Talk to me about your Green Johanna

[DesparatePragmatist]

I'm about 6 months in to being the proud owner of a Green Johanna (conical hot composter with a solid base for those not immediately clued in). I was ridiculously excited about getting it, and yes i did get the insulating jacket to keep it snug over winter. Have been lovingly feeding it with 1/3 greens 2/3 browns, shredded and stirred as per instructions. I now need to start using the compost, and find myself somewhat uncertain.

I've always previously used a double bay system and could easily tell when the compost was ready; moist, crumbly and, well, composty. The bottom of Green J is brown and squidgy, still with some bits of twig and leaf in it. I bought a riddler to sieve out the uncomposted bits, but after some very vigorous shaking have ended up with rolled doughy balls not dissilar to donkey poo, and a sprinkling of upset worms.

So I'm turning to the wise gardeners of Mumsnet. Tell me your Green Johanna hacks!

I'm particularly interested in:

When you get it out do you pull loads out, or just remove little and often?

What do you use it for? I want to mix it with soil and use it for potting, but is it really best for mulching?

Is it best not to turn it? I've got a compost aerator corkscrew that turns the lot right up from the bottom, but having seen potato peels mixed in with the finished stuff maybe I should stick to just stirring the surface with the stirring thingy as the layers go in?

Anything else you've learned?

Will post photos when it's light if anyone wants to do some composter gloating

Photos! Green Johanna herself, the compost, and the balls of compost I get after attempting to sieve it to use for potting

No other composting fans on here, then?

I have a green Johanna. Getting the compost out is my least favourite bit. Like yours my green Johanna compost is squidgy rather than fluffy - I think it get wet and compacted at the bottom.

Mice did invade my green johanna this winter, so I definitely wasn't stirring it enough or adding enough browns.

Having said all that I find the green johanna compost works well for actually growing things in - I tend to use it in pots as part of a mix with soil and/or commercial peat free multi-purpose compost.

I also have some black dalek composters and they are much slower and don't get up to to good temps. So green Johanna wins in that front, even for a lazy composter like me.

I'm a composting fan, but I haven't got a Green Johanna. And your compost commentary and review sounds very expert so I don't think I have any additional tips to add. Especially since you are already the graduate of a double bay system and have produced the gold standard of "moist, crumbly and composty" compost.

I think the compost in your photo looks pretty good, though perhaps a little wet.

I got one of those screw aerators last year and I love it. I'm not far enough into a composting cycle with my two dalek bins to assess how helpful it has been, but I agree that it may make sense to make shorter wholes if/when you think there is mature compost at the bottom.

My main issue atm is that I saw either a small rat or a large mouse when I aerated the other day. So I am now standing on a garden chair when I aerate, for fear of an evacuating rat running up my leg.

Also, thanks to your post I now have the song "Give me hope, Johanna, give me hope Johanna..." as an earworm.

Me too...arghhhh!

Me three! 😂

Ah brilliant, thanks for your replies! I knew there must be more composters on here.

@CircularThinking I know what you mean about getting it out - I've tried with a trowel and with a spade, and have ended up finding that poking the stirring stick in horizontally and dragging some out into an old dustpan is the easiest way for me, at least. Brilliant that you've found it works to grow things in pots. Based on that, I'm going to try it. Also really interesting that you also get squidgy compost. Maybe thats what hot composters do, at any rate it reassures me that mine is working OK.

Far from an expert - but I do get obsessed enough with gardening to want to find everything out about whatever I'm doing... Love the screw aerators, they really work, and quite the upper body workout too. I'm now chuckling at a mental image of you standing on a stool, heaving a compost screw while mice flee...😂

I looked at the Green Johanna but decided on 2 x 400L aerobins as they physically fit my space better.

I love a hot bin, but during winter my compost is never great and it needs going through the bin system twice (hence why I got a second) to get that perfect texture.

Could you use what you have and make a mix up with loam / garden topsoil and if you had any leaf mould to make it usable now for potting?

Sounds like not enough brown matter has broken down if it is sludgy (perhaps the brown matter such as twigs were a touch too big to break down and provide that balance and structure).

The other thing that I have heard works well for use with hot bins is to pre-digest the material with a bokashi bin. Then the contents of the bokashi bin gets composted and it speeds everything up. If you love composting it might be worth a try.

I'm a rotary compost and wormery person here- love composting! That compost looks good, sometimes worm castings look like that if it's got too wet. I'd put it in a wide-ish box in a shed to dry out for a week or two- you can use a 'bait cup' to bait out the composting worms and put them back in your compost bin.

I feel like I have found my compost people!

How do you rate the rotary composter? I wonder about having one close to kitchen door for quick disposal of kitchen scraps without walking cross the lawn in the depths of winter

I was given the Rotary composter and it's great for keeping a grass clipping-heavy mix aerated, then I put it on the normal pile for the worms to get it. They're pretty expensive for what they are and for your purposes I'd go with a bokashi bucket as @DeedlessIndeed suggested. You could just run it through the winter if you wanted!

conical hot composter with a solid base for those not immediately clued in

This made me laugh, as despite your explanation I still had no idea what you were talking about 😂

I love posts like this, lovely to see your enthusiasm and to learn something.

Just wanted to update the compost chat with my experience of the sorkscrew metal aerator thingy. I said upthread that I hadn't yet been able to observe how much it was helping the compost process. But actually, now that I am into my warmer weather gardening routines, I can already see how it is speeding things up and making the whole bin seem healthier. After the first few uses, the bin's contents were less compacted so that it is easier to really get down into it and mix things up.

I love it!

I would so love a wormery! I ended up deciding that the hot composter was part wormer, part compost bin so hopefully i have a bit of both, but I do slightly pine for one

Now this is genius. I have been worrying about what happens to the worms when I take out the finished compost. I've already got it in a tub mixed with soil - because I hadn't got on to using it all yet, but now im going to decide that I'm deliberately letting it dry a bit - and am definitely going to add a worm bait cup.

Now what is a worm bait cup?

I've had a wormery for 2 decades now and my dc know that i v often love my worms more than them ...

This is great! I've only had mine a year and already my kids call the worms my 'other children'.

A bait cup- I use a blueberry punnet or something as it already has holes for the worms to get in from underneath and around. Just put a bit of the compost in and some food that worms enjoy- something like strawberry tops or a piece of banana, or melon rind. Check every few days. Your compost could also have worm cocoons in which could hatch over the next week or two. Lots of people wouldn't bother as the worms will do good pretty much wherever they end up, but I like to keep as many as possible and build up the numbers so my wormery works faster!

Another compost/wormery fan here. I spend as much time working on my compost as I do on actual gardening. I am delighted to learn something new, ie the worm bait cup. Genius!

Agree your compost just looks too wet, but otherwise lovely.

I have two wormeries and I do like to top them up each year. I am so happy to find worms anywhere in my garden, and that get stranded (ie underneath a lifted up a plant pot) get transported to my raised veg beds.

First to admit I'm a bit obsessed by my garden worms

NC
for obvious reasons

Clicked on this thread to find out why my name, Johanna, is being used for a compost bin 😳 !!!
Its a good cause
but why ?? !!

wouldn’t Green Charles be more appropriate

I think it's because it's Swedish!?

Anyway I am now convinced I need one - we're just about to move somewhere that doesn't collect food waste frequently enough for my liking, but we only have a front garden and the only place for a compost bin is tucked right inside the garden fence at the front, which is shaded all day.