@owd potter. If you can fill in the gaps and put a front on the bin it will be good, aim to get a cubic metre in there, keep it covered with a carpet and turn every couple of weeks to incorporate air, you’ll have compost in now time. put a couple of shovels of soil from your garden and some bags of horse poo, when it’s full, turn it into another container and start again.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
As a brief update on this project from earlier in the year. Following the comments received I had blocked up some of the openings and kept compost covered as suggested. I have today turned compost, for what I hope will be the last time, into a 2nd bin which I have lined internally, for a final cook. I can say that the magic now seems to be working and it looks like I am now making good compost. With thanks to @Lyn for the valuable suggestions and guidance.
That's looking good @owd potter . regarding your leaf bin, if you can get more substantial and higher stakes or stout bamboo canes, you could tie another layer of chicken wire around the top to give you more volume. This year, I bought a pack of steel stakes to make a new bin (the sort with shepherd crooks on top used for plastic netting around ground works) from Screwfix for about £14, which are much easier to insert into our heavy clay soil and don't rot. We also tamp the leaves down occasionally in order to fit more leaves it (we also have a lot). They rot down better if kept moist and if they are big leaves, shredding them first in a blower or running a lawnmower over them also helps. I'm thinking of making a second leaf bin for next year's leaves, so one usable and one cooking.
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put a couple of shovels of soil from your garden and some bags of horse poo, when it’s full, turn it into another container and start again.
Thanks for your guidance. I had thought that the gaps would have assisted with airflow, but I'll seal it up as suggested.
Owd
Following the comments received I had blocked up some of the openings and kept compost covered as suggested. I have today turned compost, for what I hope will be the last time, into a 2nd bin which I have lined internally, for a final cook.
I can say that the magic now seems to be working and it looks like I am now making good compost.
With thanks to @Lyn for the valuable suggestions and guidance.
I'm still puzzling what to do about leaves...
Vertical expansion is restricted by overhanging branches
I'll get my thinking cap on..
Thousands of worms would agree with that...
was great to see them all being busy