One bad experience can put people off composting for life.
Something we hear a lot is – we had a composter for years but it just sat there doing nothing.
This was the experience of Adam and Hayley. After a few attempts, despite their best efforts, they kept encountering the same problem – very slow breakdown of waste materials with hardly any compost produced.
But they were still keen to have another go, this time using a Green Johanna for the first time.
We’ll follow Adam and Hayley’s progress and answer any questions as they arise.
Setting up
Getting their Green Johanna up and running, Adam and Hayley found:
Instructions were easy to follow.
They were able to assemble and set up the composter in an hour.
The instruction manual was handy for answering questions.
They were able to get started without any issues.
Assembling the Johanna in sections meant it was easy to move around to choose a spot in the garden compared to the pre-built composters they had tried in the past.
Handily, a tree in their garden had fallen down in the wind so they had a ready store of twigs and branches to use as the foundation base in the bottom of the bin to provide airflow and drainage. This stage only took about 10 minutes to sort out.
Despite their earlier disappointing composting experiences, the couple are keen to try again because of the many benefits home composting brings – both to the environment and to the user.
Adam said: ‘I’m really excited to continue to use the Johanna and get some compost.’
We’ll report back on Adam and Hayley’s progress.
Outside the box: Setting up, helped – or rather watched – by Archie the amazing Shihpoo.
Choosing the spot – base in place.
Getting the sections in line.
Adding twigs to create a foundation for drainage and airflow.
Every day 165 million cups of tea are drunk in Britain – and that’s just in our house.
Since today is National Tea Day (April 21), I expect a lot more facts will be shared and the ones I’ll be paying close attention to are those concerning plastic.
Like millions of other tea drinkers, I was alarmed a few years ago to learn that most tea bags contained plastic – polypropylene – used to heat-seal the edges of the bags.
This news sparked health concerns among tea drinkers as well as raising questions about the effect on the soil and wildlife when these tea bags were composted.
Of those millions of cups of tea drunk every day, 96 per cent are made with tea bags. So if you were home-composting your share of those tea bags you might have been unwittingly leaving bits of microplastic (tiny pieces of plastic less than 5mm in size) in the soil.
As a result of the controversy, manufacturers started to remove polypropylene from their teabags. Naively, I thought that was the end of it and that now in 2023 we would all be taking our tea with milk and sugar but no plastic, thanks.
While talking to a customer recently, the topic turned to composting tea bags. We both remembered early attempts at plastic-free teabags that led to the bags dissolving in the cup, but we didn’t know the current state of play. I resolved to find out more – more of which later.
Like many Brits, I feel there are few situations in life that can’t be improved by a nice cup of tea. My day can’t start before at least a pint of Earl Grey has entered my system and the rest of the day is propped up at regular intervals by yet more tea. Sometimes I ask myself if this is a psychological thing. The very words, ‘I’ll put the kettle on’ appear to have a soothing Pavlovian effect on my nervous system. So why, on any given day, are there half-cups of cold tea littered around our house and office? It’s as though the thought of having a cup of tea always seems like a good idea even if I’m not that bothered about actually drinking it. Just thinking about it is enough.
There’s probably a lot in there for a psychotherapist to unpick, but meanwhile my tea research has made me wake up to a blind spot I have when it comes to wasting tea. I take great care not to waste food but don’t give the same consideration to drinks; it’s as if because they’re liquid they don’t count. So many problems with waste are caused through us being creatures of habit.
Of course, I’m using energy every time I put the kettle on, not to mention wasting the tea, the water and soya milk that’s used if I don’t drink the whole cup. Every half-cup of wasted tea is a waste of the earth’s resources. It all matters.
So this is one robotic, wasteful habit that I’m in the process of breaking. From now on I will be mindful not mindless about putting the kettle on.
On my own personal tea travels, I stopped drinking my regular brand a few years ago because of concerns about plastic and switched to Hampstead Tea. I was particularly interested to learn about this brand’s commitment to biodynamic farming – an organic, ecological approach, employing the use of manures and compost.
Studying the subject again recently has made me rethink the following:
I have decided to switch to loose leaf tea. Then I don’t have to think at all about plastic particles, bag materials or questions of compostability.
Tea bags only became freely available in the 1950s, meaning that many generations before me had to contend with tea leaves and old-fashioned teapots. And they all seemed to cope just fine, along with other challenges such as having to slice their own bread. When I think of family members talking about how hard life used to be, there were memories of poverty, short life expectancy, outside toilets and tin baths, but I don’t recall anyone ever saying, ‘And on top of all that, we didn’t have tea bags!’
(I think I may still need an emergency tea bag stash as back-up while I transition.)
Other advantages of being a loose (leaf) woman:
Less package waste
The tea itself tends to be less processed and retains more of the original flavour
You can adjust the strength and even blend your own.
Modern teapots have built-in infusers, meaning it’s easy to get the tea leaves into the compost and wash out the pot. I know this because I have such a teapot already but it’s used mainly as a colourful decoration. As well as being soothed by tea itself, I am also cheered by tea paraphernalia of any kind, including dainty tea cups and saucers that I accumulate but never use and pictures of tea pots on my kitchen walls.
But enough about my weirdness. If you’re reading this, I’m assuming that you want to home compost your tea bags. Tea leaves are ideal compost material, providing high levels of nitrogen (even higher than manures) and small particles so compost bacteria have more surface area to work on.
On my internet trawl to find out more about plastic in tea bags, I found confusing and conflicting information, with experts arguing about the merits of bioplastics. And that’s before you start reading comments underneath articles. The word biodegradable is also bandied about by many interested parties as though it’s an ecological holy grail when all it means is that material will break down eventually, but you won’t know how long that will take and under what conditions.
Online information also quickly goes out of date because some tea brands are still working towards their plastic-free goals, which might have been achieved after articles have been published.
I’ve spent several hours that I’ll never get back reading through studies and articles; my advice to a home-composting tea drinker would be to contact your favourite brand and find out where they are on the plastic-free/compostable journey.
Points to consider:
Many tea brands are still using polypropylene. If tea bags contain plastic, you can compost the leaves but throw the bag in general waste. Plastic in tea bags sent to landfill will still enter the soil.
Be aware there may also be hidden plastics in sachets or string-and-tag bags.
Many brands that don’t use polypropylene use polylactic acid (PLA). This is a plant-based polymer (sometimes referred to as a bioplastic). It can also be called Soilon.
Plant material sources include corn starch, which can come from genetically modified (GM) maize – but this cannot be used in organic teabags.
While PLA is biodegradable, it requires industrial composting to break down because most ordinary garden composters might not get hot enough (44 – 60 degrees Celsius) to break down the bags. It is thought teabags containing PLA could take several years to degrade, and it is not known exactly how harmful it might be to organisms in the meantime. If your council has a separate food waste collection, teabags made with PLA can be placed into your food waste bin to be industrially composted.
Like oil-based plastics, if bioplastics end up in the ocean they can present a danger to marine life.
The origins of the tea bag might have been accidental – in 1908 an American tea importer who shipped silk tea bags around the world found that customers, instead of removing the leaves from the bags as he intended, found it easier to brew the tea with the tea leaves still enclosed in the porous bags.
Among comments following an online BBC report from 2019 are some from people who had been putting tea bags in home compost for years until they realised they were having to pick plastic remnants out of the soil – even 15 years later. One reader commented he had stopped composting tea bags for use as garden mulch when he saw birds picking up the bag remnants and using them in their nest building.
At home, our Green Johanna’s contents reach regular temperatures of between 40 – 60+ degrees Celsius; we measure the temperature every day. According to the Carry on Composting website, Composting – www.carryoncomposting.com, the corn starch Soilon can hot compost in 6-8 weeks. The site recommends cutting a couple of holes in tea bags so composting bacteria can easily access the leaves, accelerating the rate of decomposition.
The Ethical Consumer website Is there Plastic in my Tea? | Ethical Consumer features a chart based on information from Feb/March 2022 that lists the following as ‘best brands’: Clearspring, Essential, Hambledon Herbs, Hampstead tea, Heath and Heather, Higher Living and Dr Stuart’s, Pukka, Qi, Postcard, Teapigs, Yogi Tea.
The site also lists middle companies ‘who are using some PLA, or are in the process of switching’, as well as the worst. But bear in mind that the situation might have changed since then.
I’ll end with some ideas for homegrown tea that I read in the comments section of one article.
Easily sourced throughout the year from your garden: (dried) rosehip tea (dried) chamomile tea Fresh peppermint/spearmint tea Fresh nettle tea
When it comes to boosting the composting process, we have found a Bokashi bin to be the perfect partner for the Green Johanna.
We recently carried out trials involving additions of fermented food waste from a Maze Bokashi bin to a Green Johanna and found that temperatures in the Johanna rapidly increased as a result.
For our trials, we re-started a Johanna more or less from scratch, having previously removed large amounts of compost. Using a permanently installed insulation jacket and large amounts of Bokashi bran and carbon-rich materials, compost temperatures were around 30 degrees Celsius.
We added the contents of a Bokashi bin that had been fermenting for 21 days, followed by a full 1kg bag of Bokashi bran. We then added some mulch and stirred well with a garden fork, before completing the process with a thin layer of mulch.
The Johanna was then left for 48 hours. Temperatures rose to 66 degrees Celsius whilst outdoor temperatures were in the 0-10 degree range. After 48 hours we re-stirred to spread heat more widely through the Johanna. Using two Bokashi bins in rotation we repeated this cycle roughly every three weeks and got the same results.
We used the Green Johanna in combination with a regular kitchen caddy (as the Johanna needs regular feeding to maintain the hot composting process), twin-bin Bokashi system, Insulating Jacket, Bokashi Bran as an accelerant and plenty of mulch.
Photos show starting temperature at 30 degrees Celsius/adding fermented waste from a Bokashi bin/ adding Bokashi bran/temperature at 66 degrees Celsius.
The Bokashi process was developed in Japan in the 1980s; the term means ‘fermented organic matter’ in Japanese. It involves adding all your food waste, cooked and uncooked, to a specially designed airtight Bokashi bin, with the addition of Bokashi in the form of a fermented bran or spray. The food waste is compressed with a compactor to eliminate as much air as possible as this is an anaerobic process. Once the bin is full, you close the airtight lid and leave for 2-3 weeks. Many people use one or two bins to keep the process going.
The bacteria (lactobacilli) in the bran or spray will create lactic acid which will effectively pickle the food waste rather than letting it decompose as it would in a regular food waste caddy. After a week or so, liquid should start to form in the Bokashi bin which should be drained using the tap. This ‘Bokashi tea’ can be used as a drain cleaner or diluted for use as plant food.
At the end of the fermentation period the waste food is a pre-compost mixture that can be added to a composter or buried in soil to become a soil enhancer. Its composition is such that virtually all its original nutrients, carbon and energy enter rapidly into the soil. No greenhouse gases are released to the atmosphere as they are during regular food waste decomposition in landfill.
Bokashi composting has traditionally proven particularly popular in urban environments where traditional garden composting is difficult.
At Great Green Systems we’re always keen to share our and our customers’ experiences of composting with the Green Johanna. This weekend we opened up a Green Johanna that we have been trialling with great results.
This Green Johanna was used from mid-September 2022 to mid-February 2023 with the insulating jacket permanently installed. 100% of the cooked and uncooked food waste from this household was recycled in the Johanna. There were between 2 and 4 people in the household during this time, with up to four more visiting through the Christmas and New Year period. The amount of waste diverted to the residual (grey/black) wheeled bin fell to less than 50% of the bin capacity (ie less than 120 litres) per fortnight compared to previous usage. Over the Christmas period, when bin collections were suspended for a week, the residual bin comfortably coped with three weeks’ worth of general waste. The fermented contents of several 14-litre Bokashi bins that were accepted from relatives who don’t have their own compost bin were also decanted into the Green Johanna. The food waste was liberally mixed with carbon-based materials, mainly autumn leaves and wood chips, and treated once per month with Bokashi bran to accelerate the composting process. Using this method, we consistently achieved compost temperatures of 30-60 degrees Celsius even through the coldest winter temperatures. All the food waste generated from the household was comfortably accommodated by the composting system.
Saving the top section to go back into the compost bin
Compost can be accessed by unscrewing the hatches at the bottom or, since the Green Johanna is a modular unit made up of circular rings, the upper sections can be removed leaving an impressive tower of compost. As you can see from the photos, we chose the second route as we wanted to take a lot of compost out at once. We removed the top sections of compost that are currently decomposing (taking care not to squash any worms) and placed these on an old wipe-clean tablecloth kept for this purpose until we were ready to put them back in the bin to continue the breakdown process. More than half of the composter contents were removed for soil replenishment and other garden uses, with the remainder being returned to the Johanna for further composting.
Fruit Flies are one of the most common nuisances in the UK, affecting more than 60% of households.
So if you encounter this annoying problem, you are certainly not alone.
Although fruit flies are part of the composting process in the sense that they help to break down organic material, you want to minimise numbers as they proliferate quickly.
Fruit flies are not your common or garden (or house) fly; they do not usually enter the home through the door or window, they come in with the fruit that you buy or get from the garden.
Adult fruit flies lay eggs on the fruit’s skin and these hatch later when the temperature is right. Fruit flies have a strong sense of smell and are attracted by the smell of overripe or rotting organic matter.
The eggs are microscopic, so they’re invisible, until suddenly – they’re not. Obviously, if the eggs are already in fruit skins when added to a composter there’s a chance they might hatch inside it.
There are several steps you can take to minimise the risk.
In the home
Because fruit flies lay eggs on exposed food, take care to keep food stored in a fridge or lidded containers, not out in the open in fruit bowls.
Use up ripe fruit and vegetables as soon as possible.
Compost organic matter quickly as fruit flies are attracted by the smell of decomposing food.
Keep stored waste in a lidded kitchen caddy. Always keep the lid on your caddy, even between new additions of waste as you are preparing food.
In the compost bin
In a well-maintained hot composter flies shouldn’t be a problem as high temperatures destroy the eggs.
If there is a problem, add more carbon-rich materials (woody garden waste/shredded paper/cardboard/wood chips), and mix in well so that any food waste is covered.
Top the contents with a layer of fresh soil.
Ensure the compost is kept moist but not wet as flies proliferate in wet conditions.
Wrap food waste in newspaper so it is covered. Lining your kitchen caddy with newspaper is a convenient way to wrap your waste up as you take it to the composter.
Bury food waste deeper in the compost so it is not exposed.
Ensure the bin has good aeration – stir really well to get air into the mix.
Try putting the composter in sunlight – flies like a warm but not hot environment.
Make sure that you always lock the lid securely.
Take care not to spill any food around the composter.
Monitor acidity – if you have added a lot of fermented content from a bokashi bin to your composter, add a handful of lime or crushed baked eggshells to neutralise excessive acidic conditions as flies prefer a low (acidic) pH.
Flies don’t like the smell of certain plants – peppermint in particular – so you could add sprigs of peppermint to your waste and wipe round the compost bin with lavender, lemongrass, eucalyptus and peppermint essential oils.
In the Green Cone
In the case of the Green Cone Food Waste Digester, no garden waste can be added as the Cone only accepts food waste, so covering with garden and paper waste is not an option.
Because the Cone’s basket is underground, smells are filtered out by the surrounding soil, meaning there is no obvious attraction for ordinary flies. But if fruit fly eggs are already in fruit skins when added to the Cone, they might hatch inside it. Avoid this by following the advice above on preventing infestations in the home.
Also:
Freeze your fruit and veg scraps in a plastic bag or container overnight to kill any eggs or larvae before adding them to the Cone.
Flies don’t like the smell of certain plants – peppermint in particular – so you could add sprigs of peppermint to your waste and wipe round the compost bin with lavender, lemongrass, eucalyptus and peppermint essential oils.
Add accelerator powder to add more beneficial bacteria to speed up decomposition.
Remember food waste should never come higher than the top of the Cone’s underground basket; waste should never be above ground level.
Some people pour hot water into the contents but this will also kill off beneficial bugs so use only as a last resort for severe infestations
Get trap happy
You could also try a home-made trap that will act as a magnet.
Add an inch of apple cider vinegar to a glass jar with two drops of washing up liquid.
Put a plastic wrap cover over the top of the jar and poke small holes through with a toothpick. Flies are attracted by the smell and can get in but can’t get out.
Remember to change the liquid regularly to keep the fly trap working.
Using the Green Johanna in its classic specification is a great way to turn your food and garden waste into soil-enriching, high quality compost.
Independent studies (Which?/Gardeners’ World magazine) praise the Johanna for its ability to take a wider range of inputs than most regular composters and for the temperatures it is able to reach. This is largely due to its ventilation system, with a patented base that allows air inflow past the mass of compost already in the composter and a twist lid that allows the upper vents to be opened or closed depending on conditions. Heat is retained in the composter due to its enclosed design (most garden composters feature an open or loose-fitting base) and wall thickness (at 10kg, the Johanna weighs in at 2-3 times the weight of many other composters).
According to the Which? trial, the Green Johanna outperformed all but one composter on the market in terms of compost temperature, with temperatures into the 40 degree Celsius range. This form of composting is largely traditional, relying on worms and insects to finish the job that the heat-generating microbal activity has got underway.
Using this method, the use of an Insulating Jacket has usually been advised when temperatures drop below 5 degrees Celsius in the winter months. This is because microbal activity ceases at these temperatures, meaning compost temperatures decrease and the compost pile may stall until it is heated up again.
Trials
Throughout last year, however, the team at GGS wondered what would happen if we took a different approach and left the Insulating Jacket on all year. We had received positive feedback from a number of customers who had done just that, and so we undertook a number of individual trials. The results were dramatic. Our main finding was that leaving the jacket on raised compost temperatures into the 30 to 60 degree Celsius range on a permanent basis, even in the coldest winter periods. The insulated Johanna has proven to be the perfect vessel for domestic thermophilic composting, which is microbal in nature, accepts a wider range of waste and turns it into high-quality compost in weeks rather than months.
In a matter of weeks Great Green Systems will launch a complete Hot Composting Bundle that will make this form of composting easy for everyone.
In the meantime, here are our quick tips for getting started:
Insulating Jacket. Add it to the Green Johanna and leave it on. If you are retro-fitting to an existing Johanna you should see a significant increase in compost temperature within days.
Carbon. By which we mean autumn leaves, shredded paper, card and mulch. The latter can be bought from your local DIY store until Great Green Systems launches its own range in early Spring 2023. Add these carbon-rich materials generously, no less than in equal amounts to the amount of nitrogen-rich materials (green garden waste, food waste) you have added. Mix well after adding new inputs.
Aeration. This form of composting requires more effort than classic composting. Use your Green Johanna aerator stick regularly as normal, but also aerate deeper into the pile on a weekly basis with a garden fork.
Bokashi. Adding half a bag or a full 1kg bag of Bokashi bran monthly raises composting temperatures in the short term and accelerates the composting process. For those who want to try using a Bokashi bin; adding food waste to the Johanna that has been allowed to ferment for three weeks in a Bokashi bin will dramatically increase compost temperature and accelerate the process. Be sure to add plenty of carbon and a bag of Bokashi Bran at the same time as the pre-compost mixture that has fermented in the Bokashi bin.
Chop your waste into small pieces to increase surface area and optimise the process. This will also make turning the compost much easier. Use a chipper-shredder for your garden waste if you have one; these can also be hired on a daily basis.
Take the compost temperature. Compost thermometers are widely available and will form part of the GGS range from Spring 2023. Place the thermometer inside the composter and check temperatures regularly. The microbal processes die off when compost temperatures reach 72 degrees Celsius – this is the opposite problem to the traditional low temperature issue in winter, with the same outcome of a stalled compost heap. If temperatures near this threshold – and we have seen this several times during the trials – remove the jacket to allow the contents to cool down before adding the jacket again.
This approach is for the more committed or interested composter, but for those looking to compost all of their organic waste quickly and efficiently it is a project well worth embarking on.
You can get your rapid hot composting project started by purchasing any items you need using the following links (Insulating Jackets, and bundles that include an Insulating Jacket, are on special offer with 25 % off until 13th February 2023):
It takes all sorts to make a world, as the saying goes.
At Great Green Systems we know that it takes all sorts to make compost.
We never cease to be amazed at the different results that people get from their Green Johanna. For some people fast compost is the priority, while others want finer, well-matured compost and are prepared to wait longer. Some users are less interested in compost and more concerned with being able to recycle as much of their food and garden waste as possible, diverting it from landfill.
Some customers say they rarely aerate their bin’s contents but still get results they are happy with. Some use cooler temperatures and get a bin full of worms working away on their compost, while others tells us they never remove the insulating jacket and have no problems.
Whatever your composting style, one thing we’re all on the same page about right now is maintaining temperatures warm enough to keep the composting process going in the bleak midwinter.
Here at Great Green Systems HQ in Yorkshire, snow is covering the ground but the Johanna in my garden is clearly feeling toasty in her jacket. After a night of sub-zero temperatures, the ground temperature this morning was zero but the first compost temperature we took today was 40 degrees Celsius.
From zero….
…to hero
At the coldest time of the year, with temperatures plummeting by the day, the insulation provided by the insulating jacket is invaluable to facilitate regular temperatures high enough to keep the Johanna’s contents breaking down at pace. (In warmer weather, the jacket should be removed if compost temperatures exceed 70 degrees C as this will be too hot for beneficial micro-organisms to survive.)
Additional ways to boost the winter composting process are by:
adding beneficial bacteria in the form of bokashi bran
adding a bucketful of mature compost or the fermented pre-compost from a bokashi bin, which also help to give your bin’s contents a shot in the arm
ensuring that waste materials are chopped into small pieces as these will break down faster than larger items. When adding stored garden waste, make sure pieces are no bigger than 5cms as the more surface area there is for microbes to work on, the faster waste will break down, generating more heat.
Differences in climate and soil biology according to location are factors that can affect composting outcomes, as well as differences in contents due to the household’s diets. People who cook from scratch using a lot of fruit and vegetables will produce more food waste (rich in nitrogen) than people who regularly use ready meals. So two neighbours with the same bin might have different results depending on the number of people in the household and their diet, plus the type and amount of waste their garden produces.
We have heard of Johanna users who only add garden waste and are happy with the compost produced – their garden waste must comprise a good balance of nitrogen-rich Greens (fresh grass clippings and green leaves) and carbon-rich woody Browns. We are surprised that some customers say they don’t aerate the contents as regularly as we recommend – we can only imagine they must be good at providing air pockets in their carbon-rich contents, thanks to inputs such as wood chips and corrugated egg cartons etc.
Full Monty composting(not what you think…)
Some compost fans, like the team here at Great Green Systems, become fascinated by the process and go Full Monty, with a thermometer, pH and moisture measure and water wand among their kit. We also cherish our stored bags full of raked, shredded autumn leaves and wood chips ready and waiting to go into action as part of an easily accessed carbon army to get through a long winter.
It’s a fascinating subject, but it can be as simple or as involved as you want it to be.
One member of our GGS team is out early every morning to check the temperature of his Johanna and this forms a larger proportion of his daily conversation than might be considered strictly normal but, as we said, it takes all sorts… He also has a woodchipper to shred the twigs and branches in his garden waste. In autumn our colleague sets off with his rake to gather the rich bounty of fallen leaves from quiet streets in his neighbourhood (not busy roads where the leaves could be contaminated by lead pollution). In doing this, he says he is also providing a free health and safety service by reducing the risk of slippery leaves on pavements.
We advise people to follow the golden composting rules regarding materials/oxygen/moisture as we want them to be as successful as possible. Some people tell us they break the rules but still get away with it. We all know the type – those Rebels Without a Rulebook whose first job when opening any piece of new equipment is to throw away the instruction manual and proceed by trial and error.
Perhaps they’re onto something. We know that what puts some people off trying composting is the fear that they might get it wrong. So perhaps we should say there is only really one golden rule: it’s better to start – and proceed by observing and adapting – than never to start at all.
The Platinum Jubilee celebrations bring to my mind not just the Queen herself but all those of her generation, born in the shadow of the First World War, who have been role models for the rest of us.
The dedication to service that we admire in the Queen is a trait commonly found in people of her generation, no matter what their background.
The Great War must have had a lasting impact on those who were too young to have lived through it themselves but were raised by those who did. It must have been difficult to moan about your own problems when those around you were either traumatised by the trenches or haunted by the ghosts of those who never came back.
In many respects the Queen appears to be more a child of the 1920s than she is a product of palaces, tied more to the time rather than the place of her childhood.
Edward’s trousers
I remember an official photo of the Royal Family that appeared in newspapers around 1980. Journalists had a field day mocking the fact that the hem on young Prince Edward’s trousers had clearly been let down, leaving the old trouser line visible.
The response from Buckingham Palace press office was that the Queen did not believe in wasting anything and liked to get good wear out of her children’s clothes. Just because her son had had a growth spurt was no reason to throw out a good pair of trousers. This wasn’t a fashionable attitude at the time; it seemed laughably fuddy-duddy. This was the dawn of the Eighties; the ethos was not so much Make Do and Mend as Chuck Out and Spend.
But as with so many things, the cycle has turned again and the Queen’s distaste for waste is now fashionable because we know it’s essential.
My great-aunt Margaret was born in the same year as the Queen – 1926. Although their lives couldn’t have been more different, they shared many common values.
Orphaned as a toddler, Auntie Margaret was raised by my great-grandmother, who was a widow in her 50s at the time. Her last year in school involved no education at all but was spent knitting socks for soldiers and filling out ration books. She would have loved to become a seamstress but no jobs were available at the time, so at 14 she went into the woollen mill where my grandma also worked to become a weaver.
Noise of looms
‘I grew up the day I walked into that mill,’ she used to say. The incessant noise of the looms in the weaving shed was deafening and most weavers ended up profoundly deaf by middle age.
Margaret never married or had children, never owned her own home, worked past retirement age scrubbing floors in a doctors’ surgery at night while also caring for elderly relatives. She loved to cook, bake, clean, knit, darn, sew, embroider and tend her potted plants. She never wasted a morsel of food or scrap of material. When she died, I inherited her sewing box full of what she would call ‘bits and bobs’. I can’t for the life of me think of a use for many of these random scraps but I hope I will grow into the sort of person who can.
Gardener extraordinaire
Another great example of this generation is my husband’s grandfather Sid. A veteran of the Second World War, in peacetime he was a factory foreman as well as gardener extraordinaire in his free time. When the family were lucky enough to get a corner-plot council house in Redditch with a larger than average garden, Sid made full use of it, growing his own veg and flowers.
My husband remembers his grandfather in his trademark cravat and hat – an immaculately-dressed model of working-class diligence and decency. Never one for leisure, Sid also made toys for his three children. While he was busy in his shed or greenhouse, his wife Edna would be baking her locally-famous apple pies and knitting for England, providing jumpers and cardigans for all the family, right down to her great-grandchildren, only stopping in her eighties because of arthritis.
Like my Auntie Margaret, if there was anything Sid and Edna could make or do for themselves and those around them, they did. Their lives were a world away from the Queen’s but in values they were much the same. In the Queen, whom they very much admired, they saw not merely a monarch but a kindred spirit.
I think of Margaret and Sid and Edna as being in their own quiet ways as responsible for the good things this country stands for as the Queen.
Name that composter
When we discovered at Great Green Systems that some of our customers had given names to their Green Johanna or Green Cone composter, our family was inspired to do the same. There wasn’t much debate about what that name should be. For his love of gardening, his self-sufficiency, his recycling habits before people even knew the term, it had to be ….Sid.
There is something very reassuring about Sid the composter’s presence in the garden, watching over us as he gets down to work turning our food and garden waste into compost so we can feed our plants and soil. Sadly, Grandad Sid died before hot composters became a thing, but we know he would absolutely approve of this naturally efficient way of turning waste into something wonderful.
Neither myself nor my husband are green-fingered, but I feel that ‘Sid’ is watching approvingly as we finally follow in his footsteps by growing our own veg and flowers. Sometimes he must be rolling his eyes and thinking the apple has fallen very far from the tree, but hey… every journey starts with a single step, as they say.
We have a plant in our garden that is a cutting of a cutting from one in Sid’s garden in the 1950s and every time I look at it I feel that we are trying to walk in his footsteps. They are big footsteps to fill.
So on Platinum Jubilee Day on the 3rd of June, in our house we will raise a toast not just to the Queen but to all those of her generation we have been lucky enough to know and love.
Julie
Green ‘Sid’ – complete with cravat and hat – in Jubilee mood
Full instructions on how to use the Green Johanna are included in the user manual but here are a few quick pointers.
When choosing a site for the Johanna, remember that it needs to be a spot that is easy to get to, not too far from the house.
Good design
The Johanna was designed and originally manufactured in Sweden but is now made for Great Green Systems in Droitwich, Worcestershire.
The Johanna’s design promotes the good ventilation and airflow necessary for efficient composting.
Vents leading in from the base plate allow air to flow upwards into the container. The round shape ensures there are no cold corners so heat is spread evenly through the compost. The tapered design means that compost sinks towards the centre of the unit and not to its sides, allowing air to circulate and oxygenate the compost.
As the micro-organisms break down the waste, they generate heat. As the temperature in the compost fluctuates, the types of micro-organisms present also change.
The Insulating Jacket (available separately) provides insulation to maintain ideal internal temperatures. It should be removed in hot weather or the temperature inside the unit will become too hot for the composting creatures to survive (above 70 degrees Celsius).
The Johanna’s lid regulates the ventilation system by covering or uncovering the ventilation holes to adjust air circulation and temperature.
Composting basics
Successful composting depends on three essential ingredients: materials, air, moisture.
MATERIALS – The microbes in your compost bin need a diet that provides a balance between waste materials that are rich in nitrogen and carbon. In composting terms, nitrogen-rich materials are often referred to as Greens and carbon-rich materials as Browns.
Nitrogen-rich materials (Greens) include:
Food waste, fresh grass and leaves, plants, flowers, tea leaves, home compostable tea bags, coffee grounds. These items break down quickly and contain moisture so they keep the bin’s contents moist.
Carbon-rich materials (Browns) include:
Twigs, branches, autumn leaves, paper, cardboard, straw, wood chips, sawdust. These contents are drier and slower to break down.
A mixture that contains a 50:50 balance of nitrogen (Greens) to carbon (Browns) is a good place to start for composting. You may find that you have a lot more nitrogen-rich inputs (food waste) than carbon so it can be handy to store carbon-rich items such as paper, cardboard and autumn leaves so you have them ready to add with food waste.
The smaller the waste items are chopped or shredded, the greater the surface area for microbes to work on and the faster the pile will heat up. Items that are added whole, such as apples or carrots etc, will take longer to break down. Egg shells are best added crushed or ground. Garden waste should be chopped into pieces no larger than 5cms or shredded.
Getting the nitrogen/carbon ratio right can be a case of trial and error but you will learn quickly through paying attention to conditions in the bin.
AIR – The fastest form of composting is done by organisms that need oxygen. To give microbes air to breathe we need to add air to the mixture by aerating the contents to make sure there’s oxygen throughout the bin.
You can create air pockets by adding the cardboard tubes from toilet or kitchen rolls whole and keeping cardboard egg boxes whole. Scrap paper can be added scrunched up so that it provides pockets of air. Wood chips are useful as they hold structure and create pathways for air.
WATER – You want your compost pile to be moist, rather than wet or dry. The consistency of the bin’s contents should be damp like a wrung-out sponge. Microbes struggle if their environment is too wet or too dry. They need water to live, yet too much moisture can limit the amount of oxygen they receive. If compost is too wet, it will start to smell bad. If this happens you need to add shredded paper and cardboard and aerate well so that moisture is absorbed.
Add water to compost that is becoming dry by gently watering with a small watering can or water wand.
Adding food waste
Food waste can be added directly or in home compostable bags, never plastic. If you tie the bags, once you have added them to the Johanna make sure to break them open using the aerator stick to allow oxygen and microbes to reach the waste.
Mix new additions with some of the older layer beneath. After adding food waste, cover with carbon-rich waste such as shredded branches and twigs, dead leaves, wood chips, shredded paper and cardboard.
The only food-related materials that are not efficiently digested by the Johanna are those that require a very long time to break down, such as large amounts of cooking oil/fat, the hard shells of nuts and seafood (such as oysters and crabs) and avocado stones.
You can boost the breakdown process by adding bokashi bran (available separately), fermented waste from a bokashi bin, or a bucketful of mature compost.
And finally…
To access your finished compost simply unscrew the hatches at the bottom of the Johanna and remove the compost using the aerator stick or a garden hoe.
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