What to do with compost

This may seem a daft question, but I need some help as to what I should do with my compost.

I have 6 compost bins - in various stages of 'development' - 2 have rotted down well and are now just full of compost, 2 which are about ¾ full and a further 2 which are about ½ full. I've a fairly large garden and at the moment I still have room for the 'bits' I've removed from perennials (where they've been dead-headed or cut back) and for those summer bedding plants which are coming to the end of their useful lives.

Everything's fine at the moment, but before too long there will be a great deal of 'greens' in the shape of further dead bedding plants, plus spent beans, tomatoes, peas, potatoes, pods and peelings and - if it ever rains again - grass clippings. This means an equal amount of 'browns' as well and thus the compost bins will quickly fill so I need to empty the compost out of the full bins to make some room, but don't really know what to do with it.

Should I bag it up and save it to use as a growing medium in tubs & containers next year?
Dig it in to improve my sandy soil and, if so, when would be the best time? (Spring presumably?)
Use it as an over-winter mulch and then dig it in?

Your guidance would be very much appreciated.

 

Thanks JWK. I've got 6 bins now (each about 1.5 cu.metres), but purely because I started with 2, when I knew nothing about composting and just threw everything in. Consequently, I made some mistakes (and some evil smelling 'gunge'!) which took a couple of years to sort out before I got anything approaching compost. Since then, I've gradually 'made over' the garden and, as my knowledge has increased so have the size of the borders, the number of plants and thus, the need for more space to make 'proper' compost.

I'm not sure about getting it all into one bin - they're spread all around the garden (accessible but largely hidden) and I don't really 'do' hiking! FidgetsDad has conveniently absented himself - some pathetic excuse about being sent to Washington for 6 months. Thus, unless I feel particularly energetic one day, I will opt for Plan A, spread it around in Autumn and let the worms do the digging.

Thank you.

 

Still love these names! Can't you get Fidget to help as well?
John

 

Huh! So far as the Fidgets are concerned, their gardens are something which provide a venue for entertaining friends whilst mine magically provides strawberries, raspberries, beans, peas, potatoes, tomatoes and lettuce with which to feed those friends, plus bunches of flowers to decorate the place, while they're doing so!

 

Sounds like you work pretty hard for the Fidgets!
John

 

Work pretty hard - Yes
For the Fidgets - not intentionally!

 

Hi Fidgetsmum, I seive my compost to get the lumpy bits out and mix it 50/50 with
the compost I buy at the garden centre. brilliant stuff, makes the bought compost
go a lot further.

Pete