growing things in compost bins

[pakaba]

hi

I read somewhere, maybe here, that you can grow things  out of the top of the compost bin.  Has anyone actually tried this?

I was planning on putting a layer of multipurpose compost on the top then planting some dwarf sunflowers to grow up and some pumpkins/squashes to grow down.

The bins are full of compost, some of which is well rotted and some which needs a bit longer, we are going to be moving the bins in a week or so and i thought if i mixed it all up and put it back in it would be quite a good growing medium and make a  bit of a feature, which my garden needs.. spend too  much time on the lottie and not enough in the garden...( lottie being easier to tackle :o)

What do you think?

P.

[pakaba]

[MrsKP]

i'd like to know what's growing out of the hatch of my darlek !!!!!   :o  don't see much composting just new growth greenery.  think i'll have to have a turn.

;D

[Mrs Ava]

I do this on my allotment compost heap.  It is a rather large rectangular affair made from lots of pallets and during winter and spring I fill it up with green stuff - kitchen waste, grass cuttings, weeds, etc, then, anytime now, my darling will nip to the stables and get a mass of hot steamy horsey poop.  This is piled on the heap.  After about a week, once it has settled a bit, I make a couple of dips in the poop and fill them with multi purpose compost into which I plant pumpkins, 1 per dip.  I water them, then leave them to it.  The downside is the heap is occupied for the rest of the summer, but I either bag my green waste up, or leave one side of the compost heap unplanted and just carefully stack the green there.  The squashes normally look a little sad for a week or so, but once they start growing, there is no stopping them!   ;D

[saddad]

Only one bin? We have two Daleks, four from Recycle works and a huge job made from two pieces of Anderson Shelter and still fill up faster than we empty, (about 25x60l sacks each time) so we don't grow on ours. When I get a muck Delivery, trailer load now that is a good place for Pumpkins!
:)

[Mrs Ava]

I have one bin on the plot, but it is the entire width of the plot and 2 palets wide, so it is big enough for me.  I also have 2 pallet creations at home.  I also have a large supply of postal type sacks which I fill when the heap is stacked high, then I tip those in as and when.  My leaf mould is created in old compost sacks and stacked along the back of the shed.  I completely empty the heap during late winter and the lot goes onto the allotments and then I start again.  Love compost!  ;D  Would like another heap, but have no room on the other allotment as it is totally over to planting.

[Robert_Brenchley]

I'll be emptying mine and putting the contents on the spuds any time now. I had planned to do it today but the tyre on my wheelbarrow needs pumping.