Someone on my Allotment has one of these &I asked her what she thought, turned out she hadn't used it, so I had a look. It just looks like a big polystyrene box, with a hatch in the front. I might be doing it an injustice but certainly doesn't look worth the price.
I bought a small hotbin last year and have found it really useful. We only have a small garden and have never been able to make compost before. The hotbin really helps speed the process of composting up and we have had several buckets of compost out of it so far.
I currently don't make my own compost. Space is at a premium in my garden but I have been thinking how I could do this. Are those hot bin type things any good. I suffer from arthritis so whatever I do needs to be easy on the back, wrists and shoulders.
My understanding is that yes, they can, but you need to be very consistent in caring for it.
One other suggestion is to get into a small microgreens area, or herbs on your windowsill, then use the harvested seed trays or pots as compost. That will give you double bubble on the cost of the compost you buy for the windowsill.
I'm currently running a 9 seed tray setup in three shelves of iKea iVAR, and it seems to be able to give me a portion of veg nearly every day. Though it is early days., and I will be adding one more shelf of seed so I can have some slower growing things as well as the rapid stuff.
Just about to invest in a smoothie maker as I am trying to find out what best to do with it all.
F
“Rivers know this ... we will get there in the end.”
My seed spuds have arrived so I've load them out to chit, how exciting that I've just started my growing year (I know it's grasping at straws to say that but it's a big RTBC for me today)
Do you have a space behind a shed @Yviestevie If you do how about filling it with black bags of leaves? I have done this for the first time( as I don't have room for a compost bin) and after 18 months had the loveliest mulch for the beds this winter. It may not be compost but it gave me a great deal of satisfaction to know I had made it.😁
I have been out doing a bit of tidying. The miscanthus have started shedding leaves but the plumes are still upright so l will leave cutting back for a while yet. A few bulb noses starting to poke through in the flower beds and the greenhouse which is always heartening. Some of the salvia and osteospermum cuttings have succumbed to mould so l've cleared those out of the coldframes, others are okay so far 🤞.
@purplerallim We don't get many leaves in our garden but I have thought about collecting some from other places, I would have space to keep a few bags. I've made a start by listing the play house on Marketplace. If I get rid of this I plan to use the money to buy top soil and it will create quite a reasonable sized sunny site for the raised beds I've ordered. I will probably start a separate thread when I get going as I will have loads of questions to ask.
Sounds like a good plan @Yviestevie, might be good for the grandchildren as well. You might not necessarily need lots of top soil if there's lawn under it which you can remove and then dig over.
I just walked around the garden today between rain showers and pulled a few weeds up. Thrilled to see lots of bulbs coming up, including three buds on a daffodil I planted last year outside our boundary fence, mainly to cheer the neighbours up. So far, although I planted about 30 mixed daffs (freebie offer) only 3 are shooting, I hope the others have survived.
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One other suggestion is to get into a small microgreens area, or herbs on your windowsill, then use the harvested seed trays or pots as compost. That will give you double bubble on the cost of the compost you buy for the windowsill.
I have a thread over here:
https://forum.gardenersworld.com/discussion/1048748/experiments-with-microgreens#latest
I'm currently running a 9 seed tray setup in three shelves of iKea iVAR, and it seems to be able to give me a portion of veg nearly every day. Though it is early days., and I will be adding one more shelf of seed so I can have some slower growing things as well as the rapid stuff.
Just about to invest in a smoothie maker as I am trying to find out what best to do with it all.
F
The miscanthus have started shedding leaves but the plumes are still upright so l will leave cutting back for a while yet. A few bulb noses starting to poke through in the flower beds and the greenhouse which is always heartening.
Some of the salvia and osteospermum cuttings have succumbed to mould so l've cleared those out of the coldframes, others are okay so far 🤞.
I just walked around the garden today between rain showers and pulled a few weeds up. Thrilled to see lots of bulbs coming up, including three buds on a daffodil I planted last year outside our boundary fence, mainly to cheer the neighbours up. So far, although I planted about 30 mixed daffs (freebie offer) only 3 are shooting, I hope the others have survived.