Visitors to the old Demonstration Site at the Botanical Garden

As a Leicestershire Master Composter keen on promoting composting I  have managed a Composting Demonstration Site in the County for a number of years. This was originally hosted at the Leicester County Council Snibston Discovery Park and Museum but unfortunately the Discovery Park  was closed by the Council.

You can also see some of the Sibston composting site on Cbeebies https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03yzcht/mr-bloom-here-and-there-series-1-17-composting

We moved the Composting demonstration  to the  University of Leicester Botanic Garden  in 2015 and  had hoped that this location would enable us  to reach a larger number of  gardeners and other visitors with an active interest in composting. However, the closure of the cafe at the end of the summer of 2015 meant that waste food was no longer available on site and it was decided to move to  new venue.

We have now moved to Stokes Wood allotment site and will be opening to the public in Compost Awareness week May 2019. Until that date the site can be visited on Wednesday mornings when the site breafsat club is open. Enably you to see the bins and have a good fashioned breakfast. 

The composting demonstration is now being hosted by the Stokes Wood Allotment Society in Leicester.  The demonstration will process food waste from the Wednesday Morning breakfast Club and garden waste from the allotment.

 The Home Composting Display  includes a wide range of  compost bins (including some designed for cooked food composting), a range of  wormeries plus traditional techniques and homemade liquid feeds. These  include compost and comfrey teas and worm wee.

 To keep up to date with progress on the composting  site and composting events  as well as additions to this website follow us on facebook:  

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Carry-on-Composting

Compost Demonstration Site

The  new compost demonstration site at Stokes Wood Allotments, Leicester  is on course to be completed ready for an official opening to celebrate Compost Awareness Week on 5^th May. The site will house a wide range of compost bins suitable for use when home composting including Blackwell bins available through Council Schemes, Tumbler bins including  a large Mantis, a Rowlinson bee-hive bin suitable for a smaller garden  Hotbins, Green Johana  and a Jora food composter  as well as a range of wormeries. There will also be a section on making plant and compost based liquid feed including aerated compost tea.

We have also installed a new a Rowlinson Beehive  composter kindly donated by GardenSite has been installed.  https://www.gardensite.co.uk/garden-structures/composters/     Composters from GardenSite"

CAW Launch

As part of the launch events there willbe:

• a  painted compost bin activity where bins loaned to and painted by local schools will be displayed,
• a compost safari workshop and
• an opportunity to make compost Seedballs to be thrown to plant wild flowers in difficult to reach  areas  and school grounds.  
• More details to follow.

The Stokes Wood composting demonstration site  has now been Registered for:

• T23: Aerobic composting and associated prior treatment,
• T26: Treatment of kitchen waste in a wormery,
• U11: Spreading waste to benefit non-agricultural land and
• U12: Using mulch.

We started three  of the bins, a Hotbin and 220 litre and 330 litre  bins, available from Get Composting under the Leicestershire and Leicester City Council scheme, this morning using spout stalks and leeks left in one of the Reception bins by plot-holders together with a little catering waste from the café.

We still have more bins to add to the site in the months before it is officially opened as part of Compost Awareness Week.

Visitors are welcome to drop by on Wednesday mornings when the café is open for drinks and breakfasts

Reception bin filled with material ready to be cut and composted

The reception bins are now available to take waste from the plot holders on the site. Over the passed week the main pallet bin has twice been filled with plants that had edged a path. They are now starting to decompose in eight bins including our two Hotbins and two of the tumbler bins which are ideally suited to batch composting. 

One of the advantages to plot holders is that they do not have to spend their time cutting the material to be composted into small lengths  as someone gets to do it for them.

The slideshow shows the material added to the Hotbins before mixing. One of the bins had reached 38C before the end of the morning session.

Very strong winds have removed the lids and hatches from some of the bins but no damage done. The greenhouse shown in earlier photos of the plot was removed today to provide space for a gazebo or event shelter on our Open Days  and Workshops.

 A larger permanent Gazebo is to be built behind the site pavillion which will be used for outdoor Compost Safari session during the summer.

Although we do not officially open until 5th May we are now accepting materials for composting, The two Hotbins  are over half full and the Jora composter used for cooked food has a of compost batch ready for harvesting. These  bins  and a Green Johanna are to be used to demonstrate how a limited quantity of cooked food waste from a cafe can be composted without the use of expensive composters. 

Visitors are welcome on Wednesday mornings to see the site developing  and can also enjoy a cooked breakfast for only £3. 

Stokes Wood Ament Composting Demonstration Site

Work has started on putting a concrete path round the front of the plot so that visitors can gain access from the entrance to the outdoor seating area  for the pavilion. Once this work is completed most of the plot will be covered in woodchip  to provide an environmentally friendly surface, clean surface that can be kept weed free.  This surface will also be provided for the tumbler bins and  the area round the raised beds.

The pallet  and plastic bins will be on cultivated area of annual  flowers to add colour to the site while providing easy access to the bins.