Topic: COMPOST BINS

[gardenqueen]

i have recently taken possession of 2 x 330 litre compost bins. Both are nearly full already with both soil and weeds. However I am sure I read somewhere that I am also su[pposed to keep it moist. Is that right?

[Digeroo]

I find mine are normally moist enough.  Though I put very little soil in mine.  I find them a bottomless pit, and never seem to be able to fill them.   I keep adding cardboard to try and dry it out.

What sort of bin are you using, the plastic ones normally keep the moisture in.  The open type ones most people cover with carpet.

[antipodes]

I only add a bucket of water to mine if I notice the contents are very dry, otherwise not really, but I have a black plastic "Dalek".

[gardenqueen]

I suppose you could describe mine as green plastic daleks Antipodes!  I shall forever look on them as that! One is in full sun, so no doubt I will at some stage have to add water to that one,. The other is in almost full shade so may not be such of a problem moisture wise!
Goodness knows how I am supposed to turn the compost within or will it all rot down to a nice sort of mulch in time?

[lottie lou]

Goodness knows how I am supposed to turn the compost within or will it all rot down to a nice sort of mulch in time?

The compost WILL rot down.  To turn compost, I wiggle the bin until it is loose, lift it off pile, bung it down close to pile and shovel the stuff back in, from the top down, thus turning the pile.

[ancellsfarmer]

Realsing that aesthetics affect some of you, I am going to put in a good word for the common and in my case garden ,pallet  . These are freely available, work as multiple sets of four and thus contain upto a cubic metre of material. They need no more than standing on edge, tying with bailer twine (the orange thick type is best and comes free, and with knots, for  the asking wherever there are stables). The next stack only needs 3 pallets and its simple to turn one heap into the next. The brandlings will find their own way and retreat when the heap gets too hot! The best heaps are layered with mixed materal, built as one operation and soaked just once. A cover of old carpet and/or a polythene cover keeps the steam in and excess rain out.Simple.

[antipodes]

I admit that I never turn my compost. I just open the flaps at the bottom; scrape out the bottom layer and if there are any large bits still in, I throw them back in.

[Mikeakabigman]

I prefer the pallet option for a compost heap, but instead of using them whole, I deconstructed the pallets and rebuilt them into three large bays, they have removable fronts and can be turned, emptied and filled with ease. They hold considerably more than the dalek style plastic one pictured.


This is the sort of pallet I used, they are the sort that are used to carry large sheets of plaster board to building sites and don't carry a deposit.
My grandson helped me carry these two at a time from a building site a quarter of a mile away from our allotments.

[galina]

That is the Rolls Royce of pallet compost bins!!!  Super job 

[antipodes]

Once again I arrive at the conclusion that what is needed to be a really successful plotter is excellent DIY skills!
Unfortunately I have very little! Which is why everything on my plot seems to be held up with string and good luck!

[ancellsfarmer]

Once again I arrive at the conclusion that what is needed to be a really successful plotter is excellent DIY skills!
Unfortunately I have very little! Which is why everything on my plot seems to be held up with string and good luck!

MY POINT exactly! Put the effort into getting the best kind of string!

[Digeroo]

Lovely set of bins Mike.   Please could you pop round and knock some up for me.

With the plastic ones, mine never seem to dry out, I find they tend to be too wet.  I am sorry to say I am the queen of the failed compost.  Mine usually ends up a rather wet sticky mass. But the plants love it.   I added more cardboard but just ended up with bits of cardboard.      They do also seem to become homes for wildlife, normally voles and grass snakes.

Warning folks be careful of plastic.   I hate Boursin boxes.   I end up having to fish out a soggy piece of plastic, though it looked like a cardboard box.

I do aereate mine occasionally by jabbing it will a cane.   I upend my Dalek and take the finished stuff out and simply put the top layer, some of the worms and any unrotted stuff back in.   I borrowed a pronged stirring device it was not very easy use but it did not seem to make much difference.

I also find the Daleks very handy for covering rhubarb.

[gardenqueen]

Wow those palletts are really something to be proud of!
My problem would be lack of room in my garden and DIY skills. Because of a back problem, I need something that will not involve any form of major digging. So it's either accessing the compost from the bottom of the bin or with a little help lifting the whole thing off the heap and chcuking it on my little but productibve veg plot!
Thank you all for your input.

[artichoke]

I never turn my dalek contents either. They gradually sink down inside while I add fresh stuff to a different one, and after a year or so the compost is black and crumbly, a regular miracle. I find mine don't dry out if I keep the lid on.

I also have a Messy Pile for stuff that is too bulky to push into a dalek (currently broad bean plants being cut down). It has a fence around it to stop it from spreading, and rots down very slowly. Weeds do grow in it, but they are eventually stifled by the next layer thrown onto it. After about 2 years I dig it out, and the results are mostly excellent. If they are not, I return them to the Messy Pile for another year or so. No rushing here.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I sometimes add pee, which helps it rot down as well as moistening the mix.

[Mikeakabigman]

I sometimes add pee, which helps it rot down as well as moistening the mix.

Yes I empty our pee bucket onto the compost heap, We don't have toilet facilities at our site so I decided to make our own. On the back of my tool shed, I constructed a small lean- to which serves as a combined toilet/ low value storage area. At the end of our lottie visit I empty the bucket.