composting please help!

[zaskar]

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

[tomc]

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.

[zaskar]

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

[Marlingardener]

Take Tom's advice about adding it to a growing area. Even if you aren't ready to spread compost now, you will be ready in two or three months. In the meantime, just fork the pile over to get some air in it.
I doubt if anyone would want a pile of partially decomposed compost--hard to load, and hard to transport. A serious gardener wants to know what is in the compost and this pile is a heap of "unknowns."
When you start your own compost pile, remember that meat and dairy products are no-nos. That may be where your maggots are coming from--previous owners dumped meat scraps in the pile.

[tomc]

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

[toxcrusadr]

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.

[rainbowgardener]

Check out our composting basics threads for help getting started:

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=56881

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=29022