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Gardening Forum   ORGANIC GARDENING FORUMS  Composting Forum

composting please help!




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composting please help!

Sun Feb 08, 2015 4:47 pm

I have recently moved into my house which has an very small over grown garden! When clearing it we have found a 3\4 full compost bin!! Seems to have all sorts in it, eggshells, teabags and lots of maggots :( we are not green fingered at all and plan a low maintenance garden. How\where do I get rid of this compost? Can i advertise it free to collect? What do I do about maggots? (Have major phobia of them!!) Really want rid asap!! Please helps
zaskar
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Re: composting please help!

Sun Feb 08, 2015 5:03 pm

Shovel it onto your garden. The maggots will grow into flies (and fly away). The rest will need to airate on top of soil for a week or two. The air you add will speed up what has gone slowly so far.

Decomposition is never pretty while it is in progress.

You can watch from the dining room.

Turn what ever is left into soil and plant in May.
Think like a tree
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tomc
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Re: composting please help!

Sun Feb 08, 2015 7:36 pm

Tomc, thank you for your reply. Sadly I now have no where to speed it! :( if I offered to free to someone would it be worth them taking? X
zaskar
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Re: composting please help!

Sun Feb 08, 2015 9:45 pm

I used a barrel to pre-compost my kitchen scraps, so there wasn't any obvious bits, and I never had much luck using free-cycle to give away compost. YMMV
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tomc
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Re: composting please help!

Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:01 pm

Are these 'maggots' very fat and segmented, much larger than house fly maggots? If so they are from Soldier Flies, which will not hang around like house flies. Actually I'm wondering where you are that you can have anything living in the winter - perhaps the deep south or southwest?

I'm guessing the previous owners put kitchen scraps and did not add enough dry browns (leaves, straw, shredded paper, sawdust, wood chips etc.) to soak up the moisture and balance the carbon:nitrogen ratio. You don't even need meat and dairy in the pile for it be out of balance.

I would also recommend putting it in the garden, and if you don't want to look at it, cover it with a thin layer of soil for a month or two. The soil food web will balance it out and take care of it. Then till/dig it in and it will enrich the soil.

It can be hard to get over the 'ick' factor, but don't let it put you off of composting. Done right, it's a great thing.
Tox
toxcrusadr
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Re: composting please help!

Mon Feb 09, 2015 4:22 pm

Check out our composting basics threads for help getting started:

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=56881

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=29022
Twitter account I manage for local Sierra Club: https://twitter.com/CherokeeGroupSC Facebook page I manage for them: https://www.facebook.com/groups/65310596576/ Come and find me and lots of great information, inspiration
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rainbowgardener
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Please Share. Thank you!

 
 
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