Bins and Composting

Hi all

Which compost bins work better...plastic or wooden..????

We have a fair size lawn and when cut atm we have the hassle of bagging,finding time to go down the tip, put up with their attitude, smells in the car etc etc....then at home we find that postman pat is putting untold amounts of crap through the letter box......... plus during later in the year we have mountains of leaves from a tree...for the past few years Ive just used a leaf blower and pushed them to the edge of the garden

So Im considering the purchase a compost bin or 2....and just need some direction, plus can it create issues with neighbours....

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

2 different systems there, you need a wire mesh container for the leaves.

Make layers of kitchen waste/weeds/crumpled cardboard/junk mail in a separate compost bin

 

I have used both types and prefer the wooden ones to the plastic dalek type. Look on youtube for ideas to ale them yourself. They are a lot cheaper, especially if you used pallets.

As Zigs said yyou need a seperate bin for leaves as they take longer to break down and will make leaf mold not compost.

Rusty

 

I've got 2 daleks.. chicken poo bedding and fruit/veg peelings except spuds go in mine along with grass cuttings. All good so far. Did have a wooden pallet composter on my allotment but seemed quite pants.. not sure if it was due to big gaps on the sides.

 

I find the dalek type hard to empty and turn. My next project is to build 2 wooden bins. I find that the process takes longer in the plastic bins as well. Like you Linz I put grass cuttings, fruit/veg peelings (not spuds), teabags, chicken poo and bedding, annual weeds that haven't gone to seed and garden pruning that have been put through shredder and brown cardboard when I have any.

Rusty

 

Yeah saying that, I find mine hard to turn too. Being 5ft and a fart I have to get a crate to stand on to do it. Not emptied mine yet I think it's still a bit fresh but I think I'll roll it on its side to do. Not to poo poo you but I heard teabags contained plastic and the bag doesn't really rot down.. bit off topic I found with bnqs teabag plants year before last (half on half off) the bag was still there 12 months later so I take them all off now.

 

I've got two of the 'dalek' ones, which I obtained at a discount via my local council - you may find yours has a similar scheme, many of them do to encourage recycling. I think they are slower at breaking things down than the wooden ones, but if you have space for two you can have one in use and leave the other to mature. I also bought a long winged-prodder-thing which is good for reaching inside to turn over the contents. The compost is great for mulching the borders and when it is ready to use I just rock the bin a bit and then lift it up and away - it is not heavy - and sort the contents. Anything undigested goes back into the second bin. I find it takes about a year to produce decent compost, and it helps to use plenty of dry material - torn-up brown cardboard is ideal, and I also use it for shredded confidential documents. Beware of putting in glossy/colour printed paper and cardboard as it doesn't break down so well and some of the inks may be toxic. And if you're putting in lots of grass cuttings be sure to mix them up with other stuff, otherwise in my experience they rot into a kind of pancake which chokes everything else! A properly managed compost bin won't smell or be a nuisance to the neighbours. Sometimes in warm weather I get lots of little flies in mine but putting in a layer of card cures that.

 

Thank all.........

 

I've not noticed any in the compost or the beds. I do always rip my tea bags open. I will do a bit of research on them containing plastic. Thanks for the heads up.

Rusty

 

What's with the spudism? Since when is it not recommended to put potato peelings in the compost bin?? It's news to me! Everything goes into my home-made pallet enclosures, except pernicious weeds like bindweed and couch grass, or infected leaves and fruit. Tell me more.....

 

Lol spudism.. I read they sprout so thought no I don't want spuds in my bins. And in practice they do! My dad threw peelings in my bin after I told him not to.. I thought I fished them all out. I took this on 17th may

 

Burn ye spuds ya naughty french northerner

You don't want the blight turning into a much worse version Acta Horticulturae

 

Pffff...bonfires are not allowed! (Officially ) And I'll have you know that my pommes de terre don't have blight This is because they never got planted