Hagop Matossian

Looking into Bokashi. Looks  great.

Thanks everyone for your opinions and feedback. All very helpful.

Hello all,

I have just moved to a small cottage with a narrow garden. I have decided against a compost bin for kitchen waste as I think my neighbours will find the smell offensive and the thousands of tiny winged insects that lived in the bin at my old place would certainly find their way into my house and the studio at the end of the garden and my neighbour's properties.

Presently I am collecting my kitchen waste and burying it in a different spot in the garden every time it is full. This works fine but I plan to build 4 or 5 big planters to plant up next April and I want to start saving my compost for them.

I am thinking of building an anaerobic compost digestor to keep the smells and composting process contained. Something along the lines of a fairly airtight box with a tap at the bottom for occasional drainage, and a brewers airlock in the top to allow gases to escape. What you guys think? I can't find anything like this for sale and wondering if there's a good reason for that.

thanks

Hagop

Hello,

I am doing research in the process of buying a camper van. I intend to have it converted to LPG. In the long term I hope to have an anaerobic digestor in my home and am wondering if anyone runs an lpg converted vehicle on biogas collected from their own digestor?

Thanks very much for the views.

I have done as suggested and covered my home made compost with store bought compost.

All the best

Hagop

I'm not sure as it's still at the bottom of the compost bin.

When I moved it three months ago, it smelled really strong, like fresh poop.

Hi Permies! This is my first post and I'm happy to find this new home.

I've been composting my kitchen and garden waste since december 2014. I used 'be green general compost maker' (natural enzymes and micro organisms) to start and accelerate the process. I'm using a 'Green Johanna' bin.

I initially had the bin located under my kitchen window in the front garden which made it quick and easy to empty the kitchen compost pail into it. Around March of this year, the bin started attracting smalled winged insects, which lived in the bin and started flying into the house and congregating on the fruit bowl. As the weather got warmer we had more winged insects in the house so I decided to relocate the compost bin to the bin shed of the estate I live on. I had to empty the bin to do this, and noticed that the material at the bottom of the bin had decayed well into squelchy brown matter, with only a bit of orange peel and egg shell as evidence of its previous form. The bin still attracts plenty of winged insects but they do not bother anyone near the bins.

I have recently been donated a planter on legs by my neighbours. I've been sowing seeds through spring and have some healthy carrots, parnsips, kale, lettuce and herbs to plant in the planter. I want to use some of the compost from my bin in this planter, its volume is 320 litres. I plan to used about 90 litres of compost from my bin and I have bought 200 litres of organic compost from a garden centre to mix with it. I've located the planter in my front garden below my kitchen window, in the same spot where the compost bin used to be.

So the big question. Will the 6 month old compost from the bottom of my compost bin attract flocks of winged insects? Am I likely to have the same problem as before with winged insects flying into the house as using the fruit bowl as their hotel? I am thinking of using my bin compost as the bottom layer in the planter, and then covering it with the organic compost bought from the garden centre.

I would be grateful for opinions! Thanks!