I get the wood chip from a tree surgeon as well Hostafan1 (though I'm picky what he can bring). He brought a load of laurel hedge which was fantastic with all the leaf in it, it makes an amazing base and means I never have a problem with adding too many greens
IMO getting the balance of greens and browns right is more important than turning. I try to build layers of each to no more than 6-8” in depth.
Builders dumpy bags are useful when you have a glut of one type of material. I usually have too many grass cuttings in high summer and too many browns at this time of year and I use the bags to store these materials until I can add them to the bin.
I live in a very dry part of the country and I usually water the compost bin about once a month in high summer. It needs to be just damp - if it’s very dry stuff will take an age to breakdown. It shouldn’t be wet just a bit damp.
My bins are turned once during the composting process and it usually takes between 6 and 9 months to produce the lovely black gold. Chopping stuff up with the lawnmower or a shredder speeds the process A LOT!
Good luck and enjoy. I love composting!
BTW - it’ll work even better if you have a second bin to fill while you leave the first one ‘cooking’.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
I get the wood chip from a tree surgeon as well Hostafan1 (though I'm picky what he can bring). He brought a load of laurel hedge which was fantastic with all the leaf in it, it makes an amazing base and means I never have a problem with adding too many greens
I'm easy pleased with what they bring. In winter when it's more woody than leafy, I use it to top up paths in the polytunnel. When it's got more green stuff, it goes into compost.
Hexagon, this Lidl composter looks pretty much identical to a couple I bought from another company (can’t remember which one) about two years ago. Mine are proving excellent - although their lids need to be weighted with a couple of bricks (they haven’t any clips to secure them, and I live in a cold, very wet and extremely windy part of the country) I find them easy to load and turn, and have already harvested a decent volume of compost from them. If it helps, I’m seriously thinking of investing in a third and fourth bin. Thanks to your heads-up, I now know where to look!
Thank you for all your comments. Picked out quite a few tips which is great.
@Hexagon my composter looks very similar to that one and I like it. @janect77 I agree a brick to keep the lid on works as a friend has one who didn't weigh it down and he lid broke off in the wind.
PurpleRose - If you can find one, 'Vegetable Gardening' by Dr W Shewell-Cooper (1977), possibly on Amazon/Ebay etc., gives a lot of info on compost that is central to the author's gardening - but involves NO TURNING AT ALL!!! But, as someone else has said above, there are 101 different views on the subject.
Well, I don't know why but I'm thinking of starting composting. Possible that an imminent council tax increase for those who have garden waste collected since the adjacent LA charges £40/year, but also because I have bought many bags of compost over the last year or so.
So £23 for a compost bin and then £65 for a shredder, not sure how long it will take my investment to pay off. Most of the branches I've chopped off this year are too much for my lawnmower to handle so there's no way I'd be able to compost most of my waste without a shredder.
Sounds like a good plan and investment. Not only keeping the compost from your waste but I feel it gives satisfaction. Watching waste turn into something useful is fulfilling and the process interesting, to me it is anyway.
The process of composting is totally addictive I've got all my compost bays hot now temps vary from 65° to 85°. We use ours mulch we produced enough last year to cover 100m2 at a minimum of 4inchs hopefully this helps control our heavy weed burden
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Builders dumpy bags are useful when you have a glut of one type of material. I usually have too many grass cuttings in high summer and too many browns at this time of year and I use the bags to store these materials until I can add them to the bin.
I live in a very dry part of the country and I usually water the compost bin about once a month in high summer. It needs to be just damp - if it’s very dry stuff will take an age to breakdown. It shouldn’t be wet just a bit damp.
My bins are turned once during the composting process and it usually takes between 6 and 9 months to produce the lovely black gold. Chopping stuff up with the lawnmower or a shredder speeds the process A LOT!
Good luck and enjoy. I love composting!
BTW - it’ll work even better if you have a second bin to fill while you leave the first one ‘cooking’.
In winter when it's more woody than leafy, I use it to top up paths in the polytunnel. When it's got more green stuff, it goes into compost.
@Hexagon my composter looks very similar to that one and I like it. @janect77 I agree a brick to keep the lid on works as a friend has one who didn't weigh it down and he lid broke off in the wind.