dccn

Devon's Composting has never been so GREAT!

Welcome to the Devon Community Composting Network (DCCN) Website - Now with much more than before. Not just community composting but lots on home composting and my pet subject - composting food waste. 

DCCN has been involved for years at looking at composting food waste - from pioneering work done with Proper Job in Chagford - through to developing compost systems with the Compost Doctors - (see Green Machine solutions and Ridan 

DCCN is now involved primarily with helping schools to compost food waste - see schools section. 

It's fantastic.The world of community composting is incredibly diverse.  So many people from so many walks of life from all over the Country are involved in composting in their communities; why? (Download information pack on Community Composting section Home Page)

 Well there is no single reason and I’m sure that if you asked them you would get a huge range of answers.  Some common themes are bound to emerge though.  For one thing we all hate to see wastage of valuable resources.  All composters hate to see lovely potential compost being landfilled or burnt. 

Most composters are also gardeners and it is extremely rare to find a gardener who has enough compost!  Especially no dig gardeners and so look for every scrap of material that could be turned into compost.  Community composters are pragmatic people, they like action more than words and want to do something – now!  After all what could be simpler than diverting some garden clippings, otherwise destined for landfill, to make compost.  Saving all that pollution not only at the landfill but also by trucking it there and at the same time improving local soils and sequestering carbon.  The mandatory waste reduction targets and the Kyoto protocol on carbon emissions, are just two good reasons why Devon Local Authorities are so supportive of community composting.

Also see www.recycledevon.org for Devon wide recycling and waste information

Leaf mould - composting leaves down load PDF below

 

 

 
Download Make_leafmould

this is pretty large scale stuff but you can make leafmould on any scale

 
Composting leaves to make leafmould. (from 'How to make and use - COMPOST the ultimate guide' by Nicky Scott published by Green Books 2010)

Before deciduous trees shut down for winter, they extract as much food as they can from their leaves, leaving a carbon-rich autumn leaf to fall. When they land, these leaves are broken down mainly by fungi to become leafmould and provide a marvellous rich source of humus.

 Leafmould is a really useful material to have for potting and seed-growing media mixes. If you don’t have many leaves, just add them to your compost heap.

To make a leafmould bin

To make a simple container that will stop the leaves blowing around, all you need are four posts, set in the ground to form a square, wrapped around with some chicken wire. You don’t need a lid or anything fancy. As some leaves take two or more years to break down you might want to build more than one enclosure.

If you have only small amounts of leaves then you could just stuff them into plastic sacks – make sure they are wet when they go in and stab a few holes in the sacks with a fork. Find a place to put these sacks out of the way and the contents will gradually transform over two to three years into leafmould. (NB some leaves, e.g. plane and sycamore leaves, take longer – up to three years.)

Making speedy leafmould

If you have a mower that chops and mixes leaves with the grass you can put both into a bin, which will speed up the composting process. Or you can turn out the leafmould from the bin the following summer, mix it well with fresh lawn mowings and restack. Adding urine to your leafmould will also speed things up!

Sieving your leafmould

Once you’ve made your leafmould, if you sieve it you get the most wonderful product which you can use as an ingredient in potting and seed composts.

 

Nicky on You tube composting

 

 

This is part one of the composting video I made for Teignbridge - getting the best from your Dalek bin - also follow on for other parts!