Composting Events and news

Bring your  used pumpkin lanterns to smash and compost at

Stokeswood Allotment Compost Demonstration site

2b  Stokes Drive, Leicester, LE3 9BR

Saturday 13th November 10.30 - 12.30

continuing into the afternoon as required

(Other dates can be arranged by appointment)

Local Schools and Groups if you have pumpkins that require collection, or can act as a clooection point, email carryoncomposting1 @gmail.com

For more info      Pumpkin Rescue 2021

I started composting samples of three compostable bags  2 months ago. They samples have been stretched across a plastic frame and cold composted using a three chambered See-Through Composting Container. As the chambers do no have drainage holes it is difficult to control the moisture level and on occasions over the composting period the containers have been wetter than I would have liked. I future the contents will be removed regularly, moisten and remixed and then returned to the chambers.

At two months the bag material is starting to breakdown  on  on one of the disks (in the centre)  quite significantly as the picture that was on the bag and the material has disappeared . Photos taken earlier in the experiment can be seen by following the link http://www.carryoncomposting.com/416920209     and working down the page.

A new Reception bin has been bought into use At the Community Composting site at Stokes Wood Allotments, 2B Stokes Drive. Leicester, to try to stop customers putting waste in the working bins at random disrupting the composting process.

The original Reception bins were part of a bank of 5 bins. The new Reception bin is closer to the entrance and separate from the working bins. So far, the new system seems to be working.

Most of the waste this week  is runner bean plants with some pumpkin/marrow foliage both are easily cropped and form a tidy layer in the first working bin. I hope to fill this bin Friday and then turn it weekly for a month.

The layers will be chopped  garden runner beans and marrow plants  (from the reception bin) with layers of manure and soil following a traditional garden layering system  If most of the garden waste is relatively soft greens cardboard or shredded paper will be used to provide additional  browns. 

I have mentioned that we are making banana  peel liquid plant feed and am now providing an update. 

Now is the time to start tidying the garden and pruning or cutting back some of the shrubs that have enjoyed a good summer. As a composter I find that cutting back shrubs which are still in leaf and shredding the pruning’s will give me a mixture of shredded leaves with a small amount of wood chip. It means that I can shred leaves such as those shown, from an ornamental elder, that I could not otherwise put through the shredder. It also makes a red layer in the compost bin,  until  I aerate it. 

I have more information on leaves and leaf mould on www.carryoncomposting.com