Stevens Street Allotment /Market Harborough and the Bowdens Charity: Have recently conducted  a Community hot composting trial

Hot composting is a well proven method designed to produce good quality compost - often in bulk but in a much shorter time period than the more common (cool) composting bin, bay or heap.  It is used by many organisations to process city green waste and by a growing number of community composting projects.

The incentive for the Stevens St trial was the need to process the large amounts of materials cleared from well over 100 individual plots - particularly things like perennial weeds, and woody waste which aren't suitable for normal cool composting on their own heaps plus material from the common areas - and stored in dump bags / piles.  Ideally, this mixed ‘waste’ would be graded, composted and used on site - avoiding the cost, labour and environmental impact of hiring skips or getting it trailered to the local Recycling Centre. The report can be found at at www.carryoncomposting.com  If you are on the blog click Hot Composting trial

The wind has removed most of the leaves from the trees in the garden and the sun should dry them enough to suck up and shred them with the blower this afternoon. This will be my final batch of leavescollected to make leafmold from the fall. As they are dry I will be saving some in a bin as a source of carbon for my food composters over the winter. For more information on leafmold check out Leafmould  I  have made some minor changes to this page.

Outdoor activities for schools and community groups

It is recognised that outdoor activities can have a positive impact on the wellbeing and attainment of children and young people and that children like to be outside

While activities such as canoeing, climbing,  orienteering, outdoor activities are often the first to come to mind there are other of a more activities of a more obvious  educational nature e.g.   forest schools, bug and plant hunts in parks and gardens and fieldwork for older students that can take place closer to the school or even in the school grounds.   Outdoor activities can teach pupils to become more confident in their local environment and environmentally aware.

 Composting and related waste management and reduction sessions can help the student to gain knowledge of sustainability and ecology which can then be shared with their family and friendswhile having fun outdoors.

Among the possible outdoor school sessions included on at Carryoncomposting.com (http://www.carryoncomposting.com/142941457)   are Sorting Recyclable and Compostable Waste, Lunch Box waste, Compost Creatures and Safari, Making Compost, Making a Rotbot a Compost bin in a bottle),   Filling a compost bin, Decomposition Rates in a Compost bin or wormery, Compostable and Biodegradable materials, Worm Composting bins and Making Seed and Potting compost.

Once the waste generated by Halloween has been cleared away we start planning for Christmas, a festival which results in even more food waste. In the UK it is estimated that nearly 10 per cent of every festive meal is wasted. This is  valued at about £64million.  About a third of diners admit to wasting some of their  Christmas dinner .

We waste the equivalent to 263,000 turkeys, 17.2 million Brussels sprouts and 740,000 Christmas puddings. Some estimates put the figures even higher at two million turkeys and  five million Christmas puddings  not forgetting 74 million mince pies. The festival is completed by discarding 250 tonnes of Christmas Trees in January but we will look at this in a later blog.

Plan now for Christmas food waste composting

The key message to reduce Christmas food waste is Reduce, Reuse and Recycle but as a composting website our message is  that  if you should have ate it compost it. This covers all “unavoidable” food waste  including cooked food. Now is the time to plan to extend the range of food waste  that we can compost by adding a food compost bin to our Christmas list or by buying one as a December  treat. Depending on your needs and resources one of the following three  bins can take  your cooked food waste including bones, garden waste and even pet waste if operated at 40-60°C.  Composting Food

Green Johanna

I have used a  Green Johanna, both at home and on our Demonstration sites, for eight or nine  years.  All Christmas food waste can be composted as well as garden waste. A winter jacket can be purchased separately to keep it working  when the average outdoor temperature drops below 5°C but I tend to wrap mine in several layers of bubble wrap.  Price approx £120

Hotbin

I have two Hotbins in use at the Demonstration site using them mainly to compost waste food from the cafe. They are well insulated so ideal for winter use and it is relatively easy to maintain a compost temperature of 40-55C  provided they are fed regularly. I use woodchip as the main bulking agent but also add shredded paper to help absorb the moisture. Approx price £185

Jorraform 125

The Joraform compost tumblers are the expensive but are excellent for food composting  being quick and easy of use. I use mine to compost waste food from the Demonstration site cafe. They have a rust proof galvanized steel construction insulated with polyethylene.  Wood pellets or wood shavings are recommended as a bulking agent but I use wood chip which is available for free locally. I have used one of these bins for about seven years. Being a tombola drum shaped tumbler system they are easy to aerate.  Approx price £349

Other systems that can be used for food waste

Green Cone

The Green Cone consists  of a with a double skinned cone on top a food container that resembles a “laundry basket’ buried in the ground. It requires the regular use of an activator which is added to the waste  with the nutrients from the waste draining   away into the surrounding soil. It needs a well drained soil and should not be filled above ground level. The concept is simple but I have found that many users, ignore the instructions, and treat the Cone as a compost bin by filling it to the very top and then find that it does not work. Price £100 approx

Bokashi

Bokashi, is an indoor system using anaerobic fermentation to compost food waste without attracting vermin. It produces a liquid that can be used to deodorise drains and a solid  waste can be either buried in the garden or added to a dalek composter or similar. It is ideal for use in flats and where relatively small quantities of food waste are produced.  Price from £24.99 for a twin pack

Wormery

Single chamber or stacking  womeries will take most food waste  and can be used by those in flats (there are now quite smart indoor wormeries in both plastic and stainless steel) , apartments, balconies or small gardens. Single chamber £39 -£80, stacking £54 - £150

November is not to late to  apply compost as a mulch it can be applied both to established beds and around specimen plants. Compost can be used as mulch to top dress the lawn in the autumn when people are less likely to spend time in the garden and may not worry about the look of compost on the lawn.

If using  an open pile or New Zealand bin and it has not been covered yet there is still time to do so using  carpet, tarpaulin or a compost duvet. 

There should still plenty of material available to feed the compost heap with more becoming available as plants in the flower bed catch the frost.  If it is not practical to start a second bin, store the extra material it in a covered pile or plastic sack It is important to keep the pile dry, as dry material will heat up in a bin more quickly than wet. Material being saved in the autumn for use as bulking agent in food composting e.g. sawdust or composted wood chip used should also be kept dry. (I keep mine in plastic dustbins)  

The tops and trimmers of root vegetables will continue to be available for composting on the allotment and their peelings from the kitchen. Plants with discoloured and blotchy leaves are safe to compost as the organisms causing the blotches will be broken down in during the composting process.  Carved pumpkins can be composted after Halloween Composting Pumpkins chopped and composted. 

 It is helpful to turn the compost bin, to mix the new material and aerate it to encourage the composting processes before the onset of winter.  

Towards the end of the month it is advisable to check the consistency and moisture level of the contents. If the material is too dry more greens can be added e.g. nettles and annual weeds along with water or the sludge from compost tea. If too wet scrumpled cardboard shredded paper, woodchip or sawdust can be added.

Wormeries should be moved into a shed or outbuilding or if they are to be left outside during the winter the bin should be insulated so that the contents and worms are not frozen, I have round that a triple layer of bubble wrap   makes an excellent insulating material which does not absorb water, is clean and easy to reuse. The worms will still need feeding during the winter, although at a reduced rate,   so a removable bubble wrap lid should be included.  

Bag autumn leaves for leaf mould or as a carbon-rich winter source of Browns for the compost bin on the allotment where cardboard or shredded paper will not be available.  The autumn leaves can also be used immediately in the compost  bin layering them with grass clippings, kitchen waste  and other plant material  but remember that the leaves tend to be slow to decompose, so this may not be the method of choice (see Leaf mould). Some leaves can be set aside to add to the compost bin during the winter months to provide a source of Browns when most of the other material being added is kitchen waste.