can I rescue my compost bin?

[mimsum]

due to a combination of lousy weather, me not turning it often enough and dh not being here enough to pee in it, my compost bin has stopped composting and is basically just a stinking heap of putrefaction

is there anything I can do to rescue it? if there isn't what can I do with the contents? I can't move them anywhere - eek help!

wondering if bokashi bran from wiggly wigglers might help?

Best bet is probably - if you can face it - to drag the whole lot out and layer it with some new material. It sounds like maybe you have too much soft nitrogen rich stuff & not enough woodier carbon heavy stuff - so pee probably wouldn't help anyway. It also sounds like its rotting anerobically, so again anything to get more air into it will help.

I would try to layer it with more old, woodier material, or even handfuls of ripped & scrunched up newspaper (I won't put cardboard in because of the fungicides on it, but many people do).

I have inherited a compost bin in much the same condition - its in layers, bits are now slimy and boaktastic, other bits have just gone dry and crispy.

I was going to wait for a very cold day (hoping the critters would be less active and the whole shebang less pongy) and then rake it out and try to start again.

Good luck!

oh bleurgh! I was afraid that would be the advice I got - I can't face it today ....

Do I just put the rotting stuff back in - sandwiched with layers of paper etc - or is it just too far gone?

Yes, definitely, put it back in. I inherited a pile in much the same state with our new house, its now fine. Just make sure you put in plenty of new stuff - I would aim for about equal amounts by volume - and try not to let it get too wet .

Good luck Mimsum - shall we pick a day and do it together in a bid to mass-motivate? Or shall we put it off til after CHristmas?

after Christmas sounds very tempting but I don't think it can wait that long it's already threatening to flow over the sides ....

takver - how long did it take to recover?

May I butt in here and ask a question about horse poo? My compost heap is full of it - I thought this was a good thing and that I would be able to use it in the spring but now fear I have made a big mistake as everything is looking quite dark and yuck. Any words of wisdom? Sorry for butting in.

If it is rotting anaerobically it will stink and is basically the same as farmyard manure. I suggest spread it on the garden like manure and then dig it in rather than trying to resurrect it.

It will break down much more slowly in winter anyway of course. Mine doesn't do much in the winter, so just make sure you're adding enough woody stuff. I quite often bung in old Amazon boxes at this time of year to up the woody content in mine.

Thanks for the advice. I have lots of woody stuff I can dig in.

Another question. If I spread the "raw" horse poo on my garden is that bad? It's just I have a lot to get rid of.

Horse poo is fantastic for roses and our old gardener used to put a stack of it round the base of each rose (after pruning) in late autumn to 'keep it warm' over winter.

If you ave a veg patch go for it on there. I am about to do this with our chicken manure.

I have around two wheelbarrows of horse poo to dispose of a week. My veg patch is about 40 m2. Can it absorb it in its raw form? Should i chuck some around the bases of my beech hedges? The soil around here is basically clay so I've been working on the principle that any organic matter is good! Am I right?

Two wheel barrows on that area is really nothing. Manure is great for clay soil as it aids digging.

Used to be a farmer so spreading muck on an indutrial scale is sort of second nature but really you would need huge quantities to make your soil 'sick'.

Is it pure manure or mixed with straw?

I would not put pure manure on one patch all year round but certainly over winter for say 8 - 10 weeks will be OK.

If its mixed with a fair bit of straw I would go up to six inches thick on the veg patch without any harm.

It is pure manure! I have to pick poo off the field where I keep the horses for a couple of hours a day and therefore have around 4-5 poos a day to deal with. OK, I will stick a couple of wheelbarrow loads on the veg patch and put the rest to rot down on the compost heap.

Thanks for the advice.

Mimsmum, my compost heap was fine pretty much straight away once I'd relayered it - its now full of worms & looking good.

Betadad am I right to say that in general if composting manure, you want it to be anerobic (so packed down & covered), unlike garden waste where you're aiming for aerobic decomposition. IIRC aerobic composting of muck wastes a lot of the nutrients. I'd be inclined to have a separate (covered) heap for muck if you didn't want to add it straight away, rather than to add it to garden compost.

In general farmyard muck heaps in the old days were just a big pile of straw, animal excrement and urine. They were not turned over and they were left to the open elements and just rotted anaerobically.

However, in more recent years our friends who have a organic farm have covered their muck heap in a shed to stop rain leaching out nutrients and flowing into watercourses. The muck heap is stil anaerobic rotting though.

As I understand composting it is an aerobic proces by virtue of being regularly turned over and exposed to air.

I have never heard of compost heaps having manure put on them. Would it not upset the delicate ecosystem and kill the worms etc in the compost?

My view is the OP would be better spreading her maure sraight away or if not possible storing it mixed with some straw in a separate covered heap to prevent leaching and runoff which is fairly disgusting in a garden setting.