Mixing compost

Hi …. My local council offer free ‘compost’ ……. It’s not quite the soft brown sweet smelling stuff you buy in a garden centre ………. It’s black, can contain ash (sometimes still hot)

It contains a lot of rotted stem & stalk that can be thickness of a finger and a couple of inches long.

I have taken about 3 tonne in past 3 years mix it in with rotted cattle manure, and seaweed form local beach, and it has transformed my clay rich heavy solid into a very good growing medium – and its free, as much as you want.
As I rotate each growing area to potatoes have prepared the bed with this dual mix.

My question is has anybody come up with a decent way to mix composts, I have just filled up 4 of the large 3330L bins with my own garden waste and this council compost …. Hoping the heat & mass of the imported compost will accelerate breakdown of my garden waste.

What I would like to do is then find some way to chop/shred/mix it ……… just to get it to reasonable size before incorporating into the garden.

When it is in the ground I have in the past run a Mantis back and for and that does work …….. just wondered if anybody has found a way before I put it in the ground.

I did wonder about just emptying bins and trying tiller on those, but expect it would be thrown everywhere.

I do have a branch shredder … but assume this would clog if I tried putting compost in.

 

A wheelbarrow and either a homemade sieve or plastic mushroom crate or bread tray..
Sieve the compost into the wheelbarrow, whatever stays in the tray goes back into the compost heap to break down further. Personally, I do not mind big bits if I am mixing compost directly into the soil. I sieve all my compost for seed sowing and potting on mixes, the big bits then go straight onto the garden.

At my allotment compost heap I use a spade to chop up big bits, but other than that I let nature do what it does best, and leave it to her.

Steve...