Hello Autumn!
What materials might you find in your garden to compost?
Autumn is a great time of the year to find plenty of compost-able material in the garden and get the HOTBIN operating at the higher end of hot composting temperatures.
So, what materials might you find in your garden to compost during late summer and early autumn?
You can prune flowers, mow your lawn, cut-back evergreens, hardy geraniums, shrubs, etc., and add them to your compost pile. Here are more tips for composting during this season...
Mix Leaves with Grass
Leaves are great to mix in on your HOTBIN Composter in Autumn, with easy to digest waste such as grass. If you have a large lawn and trees... you can mix grass and leaves 50/50 by volume, and add them into the HOTBIN. This mix will get to 140o F quickly reducing the waste and enabling you to top up in 5-7 days.
The leaf/grass combination allows the high temperature generated by the fast decomposition of the grass to help break down the leaves leaving a small amount of lignin based material in the base (complex organic polymer in the walls of many plants), to finish off.
Composting Small Amounts of Leaves in the HOTBIN
If you have relatively small amounts of leaves in your yard, you can shred them and mix them in with other waste each week, ensuring bulking agent and shredded paper are also added.
Top Tip: Shred leaves before adding to speed up breakdown, this can be done with a leaf blower or a lawn mower.
Lastly, do not forget to add the indicated amount of shredded paper and mulch/wood-chips.