where do you do it?

Do you think you need a 'proper' composting bin, and if not is it best to have the heap on the soil or grass, or on some concrete area?
If you think the proper bin, what sort would you recommend?

many thanks, Barbara

 

Ideally you need to buy the biggest bin you can afford and can fill easily and relatively quickly.

Your council may well sell plastic ones cheap and these are fine for most average size gardens. Wooden ones are also available from most internet garden sites and these are great but take a lot of stuff to fill them.

Don't put it on concrete, open soil is best so that worms can get in and help the composting process. If you have any old carpet you could cut a bit to fit the shape of the bin, this will help to keep the heat in.

Best of luck, let us know how you get on.:thumb:

 

A simple alternative that I use is to cut material up and put it in black binbags. You must then pour water into the bag to wet the material and punch a few holes for drainage. The advantage of binbags is that you can have as many as you like, and pile them up in an unused corner. A year later you inspect the bags, use what is ready and return what is not.

The trouble that I would have with even the best compost bin, is what do you do when it is full but not yet composted.

 

As I have 2 1/2 acres wooded property. My compost pile is way down in the valley close to the edge of the woods. I only keep leaves in it and grass. Don't put kitchen waste (veggies etc) don't want to draw the creatures from the woods. Raccoons etc.

 

I have a giant compost heap (actually several smaller heaps), in the middle of the kitchen garden, where I need it most. I dug the ground where they lay some 30 cm deep, so the heaps do not "loom" over the whole place, and are somehow sheltered from wind and sun, and I made a kind of fence with old horrid concrete bricks. These don't look good, but they retain the heat of the sun in summer for the benefit of my tomatoes. I think it's a great arrangement. I throw in the kitchen scraps too. My two cats patrol the garden, and I have had no problems with rats (except for finding them dead on the doormat!), despite being on the border of both woods and countryside. My cats themselves are too snotty to steal bones :D.

 

We have one of the plastic cone thingys the council sell. Unfortunately we were only able to locate it at the back of the garden, in shade but out of sight (average sized garden). While it hasn't provided any viable compost yet, we've had it for over a year and put all kitchen vegetable waste and the chicken offerings into it and it hasn't overflowed yet. It tends to sit at around half full so something is happening back there (and its always full of worms when I open it).

I understand placing them in sunlight helps the composting process though!

 

I have two compost bins and can heartily agree with PeterS that it is a pain in the rear end when you have two bins stuffed to the brim but loads more stuff to put in. I have resorted to using rubble sacks ( bin bags just rip too easily for me) for the extras. Another real pain is that I hate turning the compost over, at least with bags I don't have to do that.

 

If you have the space - take a leaf out of Beth Chatto's book. She says she never turns her compost heap; for her it is a matter of time. She says that if you turn it over it may take 1 year to rot and if you don't it may take 2 years to rot. So what! It all rots down in the end, and any stuff on the outside that hasn't rotted just goes back into the next compost heap.

 

If it's good enough for her then it's good enough for me by jove.

I don't mind telling you that that was exactly the job I had planned for tomorrow and I wasn't looking forward to it.

 

Same here.
I started late last summer August time.
Mine is hidden behind a large Camilla in half sun but well protected from the cold.
keep putting the stuff in and it's going somewhere , but no compost.
I have now got some compost maker .
I hope putting this on it will give it a boost and start something happening.
Looking to have some kind of useable compost by the end of this year or it's going. :(

 

The reason I like my heaps better than compost bins is that turning them is so easy. I turn them really quite often and it takes just minutes (the truth is I LIKE to fuss around my heaps), the compost comes around pretty fast too.

 

"She says that if you turn it over it may take 1 year to rot and if you don't it may take 2 years to rot. So what!"

My "what" would be that compost made over a shorter period of time does so by generating more heat and thus achieving a higher temperature - which will kill more bugs / weed seeds

 

Well I still think it'll rot down in the end and its too dense now to try and turn so I'm leaving it. As I said, if it wasn't doing something, it would be overflowing by now!

Lyn, I thought about getting an activator, but someone advised me that human urine is just as good...so now I have a bucket outside that I use and periodically empty into the compost! Waste not, want not!

 

Yes, agree it will rot down given time, no problem - and will make nice compost.

I pee on my compost heap - I need to find out when Google is next going to refresh its Satellite images s00k Works well.