wire bay · hedge-trimmings-chipped-two-year-cureRunning
Hedge trimmings, chipped, and left for eight months
- day in bin
- 150
- C:N in
- 35:1
- water in
- 39%
- peak
- 48 °C
One bench, logged in full
Every batch weighed, every curve as it actually ran
A season of home composting recorded at a single bench: the feedstock weights as they went in, the C:N calculated before the pile was built, the moisture at every turn, and the temperature curve the pile actually ran — including the weeks it stalled, soured, or cooked itself past 70 °C.
- batch logs published
- 19of the season, newest first
- bin systems in the record
- 8tumbler · wire bay · pallet bin · sealed bucket · insulated bin · windrow · worm tray · in-situ bed
- feedstocks tabulated
- 60C:N, moisture, nitrogen, dose
- faults indexed
- 30symptom, cause, fix
C:N and moisture calculator
Enter what you have and the arithmetic updates as you type. It runs entirely in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere — and the same method is written out in the C:N and moisture calibration log.
Blended C:N
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waiting for input
Blended moisture
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waiting for input
waiting for input
On the bench
The most recent batches in the record, with the day count since charge and the curve each one actually ran.
worm tray · worm-tray-kitchen-scrap-onlyCured
A four-tray worm system on kitchen scraps, nine harvests in
- days since charge
- 261
- C:N in
- 20:1
- water in
- 65%
- peak
- 22 °C
pallet bin · spent-mushroom-substrate-recycleCured
Spent mushroom substrate, straight from a commercial grower
- days since charge
- 188
- C:N in
- 39:1
- water in
- 60%
- peak
- 67 °C
Troubleshooting
Start from the symptom. Thirty faults, each with the cause and what to do about it.
- The pile will not heat Temperature sits within 5 °C of ambient for a week or more. The material looks fine and does not smell. In order of likelihood: the pile is too small (under 0.9 m³), too dry (under 40 % moisture)…
- Ammonia smell A sharp, cleaning-product smell at the vent or when the lid is opened, often strongest in the first week. Too much nitrogen relative to carbon. The pile is releasing nitrogen as ammonia gas instead of…
- Sour or rancid smell A vinegar, silage or rancid-butter smell, usually with a temperature drop of several degrees. Anaerobic conditions. The material has compacted or matted, air can no longer move through it…
- Pile is dry and crumbly The material crumbles rather than clumps, the surface looks dusty, and the temperature is below 40 °C. Moisture below 40 %. Most often caused by using far more dry browns by weight than intended…
- Plants yellowing after compost or chip mulch Pale, yellowing lower leaves and stalled growth within two to four weeks of applying wood-based compost or digging… Nitrogen immobilisation. High-carbon material dug into soil feeds the microbes that break it…
- Pile runs above 70 °C Core readings above 70 °C, a sharp smell of scorching, and visible white ash-grey microbial bloom. Very large mass, high nitrogen and 55-60 % moisture together. Above 70 °C the useful…
Methods
The methods the batches above were run under.
- 01 Sheet mulching: composting in place instead of in a bin
- 02 Cold composting: the pile that takes a year and needs almost nothing
- 03 Running a tumbler properly: two charges, not one
- 04 Working out C:N and moisture before the pile is built
- 05 The 18-day hot method, and why the size rule is not negotiable
Latest log entries
Newest first. Batch logs, method write-ups and reference tables post as the season runs.
Batch log
Hedge trimmings, chipped, and left for eight months
Not everything in a compost bay is trying to be a hot pile. 300 L of chipped privet and hawthorn took 240 days and produced the best mulch in the garden.
Method
Sheet mulching: composting in place instead of in a bin
Sometimes the right place to put 80 kg of compostable material is not a bin at all. A sheet-mulched bed converts lawn into growing space in one afternoon, using the same carbon and…
Batch log
A four-tray worm system on kitchen scraps, nine harvests in
No heat, no turning, no smell — but a 20 °C temperature ceiling that makes or breaks the whole system, and the pH drift that a strictly kitchen-scrap diet causes.
Reference
Garden and yard residues: what to compost, what to burn, what to bin
Eighteen materials from the garden, including the four that should never go in a compost pile at all — not because they will not break down, but because they will break down into something…
Batch log
Spent mushroom substrate, straight from a commercial grower
120 kg of spent oyster-mushroom blocks, already white with mycelium, and why the single most important step is breaking the blocks apart on the day they arrive.
Method
Cold composting: the pile that takes a year and needs almost nothing
Not every pile is a project. A passive stack on the ground, built once, turned once, produces compost and leaf mould with about twenty minutes of work a year — and it is the right method…
The record at a glance
Every published batch side by side, so the numbers can be read across the season rather than one page at a time.
| batch | bin | kg in | C:N in | water in | days | peak °C | state |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hedge-trimmings-chipped-two-year-cure | wire bay | 200.0 | 35:1 | 39% | 240 | 48 | Running |
| worm-tray-kitchen-scrap-only | worm tray | 62.7 | 20:1 | 65% | 180 | 22 | Cured |
| spent-mushroom-substrate-recycle | pallet bin | 142.5 | 39:1 | 60% | 86 | 67 | Cured |
| municipal-green-waste-windrow | windrow | 592.0 | 41:1 | 48% | 110 | 78 | Cured |
| poultry-litter-sawdust-winter-bin | insulated bin | 104.0 | 17:1 | 49% | 148 | 58 | Cured |
| office-shred-and-cardboard-cube | insulated bin | 40.9 | 9:1 | 35% | 96 | 64 | Curing |
| bokashi-bran-then-outdoor-burial | sealed bucket | 86.6 | 16:1 | 41% | 68 | 25 | Cured |
| horse-manure-straw-pallet-bin | pallet bin | 129.0 | 32:1 | 50% | 132 | 64 | Cured |
| grass-clippings-cardboard-cage | wire bay | 15.5 | 23:1 | 46% | 88 | 68 | Cured |
| oak-leaf-coffee-chaff-crib | tumbler | 43.9 | 32:1 | 44% | 74 | 63 | Cured |
How to read a batch log
The same five numbers appear on every batch page, in the same order.
Every batch page opens with the sheet: each feedstock with its weight, its C:N and its moisture as it went in, and the carbon that row contributes. The blend row at the foot is the arithmetic result — not the plan. Where the two disagree, both are shown.
Carbon equivalent is weight × C:N/(C:N+1). It is the honest way to add a 350:1 cardboard to a 20:1 coffee ground, because the ratio alone tells you nothing about mass. Materials entered at 0:1 — water, ash, minerals — are excluded from the ratio and counted only where they change moisture.
Moisture is a squeeze test at the bench and a dried sample once a month. The squeeze test is good to about ±5 %: holds together with a faint sheen and no drips is the target, and it is what the water column in each sheet records.
The curve at the foot of the page is drawn from readings taken 30 cm into the core before and after every turn. The dashed line at 55 °C is the pasteurisation line — three consecutive days above it is the working definition of a hot batch, and no page claims it unless the curve shows it. Squares mark the days the pile was turned, which is why the curve often steps down at a square.
- Raw feedtop layer, still recognisable, feeding the core below
- Hot corethe working zone, where the 55 °C line is crossed or missed
- Curedcooled, stabilised, no longer reheating when turned
- Rest & screenleft to rest, then screened before it goes on a bed
