Garden Waste

Does anyone know of anything i could use for garden waste, i have asked my local council for a brown garden waste bin but they tell me there is no collections in my area, which is funny as i live right in the centre of town.

They have told me they can give me a free compost bin but the only problem with that is were am i supposed to put all the compost? I would have mounds all over my garden lol

I have just requested another green bin instead but i am awaiting there response at the moment.

If i had a vehicle it wouldn't be bad but i cant get to the local tip either.

 

If you have room for the compost bin I'm sure there are gardeners locally who would love to have the compost once you've made it. Maybe they will swap it for some Veg they grow using it?

 

Or mulch your flower beds with the compost, does the garden good, keeps weeds under control and helps retain moisture. So better plants with less watering, and less weeding.

Steve...

 

Ah ... I was assuming "no garden" ...

 

Thanks for your replys.
In the last hour or so i have just got a free compost bin from the council, but now i am not happy with it because it isnt filled in at the bottom grrrr. Not sure if they are all like this.

 

If it`s a plastic Dalek type, then they are not supposed to have a base. It is meant to stand on soil allowing worms to access the bin.

 

Thank you for that, i am totally new to this so wasnt sure lol.
Do you know how long it takes for the compost to be ready? I have started by putting a few dead plants in there and i have just been told that my rabbits poo can also be added to it for compost.

 

As long as you keep topping it up, once the worms start working it is just a matter of weeks.

 

I think it depends on what you put in. Woody material takes a while, but softer material will go almost as fast as you can add it.

 

I've got a number of dalek bins and they work fine, but not especially quickly. I keep topping mine up - the level drops as things start to compost down - and it generally takes about a year to complete the process from start to finish making about two thirds of a binful of compost. I think subsequent loads have composted faster than the first ones, for some reason. If the stuff gets dry nothing happens at all.

 

This is just a guess, but I reckon its because the fungi and bacteria responsible for composting built up and stuck to the inside of the bin in the first go, but took a while to build up, then in subsequent loads you simply fed the already established colonies so they just munched it up much quicker.