard they were toxic. Of course they rot down and are quite safe.<\/li>\n<li>Everyone must have tried to compost too much of the same vegetation and I have had too many grass mowings in a dry clump or a wet mess more times than I should mention. I now try to aerate the pile or turn it over regularly.<\/li>\n<li>Leaves from trees take longer to rot, contain less nutrients and are better in a leaf pile or punctured plastic bag. Twigs need to be shredded or cut very small.<\/li>\n<li>Seeds from weeds and plants\u00c2\u00a0including fox gloves and forget-me-nots do not rot they survive<\/li>\n<li>After the mistake of too much water do not forget a dry heap will not rot either &#8211; you need some damp or add water when very dry.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/wet-heap-july.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-322 alignleft\" style=\"float: left;\" title=\"wet-heap-july\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/07\/wet-heap-july-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"wet-heap-july\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<h3>Compost Mistake Elimination<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Good compost starts with a range of good materials from a mixture of green plants and shredded brown matter.<\/li>\n<li>Fungi and creepy crawlies breakdown the material and they need air and moisture to do their best<\/li>\n<li>Heat helps kill pathogens and unwanted seed so keep a lid on a good sized pile and insulate the sides.<\/li>\n<li>Turn the pile for even rotting as this stops the edges rotting more slowly<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mistakes when making compost can include too much or too little moisture or you may not be constructing a pile that can get hot. See these other tips and mistakes to avoid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-gardening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}