Compost frenzy part 2

So as I mentioned in part 1, my big compost heap wasn't producing the goods. Too much privet hedge, not enough anything else, was leading to a big dry pile of privet with a trickle of really poor dried out compost from the leaves. So, I shovelled all that out, smashed up the old compost bay (which was disintegrating) and built a new robust double one out of five pallets from my dry stone wall materials, plus some wood left over from our decking. Ta daa...


The two bays mean I can fill one, tip it into the second to turn it, then fill the second. This gives better mixing, oxygenation and it is easier to tell the newer compost from the old stuff.

In the medium/long term I'm not worried about the privet imbalance as, with a lawn, I'm going to have a good source of high-nitrogen garden waste to balance out the high-carbon hedge clippings. Getting that C:N balance right is, along with moisture and oxygen, the key to composting. But in the short term, to get the old privet to rot, I mixed the privet with immature compost from my food waste bin (which you can just see to the left) plus some other soil and green waste I had lying around. If nothing else, this will retain moisture in the heap and allow the woody stems to rot. I'm still not expecting fantastic compost, but this approach has worked before.

We shall see...