The Cottage Smallholder

Wow, there's so much you can put into them that I never realised......I'm learning so much on this forum!  Thank you all.

I try and recyle as much as I can, a lot of our junk mail and newspapers get made in to paper logs during the summer months for use on the fires during winter.

We have a compost mini bin in the kitchen and all fruit and veg peelings and offcuts either go in there, or to the hens. Tea bags, coffee grounds, used kitchen roll, egg shells (although occasionally I roast the egg shells, grind them up and feed them back to the hens as a source of calcium.) If you find they are not composting easily, try crushing them in you hand before you put them in the bin.

All garden waste is either composted or prunings saved for firewood, staight tree pruning (such as apple shoots) are chipped and then used a s mulches.

Grass clipping obviously all go on the compost bin and the dyson contents, however just a note on vaccuum cleaner dust, you are only supposed to use it if you have natural fibre carpets, if they are synthetic, then there are none-degradable fibres which will never compost, so I'm told.

Wood fire ash gets either chucked in the compost, or spread around the fields to improve the soil. but Ruth, you're amazing. The dog poo sounds a good idea, but I've just bought one of those dog poo bin things (well, got it free off freecycle) , you bury it in the ground and it uses enzymes to break down the poo, bit like a septic tank, still need to install it yet.