Pls give me your opinion about my compost

[Pikapikasan]

I've just started making compost in a tumbling compost bin, and it's proving to be quite a challenge! I picked up some tips from YouTube and various websites, but as a total newbie, I'm finding it really tough to get it right.

I was hoping someone with more composting experience could take a look and tell me if my compost seems okay. I noticed some of it was forming into balls, which made me think it might be too wet. To fix this, I've started adding a lot of shredded egg cartons, cardboard, dry leaves, and paper, and I've stopped adding food scraps for now. But I don't think I can put much more in, as it's nearly full.

Also, I'm curious about these long, silver, crawling bugs I've been seeing. They are not silverfish. There are loads of them crawling all over the outside of the compost bin. Any ideas what they are? Thank you in advance🙏

I'm curious if the composting process for this will take several months

I think the bugs will be some of the many that make your compost, but stand to be corrected.

I heard recently that you need 70% of brown which was a shock to me. I've been adding straw to mine and mixing it through. I think the less brown you have, the longer it takes to break down.

Do you have a garden sieve? When my compost is ready I put it into my sieve, break it up a bit if the balls are particularly big (with gloves on), then give the sieve a good shake. What's left in the sieve gets put back into the current compost heap (I have two) as well as any bugs that get through the sieve holes.

I think your compost looks fine, I'd be happy with that. I wonder if the balls form because of the tumbling process, my balls (oo er) aren't quite as well formed as yours. They should break up easily enough.

I have a tumbling composter, and do find it difficult to get the balance of material right to have ready to use compost out of it. I tend to use it as an accelerator instead - start things off there and then when 80% ready move it to a slower bin adding in more brown material as needed.

my tumbler you are only supposed to fill half way - it needs room to properly aerate. Lots of bugs in mine as well.

Making compost is a much more complicated process than people say it is, and it takes far longer than you think to get something professional looking, but what you have can still be used. I use the rougher stuff for a base layer for filling pots or new raised beds, some I use as a mulch, some I sieve or put through my wormery.

I would say any bugs are good bugs, so I wouldn't worry about that, in fact I think yours looks pretty good. Just keep at it.

Thank you for your wonderful comments!
I'm so happy to know my compost actually looks okay. I just didn't want to attract too many bugs and cause annoyance to the next-door neighbours. Next time I make compost, I'll only fill it halfway.

you say food scraps….I only put veg peelings in mine, nothing cooked or not vegetables as that attracts rats.

but honestly give it a bit of time and twiggy or brown stuff, most of my cardboard recycling goes in mine.

It looks pretty good, I think. Depending on location, a tumbling bin can be fairly safe from rats so non-meat food scraps are ok.

Yes, you can expect composting to take a few months, especially in cool conditions, but yours looks well on the way :)