Making LOADS of Compost in A SMALL Garden
2023 ж. 16 Қар.
458 872 Рет қаралды
I've learnt so much from Garden KZheadrs about composting but it took me a while to adapt their principles to a small space.
I couldn't figure out a way to make hot compost with the limited materials I had without spending a bunch of money on a Hotbin.
This method is easily the cheapest way to get a hot composter because it doesn't cost anything. That's a hard price to beat to be honest.
"Rather than give you the food bloggers long ass history and introduction to my family, I just..." i automatically stopped watching the preview while scrolling through my feed, clicked on the video, and subscribed to the channel. Thank you for not wasting our time with information we didn't come for and don't want.
You’re welcome and I’m glad it got you here. Hope you got what you wanted quickly 😊
get out i did too!!
Yes yes yes, thank you!
I agree , straight to the point no unnecessary info
Same here. Appreciate it. Subscribed
It’s nice to hear someone talking about small gardens with a few raised beds for veg growing rather than huge commercial growers
Hello! I'm from India. I have a tiny garden, I use my brown dry leaves, sticks, Green leaves, food scraps and kitchen waste. I collect the dry sticks , dry leaves, green leaves, in separate piles in a space hidden between my trees and garden wall. Not easily viewed. I then use either my pots or containers that I'm going to plant in or the biggest bags I get from the supermarket. The pots are easy, you have drainage holes, place the sticks at the bottom with dry leaves. Add kitchen waste , green leaves and cover with dry leaves. As you get more kitchen waste, make another layer. Keep going till you're at the top of the pot and you have no more space. Move the pot to a place that needs fertilizer, like next to a rose bush and water regularly. In a few weeks, you can begin planting in the pot. I never buy soil or fertilizer and always run out of kitchen waste!!! My garden and flowers are blooming. No turning, touching, fiddling. If you have rodents. Use a metal mesh cover for the pots and also for the bags. Bags have to be enclosed in a mesh box. I make wire mesh barrels for my bags.
That’s amazing! So glad you’ve found a system that works so well for you
Thank you!
I've always been worried about pests with compost. I've got a rotating drum I use, and I'm afraid I'm going to give it a spin some day, and get swarmed by hornets nesting under or in it. We have skunks in our area, and I really don't want to compost anything that could attract them to the yard. And then there are the fire ants! I'm still looking for a method that will allow worms, but keep out the more unpleasant critters.
@@cariwaldick4898 I just get a lot of Blackfly larvae. Ants are a problem, neem cake works well.
I love your no nonsense approach. Thank you for sharing. I would like to know more about your wire mesh bags... details, please?
So glad someone has actually said the words. There is no secret recipe to composting. I live in sub tropical Queensland Australia. I have bought multiple Gedeye Composting bins, from the Hardware stores. I literally throw in whatever i have. Seedy weeds, old hay, chook poop, etc. You can buy a huge contraption that looks like a cork screw that you can turn the compost with, whilst in the bins. I have 10 bins on the go. When one is full i leave it to cook in the sun, and fill the next one, etc. I grow great vegetables with my compost.
That’s amazing! I must get round to getting one of the screw things. Do you get many weeds in the compost and just how them off? Or is it hot enough it kills them off?
So refreshing to find someone succinct. Too many You Tubers waffle for 10 mins before geting to what you want...the facts.... I find lawn mowing the leaves with the grass expodites your comnpost as it will chop it up into smaller pieces.
Yeah that’s the compost rocket fuel! Especially chopped up by the mower. Thank you so much for the kind words 😊
I liked your expression "I'm not baking a cake" about the portions of materials in the compost, really agreed. Thanks from JPN!
Exactly, it’s not a chemical titration! I’m thrilled this reached you all the way in JPN! I hope it encouraged you
What a straightforward and sensible approach I actually do have a small holding but love simplicity which is always a great approach to life whatever the size of the project. Thank you for your clarity it was most helpful. 🙏🤸♂️🧘🏻
Huw Edwards had me cackling. Great video pal
Haven’t seen his gardening vids tbh 😂
But I do want to see Huw Edwards method.
You won me over by getting to the point my friend. Thank you for that.
You’re very welcome
18Nov2023: Wonderful, I am going outside to flip a dead mini-freezer on its side right now and start using this method. I have been You-Tubing learning about gardening for the past 2+ years and until now, I had not found a composting method that I could afford, spare my upper body arthritic joints from lifting with pitchforks, utilize adding small amounts of "browns and greens" as they become available from a one-person household and most of all, keep the composting products protected from my 4 dogs and the rabbits and coyotes that are always sniffing and digging around for food without having to build Another fenced in area on my property (20 acres in the Northern Chihuahua Desert in Luna County, New Mexico, Zone 8a/USA). I send you a giant cyber hug and kiss for offering this idea to the world. If there is anything else that I should do to the freezer besides removing the shelves and tipping it on the side so that the door sits on the top aspect of it, Please feel free to advise me. Subscribed and Thank you.
I also do small scale composting. And I just use my garden to put all my kitchen waste and cardboard and I just leave it there like forever. I also like your relaxed attitude of no rules. I see too many of this big KZheadrs rabbiting on about rules and ratios. It eventually comes out nice ❤
Yes! Nature does not have rules doing composting. They all come together given time. Composting needs patience more than anything else.
@@jlseagull2.060 indeed. nature isn't going to stop because someone has their ratios off.
It all breaks down somehow, too right! I'm sure there is merit in measuring it in some cases but if it puts people off even trying then it's silly imo
This video completely changed my perspective on composting! I never knew how possible it was to produce such a large amount of compost in a small garden. The tips and tricks were incredibly helpful, particularly the parts about optimizing for space. I can already see how applying these methods can improve the quality of my soil. Can't wait to start implementing these strategies and watch my garden thrive. You've earned a new subscriber today!
I’m so glad it was helpful. Let me know how you get on with it
Very much enjoyed this video and as a fridge engineer by day the use of a fridge is very appealing. Only thing I would say is that fridges contain refrigerants that can be harmful to the environment so I would encourage getting the gas removed first, otherwise a slip of the fork could go through the evaporator. As I say this is with my refrigeration engineer hat on.
This one was fly tipped so someone had already cut the compressor out for scrap. Is it easy to have the gas removed safely if someone wanted to reuse their own fridge?
@@tecmow4399 it would need a professional to remove the gas due to regulations. but if the compressor is already removed there would be no gas in other anyway.
Thanks for the thoughtful advice.
@@tecmow4399 Oh! "fly-tipped"! Had to go to the comments to figure out what you were saying. A new bit of British slang for my American ears.
Well that was a refreshing change. Straight to the point. Thank you, from Egypt.
Like to see what people are doing on a small scale. I have an average sized urban lot that I share with 3 pups who need room to run around. I compost kitchen and garden waste in old garbage bins with lids on top and holes in the bottom. When I toss in green stuff I grab a couple handfuls of brown stuff from a neighbouring bin and toss it in on top. Periodically I mix everything with a compost turner. Don't worry about temperatures but I live in a climate of blistering summers and mild winters. If I want it to heat up just toss in something sweet/carby to feed the bacteria and give it a turn. Some people will add some water with molasses to give it a kick start. When I let the compost rest to finish off worms inevitably move in from the ground underneath to help out. Have to say I also make leaf mould, have a separate worm bin for castings and a wood chipper. Pretty well have a zero waste yard.
Usage garbage bins too, but what are your favourite "sweet/carby" materials to heat things up? Pumpkins and squash, coffee grounds...?
@@Cici1791 Years ago, I remember someone saying that beer is good for that.
I previously used a home depot 5 gallon bucket for making compost with similar results. Thank you for the video idea for a future video😂. Cheers!🎉-Dave
molasses, beer, a can of sugar sofa, leftover wine
drunk compost is amazing & a real thing. the non-believers need to google it.
I have an extremely small mainly flower garden with one 9’x4’ veg bed, plus some 30 ltr buckets for growing potatoes in. Due to lack of space last May I started to fill a 120 litre heavy duty green plastic type garden waste bag with a mixture of greens & browns mainly grass clippings, de heading of flowers, tops from potatoes etc, with cardboard broken into small pieces plus some horse bedding from a bale I purchased to add a top mulch on the potato buckets. No food waste as I did not want to attract vermin. Turning the previous layer with a hand fork every time I added a new layer. Early this month I decided to turn the whole bag into a new one and was surprised to find that at least 100 litres of the bag was perfectly usable compost, of which I have added 20 litres to each of 5 x 30 litre buckets which already contained 10 litres each of compost from this years potato harvest. Will leave them until next spring for my next planting of potatoes. This month I have emptied all the flower beds and pots of bedding plants, cut down all the dahlias to ground level , plus garden leaves and now have 2x120 litre bags full of mixed green & brown garden waste, which I will turn next spring. Have subscribed.
Hi 😀here in Australia we have something called an Ozito silent shredder. I’ve had one for about 4years now which is used regularly in my almost 1000sqm block. I find this an amazing bit of gear. Would highly recommend it if you can get it where you are. It was recommended to me before I bought it and have no regrets about getting it. Also reasonable in price. Kind regards Urban
Too much waffling on............We know about green/brown. All you needed to day was insulation for heat!
I live in tropical area. I have 3 thirty litres terracotta pots in my balcony. I throw in all my kitchen waste (including unwanted fish, meat parts and food leftovers, used paper bags/towels etc), vegetable and fruit waste, then cover with 1 inch of garden soil every few days to prevent any fruit flies larve from hatching. It takes about 1 month to fill up the pot. Then i move to the next pot and so on. It takes less than 2 months for the kitchen waste to fully compost if it is kept moist. The compost is filled with worms, millepedes, bettles (probably from the initial garden soil) that feeds on the kitchen waste. I never ran out of space using the 3 pots as the waste compact quite fast. I can easily add additional pots or change to bigger capacity pots if my family generate more waste in the future. There is no smell if you do not add large quantity of starchy food. If there is smell, u can get rid of the smell easily by topping up with cardboard paper, dried leaves or more compost. Once the compost is ready, leave some for covering the waste in the current pot and rest for your garden. The compost is filled with mircrobes and insects that can speed up the compost process. Generally, bettles eat meat and dead plants while worms and millepedes eats fruits and vegetables. Their population fluctuate depending on the amount of kitchen waste. If you are preparing a new pot for planting, fill the bottom with a thin layer of compost, then fill with waste and top up with 4 inches of compost. Let it rest for 2 weeks and it should be ready for planting as kitchen waste in a small pot generally do not generate alot of heat.
Thats great to know. I’ve never lived in a tropical area so I’m glad your comment can help people wanting to know more about other solutions for your climate. Thank you 😊
Rats?
@@ms.d5195 There are no signs of rats as the food compost are inside terracotta pots and there are no signs of disturbance. If rats is a risk, a simple fix is to buy a terracotta pot with a saucer and use it to cover the pots. Do not fill the compost to the brim of the pot to allow some air for decomposition.
@@spinningweb749 thanks. I'm still incredibly wary of attracting the little critters.
@@ms.d5195 There are no signs of critters even though i do not cover the pots. But covering the pot would ensure there are no critters.
My best advice is to simply scatter all bush trimmings and leaves evenly over your lawn, then mow it all up, the lawnmower will chop it up and mix all the materials perfectly. Much more efficient than shredding separately then manually mixing.
Fantastic idea thanks 😊
@@bernadettesullivan29 you're welcome, I just find it gets the carbon and nitrogen chopped and mixed which speeds up the process and achieves high temperatures quickly. As the microorganisms can get to work breaking down the smaller pieces.
A lawnmower is an amazing tool for munching it all up together and making it smaller. Great idea!
AND, all the decomposition takes place exactly where it needs to be.
Do you have to sharpen the mower blades more often from mowing woody branches?
As much as I would like to hear your family story, I'm glad you went straight to the point. I really needed that information. That was the fastest subscribing I've ever done. Thanks
I scored an old truck topper from a neighbor for free...flipped it over and drilled MANY holes in bottom and along the sides...filled 1/2 with the usual layers (leaves, kitchen scraps, garden debris)...covered with a layer of thick cardboard weighted down with a few bricks. It gets pretty hot during early fall, but as it cools I add some aged rabbit/chicken manure and hubbies urine during my weekly flip to the other side. So far so good...smells earthy and looks about 1/2 done in just 2 months. Many tomato and cucumber seeds sprouted in the beginning, but now I know they're gone :) I should have plenty of compost come spring!
Fab
An old fridge! There you go, my friend :-) thanks for this great video.
The most useful and ingenious use of an old fridge freezer🤓...top tip, thank you for the thank you for the straightforward explanation 👍🏼
A fridge!! Very creative - resourceful as H. I keep a bag of collected leaves beside my five gallon bucket of food / all veg scraps & layer until it’s full. Into a little composter it goes, then the garden bed in a month or so. Love your simplicity!!
Found your channel not long ago and love your videos, super relatable too cause I don’t have a massive garden to make tons of compost either.
Totally agree! We have a small space, too.
Thank you so much 🙏😁
I love your commentary alongside the composting guide.
Thank you 😄
This is incredibly helpful! Thank you so much. I love the fridge idea.
Thank you so much! Let me know how you get on with whatever you do. I’ll try my best to help with some more vids 😊
Thank you!! Never thought about an old fridge or maybe an extra picnic cooler!
Yes that would work too if it’s big enough!
Great idea 👍
Thank you for getting right to the point. That was very endearing.
You’re welcome
This is really cool! I never gave small-scale composting much thought because I’m on a bigger scale, but I like the idea of using an insulated box to keep the smaller pile hot. More insulation would also be useful to speed up composting in wintertime.
This is brilliant thank you so much for making it really easy to understand and using normal chat love it!
I’m so glad it was helpful 🫶
I enjoyed your video. Thank you for your information. Well done!
Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it and hope to see you again in the comments ❤️
I love your info and especially your "get over it"🙂
I'm so glad! Thank you 🙏
Absolutely class video thank you. No BS, totally realistic to the many normal ppl out there. Instant subscribe from me!
Love the lack of nonsense, so true that many of the most inspiring gardeners on here are also working on what's essentially an industrial scale compared with the average plot. The fridge idea is brilliant although I personally like the Ecomax-style bins so worms etc can gain direct access from below. You've inspired me to finally buy a cheap compost thermometer, though.
The thermometer is way more fun than it should be 😂 when it gets a high reading I’m oddly excited as it climbs up the scale. Worms seem to find their way anywhere organic stuff is decomposing in my experience. Once it’s in the cooler stages these fridges also get full of composting worms too. Have fun with the thermometer 🙏
Just the video that I needed! No rehashing of common info! No fussy measuring or expensive containers! I don't have an old fridge so I will use a large insulated cooler till I find something better. Thank you from a new subbie.
You are so welcome and thank you 😊
This is so helpful! I was looking for a way to keep my dog out of the compost without making things too difficult. I will be using the fridge method and I know just the place to get one! Sending you a huge THANKS! I was never so excited about composting until now!😂 😄😀😀😀😀🤭🤗🤓Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! DING DONG!😂
I hope this excitement is the start of something beautiful! Compost nerdery is surprisingly moreish 🤓😆
Just started composting last 2 years (belatedly in my 64th year !) in tandem with growing veg and finding it all interesting and rewarding. Annoyed with myself I never started sooner - although we have always enjoyed our small garden, growing flowers and herbs. Glad I just stumbled across your channel - enjoyed your 'realistic' small garden approach and look forward to getting tips in the future. Just to add that we have built a raised bed 10 x 6 (from scrap wood)and planted with toms and french beans(much better than runners) - also getting my head around potash - wow! - potash apparently is the derivative of Potasium. When making your own it is best to use the branches and twigs - they contain most potasium and magnesium - also getting my head around the benefits of charcoal. Interesting fact ;- Did you know that the charcoal from the Alder Buckthorn is used to make gunpowder ? Powerful stuff - and this is the species of shrub that the Brimstone butterfly live off in both caterpillar form and the flowers of this shrub feed the adult butterfly.
I’m always so uplifted when I see the enthusiasm people have when they discover the joy of this stuff 😊 thank you for sharing your experience. A great bunch of facts too 🙌
Thanks for the ‘Fridge’ suggestion, I’ve used plastic Daleks but they don’t keep heat in, so really like that idea
You’re welcome! I never had much luck with the Daleks either. Great name for them btw 🤣
Yay! Thanks for just getting on to the subject :)
Thank you so much! I’m glad it was useful without all the fluff 😊
I have a small garden but I got myself 3 chickens. I gave them an area about 2 meters by 2 meters. I throw all my leaves,cut grass and veggie scraps. The girls play in it for about 3 months. Then I have a holding area that I put that in to heat up. When I take it out I clean out the coop put it in their area and start the process over. The girls keep it aerated when they are in it. I have a third area that I hold it in till ready to use. In winter I cover all my beds in ground up leaves. The entire system works great!
Chickens do sound great tbf!
Nice video. I do all kinds of composting, including vermicomposting. A great additive for all composts, especially at this time of year, is free coffee grounds from outlets like Starbucks. They bag it up, ready to collect. It a green additive, very high in Nitrogen so goes well with fallen leaves.
That's great! I put a fair few coffee grounds into mine but just from my own use. Such a good idea to contact a coffee shop.
I used to work at a small local cafe, always happy to give away free coffee grounds! They just go in the bin otherwise
Thank you so much! This is one of the best! Can’t wait to see more!
You're so welcome!
New subbie here from London, now living in Yorkshire where I have inherited a lot of trees, hedges and shrubs, in a relatively small garden it's so difficult to find room for the compost, I have been using ton bags behind the greenhouse for some years and I never measured the ratios it's worked out pretty well so far, but in a small garden we can produce far more garden waste than we can store it for compost, I have just ordered 2 rolls of chicken wire 25m long x 1m, I saw someone make compost bins from it by tying it together to form a circular drum I will see how that works out but they look much tidier than the ton bags which sag as they get full and look unsightly, thanks for your video, it's rare to find videos on youtube from people with smaller gardens and where storage is a problem, now off to binge the rest of your channel :)
I’ve seen a lot of people have success with a set up like that. Some even put a perforated pipe into the middle of it too for more aeration. I’ve composted in ton bags too but you’re right it looks like an abandoned building site 😂
Really fascinating to see you using an old fridge for a compost bin! Great idea
Thanks for this as I am beginning to make my own compost.
Good luck and you’re welcome 😊
Thanks for this video 👍 I’m fairly new to gardening, but the first thing I did when I finally had my own garden was start making compost. My initial goal was just so I could reduce waste going to landfill and recycling. It’s very not sciencey the way I did it, I just dug a little patch in the corner of my garden and added veggie scraps, coffee, shredded paper, grass, leaves etc covered it with a layer of cardboard and a brick. I poke and turn it every now and then and it’s really looking like compost! The worms are very happy. I like the idea someone said in the comment to of using a picnic cooler. I don’t have space for fridge you see, (though there are plenty about 😖) even if it only makes a small amount it’s still worth it 💚
There’s no reason not to try a cooler. It will become a wormery even if it doesn’t get hot. It all goes back to the Earth one way or another if you let it 🫶 It’s a great way of getting into gardening 😊
Wow that does look amazing! Really lush!
Glad you get as excited about it as me! 😊
Thanks for getting straight to the point.
You’re welcome 😊
Wow, what a fantastic video! For me, composting is more fun than the actual gardening. I love the science of combining greens and browns and making hot compost in less than three weeks. I use an organic version of "Drunken Composting" and can make several cubic yards of compost in 14-17 days after I mow my lawn and add the kitchen waste. My wife began adding a human-grade liquid mineral supplement to the compost. Our compost is full of earthworms.
It’s so much fun isn’t it? It’s a hard sell for a lot of people. But once you get into it you want to show everyone your hot compost to every guest and tell them you wee in it too. 14-17 days?! 🤯
@@tecmow4399 , yes in 14 to 17 days by using the Drunken Compost method that calls for adding beer, ammonia, and sugary soda to finely chopped materials. I use brewer's yeast, alfalfa, and blackstrap molasses instead, and it works just as well. By day three, it is well over 140 degrees F/60 degrees Celsius, and by day 5, smoke/steam can be seen coming off the pile. I mow our 2-acre lawn and capture all the clippings and place our kitchen waste in layers inside the clippings, spraying on the three ingredients every couple of inches. My piles are about 4 cubic feet each when they are covered with tarpaulin. Around Day 7, I turn the pile, and do so again around Day 10. By Day 17, I have compost and make compost tea as well as use it as a side-dressing. Yet, it is an addiction in a weird way.
You are 101% right about using the basics to make compost,I have a chest freezer and a fridge freezer that I don't use anymore it has been made safe for me and I've been using these 2 to make beautiful compost and because of the insulation it gets hot and I have a compost within 4 months if I need it otherwise I leave it like you to stand till I need it.
Thats great! Did you have a friend who could degas it for you?
@@tecmow4399 yes I Did have it degased,the idea came to me almost over 20 years ago to use the fridges as a composting boxes and I'm so glad I kept the fridges we live in a country that don't make do with old stuff everything has a usefulness.
I like that little branch chipper you are using. Never seen one that small.
There are lots like it available in the U.K. where are you based?
@@tecmow4399 Thanks for replying! The US. Can I get one shipped over here?
@@amyd3464 You can get small cordless ones here. Einhell and Ryobi do them.
you should get a corkscrew compost mixer, it's much easier to mix that way. I've personally increased the size of my compost bin so i upgraded to pitchfork. the right tools for the right sized compost bins makes things alot easier.
Yeah I probably should tbh but the stick and I have become close now 😅
@@tecmow4399😂
Just found your channel today and subscrived. Good info. Love the humor, too!
Thanks and welcome. You're always welcome if you laugh at my jokes
Great video. I Did this for the first time last year in a large pink plastic recycling bag. The result was, to me, outstanding. I planted all my 1st earlies potatoes and several main crops in the resulting compost. 👍
That’s amazing! So once it was composted a little bit you just grew the potatoes in there? I’m intrigued!
@@tecmow4399 no, I left it all year and checked on it recently to see how viable the compost was, if at all. 👌 I was super impressed and have started another for next year. Will probably get another cpl recycling bags and fill them all. The potatoes are in various size pots from 11 litre (Maris Peer) up to 75 litre dustbins (Maris Piper, King Edward, Carla, Java, etc) 🤣🤣🤣
Appreciate you getting right to the point.
You’re welcome 🫶
I gather all the leaf litter every fall, and in the spring i mix my lawn clippings in to it. i keep doing that through the year until about july, then i let that pile mature. I start another pile, and continue to feed it, sometimes adding in browns like cardboard but usually i have the deadfall and leaf litter to build correctly. By october the first pile is ready to go into the beds, the second pile is ready to mature, and i can begin a new pile. Note that i do all of my composting as an open face pile, and my total yard is about 1/4 acre.
I have a black plastic, compost bin ( weeds already started growing there) and two old fringes, now I know what to do with them. I think it's genius, thanks!
You’re welcome 😊
YOU ARE A GOOD GUY. Easy sub for me. Keep up the great work , mate, its practical and on point. 2 thumbs up!
Thank you so much! I had to subscribe right back after I saw your video about soil. I’ll do my best to keep sharing too
That black compost is beautiful. 👍
Thank you for noticing 😏
What a good idea I could collect a couple of coolers at end of summer. Also the lid will keep the neighbors from complaining. Thank you
Glad it gave you an idea 😊
Thank you so much for explaining it all on the smaller scale while keeping on point and not wavering off into telling us the benefits you get if we like and subscribe to your videos that almost all youtube producers do on what seems like every video perhaps not realising their redundancy. For this, and your calm voice, i liked and subscribed to your channel. Thank you again for not having blaring music drowning out your voice or jangling on at the beginning, randomly throughout and i paused to write before watching the end. I will watch your other videos. I use a coffee grinder or food processer to dessicate dehydrated banana peels and powder them along with egg shells to help thembe more readily available to the soil and the plants produced ten times as much fruit ( tomatoes) when i applied that alone to the potting mix in containers . Would breaking those down after dehidrating them crisp turn them into more brown matter in compost ? They are loaded with more calcium and potassium rather than nitrogen. Thanks again
I’m not sure whether it would change their “brown” or “green” category but in small quantities I can’t imagine it would matter. Thank you! I appreciate the feedback on the video. I used to put music on videos more but then realised I found it annoying as a viewer. A lot of the time it’s just distracting. So glad to have you as a subscriber and welcome 😊
excelente video,,,muy practico---muchas gracias---desde España-
De nada! Thank you for the kind words :)
This is great and thank you for spending the time to make this video. I have just subscribed and I am interested to see where you go with your channel. I am personally interested in growing food in my back garden and learning tips to help me avoid mistakes. Thanks again Clive
You’re welcome! I’ll do my best and I’m planning on growing more food in my back garden too. I’ve grown a fair bit over the years but I want to take it more seriously now. I tend to make a fair few mistakes tbh 😅
@@tecmow4399 hehe well if you share the mistakes - then I will make less of them myself then. So far I have grown potatoes, cucumbers, spinach, carrots, tomatoes - but the broccoli was eaten by a load of bugs/ caterpillars that appeared out of nowhere 😂
Never thought about insulating it, great idea!
Thank you 😊
😂 your funny. I like that your stright through the point. I only have small garden
Thank you very much 😊. You’re always welcome if you laugh at my jokes 😆
Thank you. Fabulous and to the point. Subscribed.
That’s so kind! Welcome in 🫶
I usually have problem to get enough of the brown materials while the green ones (grass clippings) are more than abundent. So I fork the pile over often to compensate for this and keep the grass composting rather than decaying. Last year I produced about 1/3 of a cubic meter of not-so-bad compost. This year I'd like to get about 1 cubic meter which would cover my garden needs. As a composter I use panels from an industrial freezer, inner space about 2m3.
Good stuff. Old gardener learned new info here. Thanks
I’m so glad I had something to share with you
Great video. A couple tips - if you take your food waste, save it in a container with a lid, and once a week (give or take a few days) put it in an old blender with water (get one at a yard sale) it cuts the composting time by about 75%. Also, shredding the garden material using a bagging lawnmower eliminates the need for that really cool shredder that you have here.
I built an outdoor sink with a garbage disposal on my channel to do just that.
@@ProjectsWithPaul Brilliant! I love it! Unfortunately, running water out to my shed is a much bigger job that I will take on at this house. I really WISH I had a utility tub, and NOW I wish I had one with a disposer! If we ever move...
@@josephthomas2226 I just fill up a small tub of water and pour a little in at a time. It doesn't need constant water
@@ProjectsWithPaul great point. I could just run a hose to it when I need it, rather than have a water supply line. Thanks! I might do that after all.
Thanks for the instructions
You’re welcome 😊
OMG, I have a standup freezer that I was considering taking to the landfill until I saw this video. I live on 5 acres and have a large compost pile, but I have an area where that large freezer would be perfect!. All I have to do is pull all of the mechanical parts out of it!
That’s amazing! 5 acres? I’m very jealous 😃
Very helpfull . I've subscribed. Thank you!
I'm so pleased it was useful to you. Welcome, It's great to have you here! :)
You're video is great. Composting in Australia (Queensland where it's hot) is slightly different. Heat just happens...I use plastic cylinder type bins placed directly on the soil. I think this helps due to the organisms in the soil helping with the decaying process. I find lots of life in my compost because if this and I think it's great.
That’s amazing! There must be so many ways people adapt it to their own unique environments and I love hearing about them. I’d love to live somewhere warmer 😆
Good job good to have your own compost well done❤
Thank you brother
I rebuilt my compost to make two 'bins' I have a LOT of leaves every autumn, they go through the leaf hoover and get mixed with late cut grass clippings. Regular forking over and a couple of plastic drainpipes with holes in the base add O2. Add some accellerator as well.
Mixed leaves and grass clippings compost so fast 😏! Especially when shredded up. I’ve seen those setups with a central snorkel to help it breathe in the core. I’m yet to try it but I can see the benefit certainly
Like your style. 👏🏼
Thank you 🙏😊
Perfect video since I have a reall small garden myself. Subbed.
I’m so glad it was useful to you 🙏
What a great idea, never thought of using an old freezer
I was so excited when it actually worked 😃
Very clever, thank you 💗
You’re welcome
I love the no mow looking yard
Thank you ❤️
Some of my neighbours drop off their grass and hedge clippings so I get to make about three times the amount that I would manage normally. I also clear the street of leaves for leaf mulch.
I realised once I had posted the video that this is also an important feature of making loads of compost in a small space. people are so happy to give away their "waste". Great idea!
I too do this and since my NA neighbour has the 1950s attitude about lawn, there are lots of lawn clippings. LOL I also pick up coffee grounds from the cafe a couple of blocks away once a week.
@Sylvie_M i hve seen georgeoud compost from serious coffee drinkers n my time
New viewer here. You had me at "I'm not bakin' a cake!" I'm in BC, Canada and it's forest-fire dry, already (Mar 31st). I tuned in to see how to speed up a batch in a 'municipal-style bin' so I can process more quickly. I have a few chickens and I put a bunch of green and brown out where they could get to it and now, it's mulch. I was going to add it to the 'bin' to finish it. That looks like a neat grinder!
Bless your heart👍
Thanks Neal 🙏
Thnx for the video man!👍🏾
You're most welcome
I have used all sorts of things to make compost in but never a fridge. Brilliant idea. Off I go to find myself a fridgr
Good luck and thank you 😊
Excellent advice
Thank you
Great video. Same here, I put in what I’ve got and just try to make there’s a good mix and occasionally move the composter to ‘turn’ and get hubby to pee in a bucket to add a bit more ‘activator’. 😂 after almost 9yrs in my current garden, building the soil, I’m beginning to need less and less compost bought in. My aim is to garden in such a way that I eventually don’t need to buy in any. Slow but on track. The difficult thing now is getting Woodchips for free. Now that so many people are after it. Every time we spot a tree surgeon’s van and shredder in the area, we stop and ask…apparently we’re not the only ones playing spot and stop the tree surgeons.😂😂😂
a very usefull video, thanks!
You're welcome!
I do gardening on a large scale, but I prefer to basically do what you do simply because it's much more handy than to have a large bin . Better to have many smaller ones than one big one that will be arduous to fill and then flip it.
I hadn’t really thought of that but I can see how it makes sense. It’s hard work on a large scale without some machinery, I imagine. Thanks for sharing, it makes a lot of sense
@@tecmow4399well said.
Did not expect to be laughing when I clicked on this but you got me properly LOL-ing 3-4 times as I watched this. Thank you so much for the great info, would never have thought of using a fridge for this purpose, and I am a pretty clueless newb so didn't realise how vital getting the compost hot was to this whole thing... My compost is currently a sludge that is incredibly smelly and I've have a low point with it today forking half of it out the bin, trying to mix in a load of newspaper and cardboard, plopping back the stuff I took out and trying my best to mix it up as I worry about the rats that used to live in it and if they've left plague in the slime I'm mixing around. Yes at one point I stuck my hand in there because the bin is half my height and I couldn't get enough leverage to fork the stuff nearer the bottom. Sorry for the essay, I am boring everyone moaning about this today. I think this was such a refreshing video because it doesn't leave me feeling awful inadequacy with comparing my "operation" (rat-infested) with the likes of people with much bigger plots. Also a relief like a rest to the eyes and spirit, that your video didn't have that aspirational-type sheen of social media that has been wearing on me a bit lately.
You’re on the standard journey of learning to compost. It took me a lot of failed attempts like that. Thank you so much and I’m glad you got so much out of it. That’s a very thoughtful compliment too. I get tired of how so much content is aspirational. And btw, you can absolutely make the compost cold it will just take longer. But it just sounds like it need some more dry materials and a bit more air in it, as it sounds like you’ve been doing. May your next batch be blessed 🙏
Brilliant intro
Great idea to use the old refrigerator!
It surprised me how effective it was! 😃
Brilliant discussion. Perfect-sized garden for me. I grow fresh veggies & landscape on my small lot in the Midwestern USA and use a lot of compost... but mostly what I produce only. Never considered upcycling a dead freezer. I use inexpensive BLACK garbage cans with small holes drilled in it. Black retains heat, and the holes aerate. This leads to my question: Doesn't the air-tight freezer cause your compost to go anaerobic?
i chuckled all the way through this video recalling your adventure collecting that refrigerator from the street :) when it comes to mixing compost i let my nose be the guide. i've stopped adding shredded paper to my bin but i am still using cardboard but the last couple of years i have collected enough leaves to make beautiful compost. some people say that composting with leaves is bad and the leaves will steal nitrogen (sorry) from your soil and nitrogen is necessary for plant growth. i don't mean to get technical here but cardboard has a c:n ratio of 350:1 and leaves have a c:n ratio of 60:1. based on that alone, which do you think is going to compost faster and which is going to be nutrient rich for your garden. i also shred all of my garden waste for greens. if people need to heat up their compost and are lacking greens, alfalfa pellets & drunk compost are the way to go.
I totally agree about the smell. What made you stop adding paper? Any contaminants you were worried about? I’ve heard the same thing said about wood chips regarding nitrogen depletion but i always thought that once it had decomposed it made much less of a difference 🤷🏼♂️. I’ve never tested the final compost for its chemical composition to be able to tell whether the materials are making a difference have you? I’m quite interested to know now 😂
@@tecmow4399 i stopped adding paper because of the way it clumps when it gets wet then never dries out. the clumps just become soggy messes of pulp and just don't seem like they will ever decompose thereby slowing down my bins. i still shred paper and will avail my storage to anyone that will come and get it. i trash can & smaller container compost due to hoa enforcements. when i was using mostly cardboard and paper i was forever struggling to get my compost temps up. since i've started using leaves my bin usually goes thermophilic within a couple of hours and stays that was for a week or so with the addition of alfalfa pellets, layer feed & drunk compost. mix up, add more alfalfa, scratchins & drunk compost and it heats up again. i do it a third time just because everyone says it needs to heat up 3 times. i honestly don't worry too much about wood. when i am using my compost i don't sift either. i can tell if it's ready by the look & feel. if there are chunks or something that doesn't feel right it goes back for another round in the bin. i figure by the time wood feels like compost then it should be ready. if it wasn't ready would it feel like compost ??? i have also have an experimental cold pile of branches of volunteer trees in my yard that i started nearly a year ago and it still looks exactly the way it did when i started. someone told me to try adding some greens but then it wouldn't be a cold pile. idk. i would love to have some fungally dominated woodchip compost though. i am in farm country, u.s. heartland zone 6a (now) and there is plenty of wood chips to get 100mi from here but locally there just isn't any arborists to query.
@@tecmow4399 Wood chips will only tie up nitrogen if they are buried. If they are laid on the surface, they only use nitrogen from the very top layer of soil and not from where plant roots are.
Great idea! Next time I have a freezer or fridge that breaks, I'm repurposing it!
There should be some lying around in the street whenever you’re ready 😅
@@tecmow4399 😆 we bring out trash barrels to the curb each week for pick up. I'll have to check the street on trash night!
Hmm I need to get one of those compost grinders😮 I am using a similar way of composting. Just throw in all food, greens and woodchips during the growing season. In oktober, i start a new one, next to it, and let it rest until spring. The larger twigs usually dont decompose though.
The shredder definitely helps prevent anything too big that won’t break down. I know the big stuff can just be transferred to the next batch or allowed to rot on the ground. But the shredder is definitely worth it imo
I have roughly 120m³ of productive space & once I take out the areas where i don't apply compost, I need 2.5m³ of compost a year. This means I HAVE to source material externally. Currently I cut 300m² of lawns in two other gardens, plus their 60m of privet/cotoneaster hedges. Then there's the 250kg & more of shredded cardboard, 200kg of seaweed & anything else I can scrounge. It's all processed through 2x1m³ compost bays, one 1.2m³ bay & a smaller one for the seaweed mix (used to grow 'Jersey Royal' AKA International Kidney potatoes which taste like they did 30 years ago...). In return, I'm harvesting more than 700kg a year of organically grown produce, with my last bell peppers picked four days ago from the polytunnel. Anything & everything organic can be composted & even if the brown/green mix is out, it'll all come good in the end.
That’s amazing! 700kgs?!!!! The potatoes are making me salivate. Getting the extra materials is a great idea and generally people are delighted to give it away too in my experience 😆
@@tecmow4399 Aye, I scratch my head at people willingly depleting the organic material in their own gardens but I don't object if they want to give it away... Went down the shore today as it's been windy & raked up a whole row of (mostly) seaweed - half a year's supply. The only pain is ratching out all the bits of plastic.
Just do the composring pocess in tuns or planters that has drainage holes in bottom or lower sides. And add in a few worms here and there that you find in the ground which will also had in the verimcomposting prespect to it too. Love this.
That’s a great system!
Great video. I have no recipe for my compost. I add everything except meats and dairy. I grind all my fruits and vegetables,eggshells, coffee grounds in the blender, and make a slurry and pour it in my compost. I grind up my leaves and grass clippings with my lawnmower. By doing this it speeds up the composting. I have three large composting bins that I can compost at varies stages.
as long as you understand the risk meat and dairy are fine. the problem is people say don''t do it because they won't take the risk and think no one else should either.
@@roncatlin7271 I’d rather not use them.
I’ve put small amounts in from time to time. Especially if I have a load of material and I know it’ll get hot. But I can see why people just avoid altogether for simplicity.
@@samueljaramillo4221 that's fine. i didn't either until i started to investigate why people said don't do it. i don't add a lot but i will add bits of moldy cheese & cultured milk products that've gone bad for the fungal cultures and well cooked meats sparingly. my brother is on a carnivore diet right now so there is quite a bit of cooked liver scraps that i add for that nutrition. i am currently investigating deli meats and what effect the nitrates might have on the nitrogen cycle but for now they stay out.
I use my vita mix blender as well.
Finally!! Thank you! Easy to understand, easy to acquire 'stuff' and a brilliant idea for a compost bin!! I'm off to get me a f/f tomorrow! Is the shredder you use a good one? I'm looking for recommendations before I shell out dosh I don't really have!
The shredder I have was £100 a few years ago from screwfix. It’s not as good as the Bosch ones but it works well enough for what I need. Yeah the pallet bins only seem to work when you add loads of material to it and cover it up. Good luck with the next batches - it’s definitely easier on this scale with this method 😊. It’s so satisfying once you’ve cracked the nut. Mines is right at the end of the garden but I don’t mind the trip out there every few days tbh. I haven’t tied an in ground vermicompost but I’d be interested to know how you get on with it