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Old rug on compost?

Tin potTin pot Posts: 724
in Tools and techniques
We’re getting rid of a large old rug roughly 2m x 3m. Is it worth folding up ontop of the compost to keep the heat in?

can compost get too hot?  I don’t want to have to store this rug in summer.
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Posts

  • FireFire LondonPosts: 5,052
    edited April 2018
    Yes. It's a good idea.
  • KT53KT53 Posts: 3,278
    Rather than folding the rug I would cut it into pieces and layer it on. 
  • LynLyn DevonPosts: 13,144
    Ours are covered with an old carpet, if it’s pure Wool you can use it but most carpets are polyester or acrylics. They won’t ever rot down. Ours have been on our bins for 10 years, no signs of rot. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 13,183
    Put plastic compost sacks on the top of the heat, and water that evaporates condenses on it and goes back into the heap. Then put the carpet on top of that, to keep the heat in. 
    You don't stop doing new things because you get old, you get old because you stop doing new things. <3
  • LynLyn DevonPosts: 13,144
    edited April 2018
    We’ve also got corrugated sheets over the top as well. Heats up a treat under that lot😀🔥🔥🔥 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • a1154a1154 Posts: 709
    Hmm I have a sheet of insulation on mine, but always find it gets too dry. It sounds like I need a layer of compost bags, then the insulation. 
  • LynLyn DevonPosts: 13,144
    Get all the men in your family to pee in it as well, and put a couple of shovels of garden soil in to introduce the correct bacteria’s.   If you can get a bag of horse poo and grass clippings, that will get it hot in the middle.
    If it’s really too dry, put a watering can over it. We don’t get that problem, it’s almost always raining some time of the day here. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • a1154a1154 Posts: 709
    Erm....but you have it covered so don’t benefit from the rain? Confused. 
    There is no way I’d be able to get my husband to do that! Got soil, got grass cuttings. 
    I have watered it (waste water) and covered now with a square of pond liner, so I’ll see if it stays a bit wetter. 
  • LynLyn DevonPosts: 13,144
    I wouldn’t use plastic over the top, that’s up to you,  the heap needs to breath, it has lots of bacteria and worms that make it work, they need to breath. with a carpet the rain gets in and the also runs of the corrugated so keep its moist.  
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Tin potTin pot Posts: 724
    Nobody is peeing on the carpet if I am touching it!

    The carpet will get wet with the rain, I won’t line it with plastic and will continue to water the compost underneath with the hose.
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