Hi,

Our freeholder for our property is dead against a compost heap in our
shared garden as she thinks it _will_ attract rats, even though we know
that if it is properly managed we will be able to prevent them.

Anyway, this has lead us to wanting a sealed unit type system and are
seriously considering a wormery. Does anybody know if you can put
garden waste into a wormery, or whether they are restricted to kitchen
matter. We don't have a lawn (yet) but do have hedge trimmings, weeds,
potplants and will have some vegetables.

Your advice is really appreciated.
Best regards,
Kehan

<kehanharman [at] gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1149681664.228700.7840 [at] i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi,
>
> Our freeholder for our property is dead against a compost heap in our
> shared garden as she thinks it _will_ attract rats, even though we know
> that if it is properly managed we will be able to prevent them.
>
> Anyway, this has lead us to wanting a sealed unit type system and are
> seriously considering a wormery. Does anybody know if you can put
> garden waste into a wormery, or whether they are restricted to kitchen
> matter. We don't have a lawn (yet) but do have hedge trimmings, weeds,
> potplants and will have some vegetables.
>
> Your advice is really appreciated.
> Best regards,
> Kehan
>
In reality a compost heap usually ends up being a wormery towards the end of
its cycle.
You would need a huge wormery to take all garden and kitchen waste.
Why not just use a sealed bin, with a few small holes in the base, as a
compost bin.
I have yet to see a domestic wormery that produces anything more than a few
litres of useable stuff per month.

> >
> In reality a compost heap usually ends up being a wormery towards the end
of
> its cycle.
> You would need a huge wormery to take all garden and kitchen waste.
> Why not just use a sealed bin, with a few small holes in the base, as a
> compost bin.
> I have yet to see a domestic wormery that produces anything more than a
few
> litres of useable stuff per month.
>
>

Make a solid sided compost bin from pallets pulled apart and using the 4 by
2 timbers for corner supoorts plus only half board the front .......add 2
uprights so that you have a gap to slot remaing half timbers in

Line the bin with heavy duty polythene stapled to timbers

Sit the bin on paving slabs 4 of 18 inch square reclaimed for the tip will
suffice

and make a solid lid also lined with heavy duty plastic

liberally paint the entire bin with "new creosote "

The secret of good compost is to get a good mix of ingredients which
includes shredded paper / cardboard horse poo if you can get it plus a few
buckets of night water as an activator

Rats do not bother to get in to a good bin and the worms will find their way
in through the gaps in paving slabs

alternatively a concrete coal bunker makes a good compost bin although the
theory you can just shovel good compost out of the hatch in the base is a
joke

Compost needs to be well mixed and turned several times in a year to make
fine crumbly peat like compost

nambucca <nambucca [at] nospam.com> writes
>Compost needs to be well mixed and turned several times in a year to
>make fine crumbly peat like compost

But you can still get good usable compost without turning, so don't let
the prospect of turning put you off
--
Kay