Shortage of Brown Compost Material

[Ray Fidler]

My first year of No Dig and all is going well and Im delighted with the volume of produce. I have a problem getting the volume of brown material required for my compost heap. The result is my temperature in the bin is a constant 30degrees. The biggest short fall of brown material is woody items. As a lateral thought is okay to use natural decorative bark as a substitute ?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

Ray

[JD]

Scrunched up paper, egg boxes and non-glossy cardboard are (free) browns as a suggestion. Supermarkets often have boxes.
Jan

[charles]

Yes Jan’s ideas are good Ray, and preferable to the bark in that I don’t think bark will contribute much heat.
In fact I am puzzled, as too much green usually heats up, for a while anyway.
Good to hear you are enjoying big harvests.

[Ray Fidler]

Many thanks for your help. Ray

[Rhys]

Ray

I have pruned a variety of trees and hedges in the summer and this provides a good balance of brown and green, particularly when you cut back summer growth on fruit trees or other trees in the gardens, with leaves plus thin twigs the result.

I do use cardboard, newspapers and egg boxes too when nothing else is around.

If all else fails, add a few shovel loads of soil!

[Author]

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