I have enjoyed this conversation but aspects of it drive me mad! Throw away the daleks, make or buy a modest wooden container, chuck the stuff in, turn it regularly and Bob's your uncle. Done. Lovely compost, no difficulties, done.
The wooden ones I've bought just rot here very quickly. I'd need to spend a fortune on heavy duty timber to make wooden bins if they were going to last any length of time. I got a couple of the plastic compost bins a few years ago and they've definitely been better. I don't have room in this garden to have several bins on the go either, unless I put them in the front garden, which isn't suitable IMO
I had good, home made, timber leaf mould bins in a previous garden, but the black bin bags worked better.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
We have had a dalek for a few years as its the only thing that will fit in the only corner available for composting. We chuck in vegetable peelings, plant cuttings, old brassicas past their best (chopped up), nettles, grass cuttings along with cut up newspaper, wet cardboard and even, once, a dead blackbird. At the bottom we have useable compost that I can just about scrape out, but nothing to write home about. Big stuff falls down to the bottom sometimes and I just chuck it back in at the top. It's a useful resource otherwise everything would have to go in the council green bin (reserved for weeds and bigger things like roots and woodier stuff) and that would be a waste. The blackbird's skull appeared in one scraping out - fascinating to look at.
We only use Daleks and plastic bins for storing, wooden bins are the quickest, covered with carpet and galvanised sheets, they need to be a metre cube, fill to the top, turn each week when it’s full, up end it into a 2nd metre cube and watch it sink down. Everything goes on except nettle and buttercup roots. Definitely no animal poo.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
Newbie here following with interest. Even as I type, OH is 20 minutes into his attempt to separate our dalek from its contents! We too have no space for any other type of composter.
I have a dalek for my compost and it has been fine for me. I only put in chopped up material and mix it up as I go along to avoid layers of the same thing. Keeping an eye on moisture helps too, often I just take the lid off when it's raining to hydrate it when dry.
I've thought about building a couple of bins using pallets, but the plastic dalek works well and fits neatly into a corner.
I have a dalek bin and the o key place it can go means it doesn’t get enough sun so I make sure to add water periodically and the thing that really made the difference, after a couple of failed years, was adding Garotta powder to it. It has massively helped and I now get great compost despite the less than optimal position and bin. Last year I had a bin full of wonderful compost, I left it until the whole bin was ready, emptied it and have started again. I have stored excess compost in old compost bags ready for use as needed. Try some garotta!
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I had good, home made, timber leaf mould bins in a previous garden, but the black bin bags worked better.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I'm always amazed at just how tiny animal/bird skulls are. Fascinating indeed
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Everything goes on except nettle and buttercup roots.
Definitely no animal poo.
I've thought about building a couple of bins using pallets, but the plastic dalek works well and fits neatly into a corner.
made the difference, after a couple of failed years, was adding Garotta powder to it. It has massively helped and I now get great compost despite the less than optimal position and bin. Last year I had a bin full of wonderful compost, I left it until the whole bin was ready, emptied it and have started again. I have stored excess compost in old compost bags ready for use as needed. Try some garotta!