Monday 5 April 2010

Stinky neglected compost heap rescue

There is nothng quite so sweet as the smell of the perfect compost heap.  Rich, crumbly and perfect for spreading around the garden.  A compost heap on the turn though is a nose wrinkling affair.  It's been a few weeks (lalalalalalalalala, think months actually) since I last looked into bin #1 and whilst it looked dark and mellow on top, the underneath had a decided stinky acidic smell too it (and wee jumping maggotty things as well!) 

Right, it was on with the gloves and out with the shovel.  Moved the soil from the end of one of my 3 meter earth rings and bunged the bin there.  Moved the compost shovel by shovel load into the bins new position and layered with some of the earth from the earth ring and shredded newspaper.  Hopefully this will help to rescue it and the heat as it does it's thing will be good for the seeds I going to plant in the bed;  broadbeans.

Can you think of anything else I need to add to the compost bin before I close the lid on it?

Oh and bin #2 is choc a block full of black soldier fly maggots!  Anyone need any maggots for fishing?

2 comments:

Belinda said...

Honestly you are doing a whole lot better than me if you have ever manage to create that "perfect heap". Not sure what it is but honestly I seem to be compost handicapped.. got to the point at this stage I am just planning to go for large worm farms and live with the fact it doesn't kill the weed seeds.

Kind Regards
Belinda

dixiebelle said...

We are finding the composting not quite as magical as it is made out to be! Mostly OK, but it's been on the edge a few times, somehow we've managed (by neglect?) to get it back to looking right!