{"id":1039,"date":"2010-09-12T18:15:50","date_gmt":"2010-09-12T17:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.selfsufficientish.com\/main\/blog.php\/?p=1039"},"modified":"2021-03-13T10:38:42","modified_gmt":"2021-03-13T09:38:42","slug":"whats-wrong-with-my-compost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.selfsufficientish.com\/main\/whats-wrong-with-my-compost\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s wrong with my compost?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Composting is not rocket science but it is easy to get it wrong.\u00a0 The trick is to have a balance of materials and not just throw it all in together and hope for the best.<\/p>\n

That balance should come in the form of \u2018greens\u2019 and \u2018browns\u2019. Despite the name green material isn’t always green, kitchen scraps are included in ‘greens’.\u00a0 Greens can be seen as things which were recently living – nitrogen rich green stuff with moisture in. So think grass clippings, kitchen scraps and the tops of vegetables (carrots, potatoes etc).<\/p>\n

The browns are things that are more dry and carbon rich,\u00a0 quite often the more woody material.\u00a0 This includes cardboard, sticks and hollow plant stems.<\/p>\n

Look on your compost bin more like a living breathing organism needing air, moisture and nutrients rather than a pile of dead stuff which will magically rot down.\u00a0 If you add moisture and nutrients from your green waste it should be balanced out with the more structural and aerating brown waste.<\/p>\n

For added nutrition, add weeds such as comfrey, nettle leaves or chickweed –\u00a0 it\u2019s a little like giving your compost bin a vitamin pill.<\/p>\n

Also human urine is nitrogen rich so a mix of dry dead stuff (including torn up cardboard) and wee should decompose well.<\/p>\n

To add more life to your bin grab a handful of compost from someone else’s bin and add it onto yours<\/p>\n

To learn more about this rotten art read Nicky Scott\u2019s How to make and use compost<\/a><\/p>\n

Article written by Dave Hamilton. Dave has now left Selfsufficientish but you can catch up with him on davehamilton.me.uk or on twitter @davewildish<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Composting is not rocket science but it is easy to get it wrong.\u00a0 The trick is to have a balance of materials and not just throw it all in together and hope for the best. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1839,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[727],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gardening-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t