To posh to compost!!

[hedgerow pete]

As you do when cycling to work i have noticed that all the posh and i do mean very posh houses.
There was, the day before the council do there green bag collection a massive amount of bags of leaves. All sat outside thier neet gardens for me to just pop along and collect, at night after me tea has gone down. So i did several times in fact twice a week for the last three weeks. We have collected over 50 bags of leaves with the odd bag of lawn moss very nice it was too. Several bags of hedge trimmings which were sorted out and 350 cuttings taken. 200 at the bee shed and another 150 for my friend at another plot to make hedges. so loads of leaf mulch for the plots some get covered in it as a weed mulch the rest goes into the leaf pile which has to be built up to a massive pile so it rots down to next to nothing. Aswell as the big sand bag we use in the park to collect leaves we now have lawers and doctors and bankers sweeping thier gardens just for hedgerow to collect up for his allotment. lifes great at times

 

[MuswellMetro]

i use to compost, but time .sorting out the waste and work stop me..

.then we got recylce bins, cans ,paper, then they added plastic bottles...then plastic trays, batteries, then garden waste

last of all, kitchen waste caddies....well after about two weeks, i thought, why am i giving all this green waste and kitchen waste to the council.....so raided several skips and now compost...quite suprised how much you make in a year

 

[hedgerow pete]

I make on average a pile around three foot square and five foot tall and then it rots down to three foot square and 3 foot tall and its great on my allotment , we make on average each year about 30 of them some very well rooted some not so rotted but we can always use that as mulch instaed the worms go mad for it, save money by not having to buy horse muck

 

[Heather]

Please don't be so presumptuous Pete. I have a 'posh' home ( so some would say).
I have 6 compost pits,each 6'x3' x 4'deep. I have just rotated the last one today to allow for the leaf compost which is beginning to need collecting.I have a kitchen compost near the house and a wormery - so we aint all 'too posh to compost'
But good luck with your collecting - pleased it isn't being wasted

 

[hedgerow pete]

some of these houses i should think the gardens are so big the bottom oart is in a differant postcode, should they not have enough area for thier compost bins, just seams such a waste of good raw materials , but all they want is clean garden areas not leaf piles

 

[shonabee]

Am I wierd?

I love composting stuff. I even like turning the heap, and have been known to -gasp -remember to water it occasionally. It's like being a magician (I realise is more to do with natural processes than me, but gotta get ego massaged where you can!).
Leaf mould isn't as good to make as I just stick it in a bin bag, make some holes at the bottom, wet it, and leave it behind the shed for a year. Even I can't take credit for what happens to it then.....but it still strikes me as being wierdly magical.
I sound like a pagany hippy type but am not at all....

 

[Heather]

I layer one heap leaf mould with grass, to speed up the process.
I leave one heap all leaves turn occasionally and it takes 2 years to mulch- I live in such a clay area only put mulch on top as too claggy to spade through.
Yep, I enjoy it too - and its cheaper than the gym!!

 

[hedgerow pete]

i collect my leaves with a petrol lawn mower in the park, or i shred them with the mower at the allotment. they rot within a year if not sooner, if you have posh houses and a massive amount of leaves i iuse 5 layers of newspaer as a mulch and six inchs of leaves on the top once they are wet they dont fly away or you can cover the area with them and then some mesh to keep them dowm the worms will shift most of them for your over the winter

 

[MJBee]

The majority of the trees that surround my garden are oak and edible chestnut.
I rake up the leaves and compost them but the locals advised me not to use them on the garden presumably because of the tannin. Anyone got any ideas on this?
Regards Mike

 

[hedgerow pete]

yep the leaves do contain a lot of tannin but since it thats several years to rott them down there is nothing to worry about its a myth spread by idiots that read a book once by another idiot the other myth is that if you use horse muck with wood shaving the shavings rob nitroen to rot down and so strip it from the soil. small detail but horse shavings are wet because of the horse urine which is nitroen by the way so as such no they dont rob but add

 

[Heather]

Oh Pete- lets perpetuate the myth of 'posh' houses.
My 6 compost heaps are covered with fitted bubble insulated excess from the swimming pool cover!! All matching blue

And I had the sewer drain rods out yesterday! And an arm into a kitchen drain to clear it. Two baths and I can still smell the kitchen drain

 

[VEG]

Lol must be all that posh nosh going down the drains

Sorry couldnt resist

 

[hedgerow pete]

yep its true marks and spencers blocks your drains, should have gone to waitrose.

can i just point out that only posh people would have there own set of posh drain rods, where they engraved, bamboo made by the posh peoples suppliers. you cant have plastic ones they are for the commoners to use. i am surprised you did not use a commoner as the drainage rod. does this also mean that if you only have drain rods that you still use a small child to climb the chimney, or do you have a seperate set of chimney rods to sit next to the drain rods in the triple store garge next to the servent quarters. ha ha ha ha ha

shame your not closer i could pop around and clear them for you. mums drains used to play up for years till the dreaded clean out weekend we had a few years back, now that was fun not

 

[milkermel]

Not using oak leaves could also be spreading from the fear of SOD Sudden oak death. Depending on what area you live in the fear is worse!!! I work in a plant nursery in cornwall and in the last year several of our larger customers have refused to purchase camellias and rhododendrons plus certain other shrubs due to the fear of SOD so mabe based on that people are thinking that oak leaves may carry the desease back into your garden??wouldnt worry about it though I tend to chuck everything on my heap and have had good veggies this year!

 

[hedgerow pete]

i thought it was conker trees that were doomed

 

[milkermel]

nah list is constantly growing!!! pieris, rhodos camellias, think viburnam and a new one has just been added not sure if it was a type of willow or lime. will ask the boss on Monday. they are all suseptable to the phytophthera (SOD) but like i said deffra keep finding new plants that are affected. Oh and magnolias are another one that can get it. main way it is spread down here in cornwall is via the rhododendron rhenorum (not sure of spelling!!!) the wild one. lots has been cleared to reduce risk of spreading desease

 

[hedgerow pete]

its correct spelling is
RRRRROOAAD EEEDDD AAAA DEEMM EE NUM
see easy when you know who

 

[MJBee]

No SODs over here - we are part of the posh composters group
Mike

 

[lazybee]

No SODs over here - we are part of the posh composters group
Mike

Well I get SOD in Charente. Some of the big healthy looking oaks too. It's doesn't worry me too much as I burn wood. I loose on average 1 oak every 2 to 3 years but new ones grow so not a disaster. My conker trees get attacked by little tiny leaf mining moths. The infestation reaches it's peak late in the season and the leaves drop early, but the trees don't seem to suffer (fingers crossed)

I'm lucky with compost and get 2 barrow fulls of horse poo per day. Double edged sword though. I have to put electric tape around the hives to stop the buggers scratching their bums on them

 

[MJBee]

Although my comment was tongue in cheek I have not seen any evidence of SOD in this area. I also burn wood and have 5 acres of woodland Oak Sweet Chestnut mainly with a scattering of Birch and False Acasia. The conker chestnut round here also suffers from the leaf miner.
Mike