Compost bin is not working

[Lowfat]

Help, we have had our compost bin for nearly 18 monhts, and fill it all the time, but it;s just no breaking the stuff down. There are still potatoes at the bottom, and yesterday I pulled a celery stalk out of the flap that had actully started to grow!

Where are we going wrong? Is there a compost help you can buy. Read another thread that said mens urine helps the process? Is this the case?

There is a compost accelerator you can buy (not that I'm an expert on composting...)

have a search, i think we've done this before and wee proved to be a myth.

it can take them a while to get going. is it very wet? put in some torn up newspaper. very dry? more veg matter.
are there worms?

if you can still get stuff into the bin it must be breaking down i should think. my parents have never even opened the bottom of their kitchen waste compost bin, they just use it to get rid of stuff (they do have a well used compost heap as well).

also sometimes stuff form the top can fall down gaps to the bottom, i just bung it back in the top again.

We put very little 'browns' in to our bin, it is mainly just kitchen waste, veg etc. There is a lot of insect activity in the bin, woodlouse, worms and flies to mention but a few.

Was in homebase yesterday but forgot to look for the accelerator stuff, I knew something like it would be in existence.

I emptied mine last week and was bit sad to see how little compost there was. But, dh reminded me that I have put loads of stuff in and it had actually turned to compost.It's just shrunk away and fallen to bottom.I wanted the whole binful to be perfect! problem with mine was it was too dry and I haven't been turning it either. Keep on going. Remember last year getting piles of this stuff that smelt so good I wanted to eat it. !!

i've got a really small garden and seem to make much more compost than i need, what with all the kitchen waste, leaves and lawn clippings. my bin has been going for about 5 years and its only the last year or so that it has really been producing decent compost. also i put some twigs in a few years ago which was a dreadful mistake.

After nine years of my DS working on his compost, we have the loads of the most unbelievable nutrient rich compost you can imagine. DH (aka Mr Compost to me) has about 4 or 5 huge compost bins going in his 'area'. We put in heaps of fresh fruit and veg peelings, etc., leftovers, plain cardboard (boxes and toilet and kitchen towel roll) newspaper and all garden waste. He turns it all every so often and adds worms several times a year. I think he also wees on it when he's out there. Each year in the spring, he spreads it all over our borders, which are now doing fantastically well. Anyway, try these things and give it some time. Good luck!

Oops, that's DH working on the compost, DSs are no help at all.

We've got a compost bin that we've moved from a small garden to a large garden where we also have a large compost heap (5'x5' approx). We've never needed to add worms - they arrive by magic! We do have a good variety of things that go on the heap - grass, weeds, kitchen waste, and the wood shavings from the chinchilla cage(!).

When we were just using the bin we found that some things needed two goes through - so we'd start emptying from the bottom and anything that was not proper compost got popped back in the top. However, some things were tougher - I'd recommend cutting up potatoes and larger veg remains (not really small, just once or twice) to aid decomposition and access to all the stuff in the heap, also mixes up the variety better. You might want an additive to help - I think the chin cage cleanings helped with ours and we got fantastic compost quite quickly.

I'm glad someone else has asked this as I've been worrying to that the grass cuttings from last summer at the bottom of the bin don't seem to have composted yet. I've got the accelerator as well.

quick question.

I have a parrot and the bottom of his cage is filled with woodchip. can I empty that, along with the parrot pooh/fruit/seed/nuts etc that are in there into my compost? dh reckons no as it contains fecies but it's not dog/cat so doesn't contain meat products?

I think 18 months maybe isn't long enough. Two things to try - a couple of buckets of water in there, as they do need to be quite moist, and spend some time stirring/turning it - you get some air in, which is needed. I have used the accelerators as well - not convinced that they do much but it's worth a try. And if there are no worms in there, dig up a few from the garden and lob them in!

Re parrot poo - yes, definately. I put my chicken poo and old sawdust in and it's made the most fantastic compost. I used to put in guinea pig poo as well - poo generally is a good thing!

12 months should be fine. The trick with grass cuttings is not to have too thick a layer in on their own - they need to be mixed up with larger, airyer types of compost (eg weeds, veg peelings, cardboard, shavings etc) so that they don't form a hard, compacted hot layer.

Parrot cage cleaning out would be fine, although be aware of the potential to attract rats or mice with the seeds/nuts - I would probably restrict to a 'contained' compost heap to avoid problems (But it would be really good for the compost - chin cage enhanced compost is great!)

PS, we don't ever turn or mix - as long as you get a reasonable mix going in should be OK - although when you turn it out you will find some parts that need to go through again (but these bits will help the next lot of compost get off to a good start)

Guinea pig poo and shavings do a great job in our compost heap -- so long as they are well balanced with nitrogenous stuff like grass clippings.

Not actual shavings of guinea pigs, obv.

Hair is meant to be good apparently

I discovered mine was'nt working a few weeks back when someone stole my compost bin and left the crap inside inside in a heap in the garden

my compost is very sludgy...gonna have to add more cardboard, when i think of how much stuff ive put in it its quite remarkable actually! Its not even half full but ive loaded it up many times.

we have just got one

does it stink?

mine doesnt smell at all, even if i stick my head in it