How are the veggies coming along?

[sime42]

Very good; I'll stop pulling my bags apart and concentrate on the wife's!

 

Beware marketing though:  'biodegradable' isn't the same as 'compostable' and that's not the same as 'home compostable'.

 

Biodegradable means that if left long enough the bag will eventually break down.  Compostable means that the bag will compost at industrial composting temperatures, i.e. ~60C and above, not in your average home compost heap.

So don't be surprised if a biodegradable teabag takes 5 years to achieve it.

Some of the fossil fuel plastic previously used has been replaced by plant plastic in the form of PLA - Poly Lactic Acid.

 

I hope I'm right there; my info comes from a very clued up vegetarian daughter and my own research when seeking plastic-free teabags some months ago.

Bloody marketing! I fell for it the first time of reading. Thinking biodegradable meant it would disappear in my compost bin after a year or so. Maybe I won't bother with PG tips after all,.and just go back to putting all tea bags in the household waste. We have no food waste option for our rubbish collection with our LA, but I think all the household gets incinerated anyway.

Cheers to you and your daughter for the info!

 

PS. Avocados are amazingly tough. Skins and stones.

[topchippyles]

1 hour ago, gary112 said:

Yes i use a Merry Tiller,but always dug over by hand in the winter months first

That is cheating gary ☺️

[nepia]

9 hours ago, sime42 said:

PS. Avocados are amazingly tough. Skins and stones.

I stopped putting them in the compost years ago for just that reason

 

Anyone know what stops lawn moss decomposing?!

[sime42]

Avocados do eventually disappear. I tend to sieve the compost after getting it out of the bin each year. To get rid of any plastic crap and retrieve any cutlery! At the same time I chuck any bigger bits of un-composted organic debris, like avocado, into the bin to go through the next cycle.

Not sure what makes moss so tough but there's definitely something about it. It's used in hanging baskets as a liner and also a major constituent of carnivorous plant soil mixes. I grow some of these and the moss always lasts years before rotting down. Thinking laterally, maybe this is also why moss peat takes so many thousands of years to form any depth of.

[nepia]

I can't be waiting 5 years for an avo skin to rot!

 

The reason usually given for the slow formation of peat is absence of oxygen but the properties of the moss itself must also play a part.

 

There's no oxygen deficiency in my compost bin though!

[Doug Tait]

Moss might take longer to rot down as it has antibacterial properties. It was used as a wound dressing back in the day because of this.

[sime42]

Moss might take longer to rot down as it has antibacterial properties. It was used as a wound dressing back in the day because of this.

I was thinking about this too.

[Doug Tait]

Google thinks that Moss requires specialist bacteria to break it down due to the high Lignin content, which may not be found in the average compost bin but more common in soil.

[Unframed Dave]

Weeing on moss kills it. I'm gradually and methodically killing a patch in the woods, or perhaps it's just my own distillation.

[nepia]

I'll mark the lawn out in 6" squares and aim for two a day 🤣