It's about tailoring it to your needs and your situation. A heap is very good - if you have loads of room and loads of material. An enclosed bin - whether plastic or timber, is much easier and more suitable for, most residential gardens.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
I prefer containers because they keep things a bit tidier and help retain moisture and heat - which speeds the composting process.
My containers are very large recycled heavy-duty plastic ones with folding lids and sides that open right up to allow for easy turning, stirring or removal of the contents. I really don't like the dalek style compost bins.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
I like wooden-sided restraints for my compost. I have conventional ones with one side that can be removed, but I also have an open-fronted bay which is really easy to access. I find that plastic containers prevent air from getting around and they are a pain to empty when you are turning the compost. But to be fair, many people love them and they look much better than a heap!
I favour an removeable-fronted box style and regular plastic dustbins with lids and drainage holes made. I don't have space for a heap. At the moment I don't turn them, I tip everything from one container to another. This aerates everything, allows me to pull out any inadvisable bits and assess what needs adding to find the right balance in the "finishing off" stage.
Adding old home made compost, garden soil and/or manure will speed up the process and help calm down a sludgy, smelly, wet mix
I like the removable-front square bins as well - much easier to manage than the ones that just have a little hatch-type thing to get the stuff out of. With a dalek-style bin I think I'd lift the whole thing off, put it next to the pile of half-made compost and then fork it back in to turn and aerate.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
My 'compost' is always of the brown sludgy type. Do any of you know if there's a difference in nutritional value between that and the favoured crumbly variety? My bin is a redundant water butt which now has a hole at the bottom where the tap once was. Each time I empty the kitchen bin, the contents plus rinsing water are tipped in, and that's basically it, other than the vines from pea and bean rows and foliage from other harvested veg, e.g. beetroot. Each year, around March, I dig out my runner bean pit, line it with newspapers that I've saved all year, and tip the whole sludgy mess of 'compost' into it. I always get an impressive crop of beans and, by moving the pit each year, spread whatever goodness it generates round the plot. I've plenty of space and this reduces my work load, so I stick to it.
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A heap is very good - if you have loads of room and loads of material. An enclosed bin - whether plastic or timber, is much easier and more suitable for, most residential gardens.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
My containers are very large recycled heavy-duty plastic ones with folding lids and sides that open right up to allow for easy turning, stirring or removal of the contents. I really don't like the dalek style compost bins.