Compost Heap

Add some water if it looks dry. I always do.

Yes I water ours too. Also add soggy newspaper sheets or wet cardboard occasionally.

I never us the lids on mine, which seems to work just fine. I sometimes add some used washing up water in dry spells.

Thx LondonGranny, Nannyxthree and shysal. I wondered about those lids!? didn’t have any on my old bins other than a bit of ply in really bad weather. I’ll put in some wet newspaper and cardboard. ??

We have three very old compost bins made from breeze blocks. They have no tops at all. Someone told me if the compost looks dry to pee on it. I will have to get DH to do that as I would have to climb in the bin ?

BB I was going to suggest pee. Bob Flowerdew swears by it but I can’t persuade my DH to perform. For some reason I think it has to be of the male variety.

R.i..ight.... I think I’ll stick to rainwater!! As I have a knee replacement climbing on the compost heap would be beyond me!! But thx anyway!

Yes it does have to be male !!
Husband provided for me until my son saw him walk out to the compost pile and literally pee on it.!!
Son and I nearly died laughing. ‘In a jug first!!’
Poor neighbours

A compost bin should be steaming to "cook" the vegetable matter in it.
But we have had some very unusual weather which is messing up our plants.

My little grandsons would love that idea, but they are nowhere near tall enough.

If any of you have any lung damage (bronchiectasis) think twice about having a compost heap. We had an allotment and thought we were being healthy but I aquired a serious lung problem, probably from the compost heap. It is NTM, a sort of non contagious TB.

What do you mean by ‘probably’?

I've just started a compost heap , it's been on my Bucket list ! It is actually a bucket - one of those big black dalek compost bins that the council provided - but what fun ! I'm batch cooking winter food due to going into hospital soon( 2nd knee replacement) so there's been plenty of peelings . Today I'll be doing a last grass and hedge cut so will add the harvest from that and fallen leaves to it .
I did think it was a bit dry so when I've been peeling veg or boiled eggs in a bowl of water I chuck the whole bowlful in .
I'm excited about Spring !

We've always made compost, as did my mother, and never used a lid. Ours is just 2 sections, enclosed by some old galvanised sheeting, which we alternate. OH pees regularly into it (we live in a rural area and compost heap hidden by trees!). I also often throw the potato peelings with the water from basin. As there's no bottom, any excess water can just drain away.
One problem of no lid is that the local wildlife - dogs, foxes?, crows and possibly more - like to have a rummage in it sometimes and scatter some of the contents. It's probably quite good for compost to get a bit of agitation, but doesn't look very nice around it until tidied up again. My son had a good solution for his - a wooden frame covered in chicken wire on top. It keeps out wildlife but lets in rain.

The position of the bin seems to make quite a difference. My best ones are in a sunny area. They are plastic but the lids have been chewed by squirrels so rain gets in.
Mostly it's kitchen waste from the caddy by the sink including coffee and tea leaves, vacuum dust, grass clippings, bank statements. I avoid cooked fòod and never meat or fish . It's never dry but populated by slugs and when full is left for about a year and I start another.
The original bin is now like best potting compost. It's full of wriggling worms. The slugs have left to eat my lettuces.
The only visible sign that it's homemade is a few egg shells and avocado shells and sprouting stones. I often find teaspoons and plastic veg bags too!!
Not all the seeds are killed as I inevitably get a crop of tomatoes and courgettes without planting them in seed trays in the Spring.

My compost is never dry, usually quite wet. I put shredded cardboard and toilet rolls in, not grass clippings as would be even soggier. Water can drain out the bottom, but there is a bottom in, not open if you know what I mean. Also has a lid on, but leave open on dry days. Suggestions as to why it’s wet when everyone else seems to have to add water?

Not an option for everyone, I know, but the best compost I have made was by layering 1.straw, 2.fresh horse manure, 3.kitchen vegetable waste/herbaceous weeds/grass-cuttings etc. then made it moist but not too wet - the heat and the quality of compost was amazing. The advantage of getting it really hot is not just that it increases the speed of compost production, but it also kills off seeds and perennial roots and rhizomes. The advantage of straw is that it provides much needed aeration to the heap. The answer, of course, is to turn it regularly, but it is a lot of work if you gave a good sized heap (which is what you need to get good heat).

I have recently been taking advantage of a good supply of well rotted horse manure-on-shavings and I have been too lazy to source some straw (hard to find the more manageable small bales). Consequently, the heap is rotting only slowly and the only real heat comes from hot-spots of grass cuttings. It really needs turning......and some OH pee!!

Just as an aside - I have to be careful when I turn the heap - we have Slow Worms in it. They are so so beautiful - not worms of course, but legless lizards.

Lucky you to have Slow worms.
That is really good. Keep them safe.

We used to have compost in 2 open wooden bins and it worked well. Except the physical labour of shovelling it around eventually became too much for us.
We had chickens at the time and used to add the soiled straw from the chicken house.
Quite often we we would find beautiful 'new 'potatoes in among the compost.

Another time we found some strange little 'eggs'. Turned out they were snake eggs of some kind.