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Nov 2023
1:21pm, 7 Nov 2023
48,492 posts
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EvilPixie
I guessed as much
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Nov 2023
1:54pm, 7 Nov 2023
30,347 posts
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Rosehip
Mine always ends up with some soil in, as long as it’s well mixed it adds microbes and doesn’t cool too much.
Does your darlek not have a slide ip door?
Those ‘compostible’ bags fall apart between the kitchen bin and the street one, but last forever in the compost bin
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Nov 2023
2:03pm, 7 Nov 2023
48,493 posts
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EvilPixie
yes it has a tiny "door" but I think as it all needs emptying that just taking the top off might be easier?
the breaking of the bags was why we stopped with them
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Nov 2023
2:09pm, 7 Nov 2023
22,531 posts
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3M
I usually shovel out what can be shovelled through the hatch, then shake the dalek vigorously, and put the shovel in the top and stir/dig around a bit to give it a push down, then dig through the door hatch again, and repeat....
It makes a lot less mess on the ground around it, especially if said ground is difficult to scrape or get to (mine is in a corner sort of half behind a tree....).
You just have to remember not to stab through the floor base (if you have one) of the dalek with your spade!
I normally end up checking the top 25% that hasn't composted down properly yet, plus any other rough bits, into the next bin over.
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Nov 2023
2:09pm, 7 Nov 2023
22,532 posts
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3M
*checking = chucking!
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Nov 2023
3:35pm, 7 Nov 2023
66,175 posts
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Velociraptor
I got as much mature compost as I could out of the hatch on my daleks, then when the stuff on the top avalanched into the gap I'd created I tipped them over and spent a bit of time getting all the unrotted material into one dalek and the stuff that's ready to be used any time into the other. Over the winter we'll keep adding to the "work in progress" dalek and leave the mature compost in the other to use in the spring.
When we got the daleks we'd had an open compost receptacle made out of old doors and the compost had done nothing in a couple of years apart from going through repeated freeze/thaw cycles. We transferred the contents into a dalek and they rotted down nicely. Everything apart from eggshells seems to break down and even things like compostable cups and wrappers haven't done too badly. One of the daleks did have a mass of grass clippings and cardboard part way down that was sitting there like a big soggy poultice and I've taken that out, broken it up, and chucked it on a border that I'll be planting up in the spring.
Pix, if the stuff in your dalek is all appropriate stuff for composting it might be worth just giving it a good stir.
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Nov 2023
4:35pm, 7 Nov 2023
22,534 posts
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3M
You need to watch out for this, though.
Keep the spade handy....
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Nov 2023
9:23am, 9 Nov 2023
66,202 posts
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Velociraptor
My father's take on eggshells in compost: "Of course they don't break down, they're still finding dinosaur eggs."
He's going to save his remaining summer bedding plants for my dalek. A lot of them are still blooming merrily became there hasn't been a proper frost yet.
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Nov 2023
10:41am, 9 Nov 2023
4,257 posts
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Bob!
I've just come back from a week away, and have picked a load of Loganberries and raspberries.
It's November!
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Nov 2023
7:17pm, 9 Nov 2023
22,550 posts
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3M
Were still harvesting raspberries, although they have slowed up a bit.
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Sunlight, Warmth, Happiness… and triffids
Jul 2020
