I use a similar system but with a 3rd bin. When bin 1 is so full that I can't get any more in and it's more-or-less stopped subsiding, I turn bin 2 which has been rotting down and has usually got down to about 2/3 full, into bin 3 which is a bigger/ newer one and turn bin 1 into bin 2. When I turn, I shake it up a bit to aerate/ break up any compacted clumps and water if I find pockets that are dry. It's sometimes easier to fork it into a trug and tip that into the next bin than to move it directly - depends how I'm feeling. Then I start filling bin 1 with the fresh stuff.
After it's been in bin 3 for a while I'll start using it from the hatch at the bottom, sieving if I want fine stuff and chucking the coarse bits back into bin 1 or onto the back of the border. Sometimes I'll be adding a second batch to bin 3 before it's all used, depending on the time of year. Bin 1 probably gets filled about 3 or 4 times a year - it's a small suburban garden so I don't have masses of stuff to compost, and even less this year due to the grass not growing much.
I do have a 4th smaller bin which I used to use as bin 3 but it didn't really hold enough so now I use it to store cardboard and a bag of shredded paper that's waiting to go in as "browns" when needed.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
@Dovefromabove - my compost bins are over a metre high and Mr TB says he can't reach😁 I've suggested collecting in a bottle and I won't say what his response was - but it wasn't polite!!
@fire - these (or the next size up) are my compost bins:
Very sturdy - recycled plastic and they actually retain heat and moisture quite well because the sides are thick and they have a fixed lid. The problem is there's just not much moisture going in in the first place unless I add some! It makes a huge difference if I garden after some rain and add wet prunings etc to the bin.
I would hasten to add that I did not pay anything like that price for the 3 bins I own! I got them for £10 each from the council way back in 1996. Very robust - still going strong - and very easy to use because you can completely open the sides to remove the compost - I can really get in there with shovel to load the wheelbarrow. I have no idea how people manage with those tiddly little hatch jobs - I'm far too clumsy for that.
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
@Topbird I have four styles of bin, including yours, and I find that one hopeless. I have run trials putting the same contents into the different styles and with the green one (above) contents barely budged over a year. A basic rubbish bin with drainage holes drilled in I find to be much better and very much faster. I now use that type of green slattted bin to store browns.
I have two bins so one is gradually filled to start composting and one is ready to use up, then start again.
I tend to cut up the stuff that goes on the bins. Not sure if ripping up toilet roll tubes and cardboard is strictly needed but I seem to have good results.
I also have a compost pile which is for more robust stuff plus excess grass clippings and some windfall apples. That one will take a while to rot but if I do bother turning it and cut the bigger prunings down, it does go.
My weeds and spikey stuff go in the council bin, as I pay for that in my tax anyway.
I am thinking of doing a separate pile/bag just for the Autumn leaves - any tips folks? Worth it or just add to normal compost?
I am thinking of doing a separate pile/bag just for the Autumn leaves - any tips folks? Worth it or just add to normal compost?
I used to do my leaves in a wire cage. It worked eventually. Then I put them in an old compost bag with holes pierced all round the sides. Bit quicker and worked well enough. Last year I stuffed a woven plastic sack ( the type Bird food is delivered in ) full of leaves and bunged it in a corner. Forgot about it but recently found it and the leaves had decomposed nicely. I think I'll do the same again this Autumn.
@AuntyRach - I prefer to store the leaves in builders' dumpy sacks and keep them moist for about 6 months so they start to break down. If I add them straight to the compost heap in autumn, there's just far too many in one go and they can take a long time to compost.
Layering a 6" layer of part rotted leaves with 6" of summer grass clippings works well for me. The leaves stop excess grass becoming a slimy mess and the nitrogen rich grass clippings speed up the leaf rotting. I've just finished incorporating the last of last years leaves (later than usual).
Interesting that you don't like 'my' style of composter @fire - I found them far more efficient than the old wooden ones I used to have. The wooden ones fell apart after just a few years and also got chewed by rodents looking for a winter nesting site. These are 100 times more robust.
However, I inherited a square 70cm x 70cm version of 'my' bin and that really doesn't work very well at all (is that the one you were looking @JennyJ ?). It's tall and thin and the top surface area exposed to the air is significantly less than in the big hexagonal bins. I suspect that the volume of contents and air to moisture ratio in it is all to cock. There are times I cannot put my hand into the centre of my big bin because it gets so hot. The tall square bin stays resolutely cold!
I certainly wouldn't have paid anything like the money currently being asked for 'my' big bins - but they were an excellent investment at £10 each!
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Interesting that you don't like 'my' style of composter @fire
Interesting. None of mine get very hot (up to about 40oC for the Hotbin because I don't "manage it" constantly for heat). All my bins are less than one metre cubed. But the Hotbins I have and the regular rubbish bins break the stuff down in a couple of months, whereas the exact same contents hadn't even started in the plastic slatted bin. I agree that plastic is practical and durable.
I think Hotbins are worth while if you can pick them up second hand. I got one for £30 locally. Bear in mind that the lift out grid, outlet/grill and base need a yearly wash out to make sure that the leachate can escape, otherwise the contents stay too wet. I you want warm compost in a small space they are worth it.
When do you decide when to stop adding to pile #1 and start a second pile? Is it just once the bin is full, or at a certain time of year, or what?
In an ideal world when it's full or near enough and get it full as quickly as possible so everything in there has started off at the same date. Of course we don't live in an ideal world so they can take a while to build up bit by bit and as you're adding to it, it's rotting and compacting so getting lower! One way around it is to (say) load it up steadily over a month, then if it's still short, but you want to get it going source some manure, empty your paper/cardboard bins in and call that it.
With the right ingredients you can compost all year round. In a typical British Summer and if you have a lawn then wet green stuff is coming out of your ears, so it's easy to mix it with some dry brown and set it off. This year we've barely had any rain so it wouldn't work.
Personally I see composting as a Winter job. You've got all the cut back green Summer growth to put in with everything else and you can regulate the water content by covering/uncovering when it rains. It's also something to get you out doing some exercise in the cold when there is little else to do in the garden.
I'm just posting this out of interest, my composting exploits are no longer normal
This is my homemade poomometer in a new stack. It's a length of copper tube with the end hammered closed, I push it into the stack, fill it with water and drop a cheap thermometer probe in from Ebay:
It's 62c in the core and that's in just 7 days. It's all the household waste (kitchen greens, cardboard and paper) with a 50/50 mix of 'straw' and horse muck. I've called it straw as is to all intents and purposes. It's actually something called Soft rush and has blighted the Pennine fields for some years now, it's a real menace as nothing eats it and it takes over the fields if you let it (which the previous owners have). I go out with the brush cutter, cut swathes of it down then compost it.
I wonder if a dalek would get hot with this mix? I do have one here and could try it if anyone is interested.
This is the finished product, a little less than a year old and just looks like soil now:
It's very fertile and seems to drain surprisingly easily. In Summer it dried on the surface despite being covered, all the worms then head to the damp core. We've had a few rain showers lately so I pulled the cover off, it's got a soaking and the worms are now working away near the surface.
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@fire - these (or the next size up) are my compost bins:
https://www.gardeningdelights.com/thermo-compost-bin-komp-700/
Very sturdy - recycled plastic and they actually retain heat and moisture quite well because the sides are thick and they have a fixed lid. The problem is there's just not much moisture going in in the first place unless I add some! It makes a huge difference if I garden after some rain and add wet prunings etc to the bin.
I would hasten to add that I did not pay anything like that price for the 3 bins I own! I got them for £10 each from the council way back in 1996. Very robust - still going strong - and very easy to use because you can completely open the sides to remove the compost - I can really get in there with shovel to load the wheelbarrow. I have no idea how people manage with those tiddly little hatch jobs - I'm far too clumsy for that.
I also have a compost pile which is for more robust stuff plus excess grass clippings and some windfall apples. That one will take a while to rot but if I do bother turning it and cut the bigger prunings down, it does go.
Layering a 6" layer of part rotted leaves with 6" of summer grass clippings works well for me. The leaves stop excess grass becoming a slimy mess and the nitrogen rich grass clippings speed up the leaf rotting. I've just finished incorporating the last of last years leaves (later than usual).
Interesting that you don't like 'my' style of composter @fire - I found them far more efficient than the old wooden ones I used to have. The wooden ones fell apart after just a few years and also got chewed by rodents looking for a winter nesting site. These are 100 times more robust.
However, I inherited a square 70cm x 70cm version of 'my' bin and that really doesn't work very well at all (is that the one you were looking @JennyJ ?). It's tall and thin and the top surface area exposed to the air is significantly less than in the big hexagonal bins. I suspect that the volume of contents and air to moisture ratio in it is all to cock. There are times I cannot put my hand into the centre of my big bin because it gets so hot. The tall square bin stays resolutely cold!
I certainly wouldn't have paid anything like the money currently being asked for 'my' big bins - but they were an excellent investment at £10 each!
One way around it is to (say) load it up steadily over a month, then if it's still short, but you want to get it going source some manure, empty your paper/cardboard bins in and call that it.
With the right ingredients you can compost all year round. In a typical British Summer and if you have a lawn then wet green stuff is coming out of your ears, so it's easy to mix it with some dry brown and set it off. This year we've barely had any rain so it wouldn't work.
Personally I see composting as a Winter job. You've got all the cut back green Summer growth to put in with everything else and you can regulate the water content by covering/uncovering when it rains.
It's also something to get you out doing some exercise in the cold when there is little else to do in the garden.
This is my homemade poomometer in a new stack. It's a length of copper tube with the end hammered closed, I push it into the stack, fill it with water and drop a cheap thermometer probe in from Ebay:
It's 62c in the core and that's in just 7 days.
It's all the household waste (kitchen greens, cardboard and paper) with a 50/50 mix of 'straw' and horse muck.
I've called it straw as is to all intents and purposes. It's actually something called Soft rush and has blighted the Pennine fields for some years now, it's a real menace as nothing eats it and it takes over the fields if you let it (which the previous owners have). I go out with the brush cutter, cut swathes of it down then compost it.
I wonder if a dalek would get hot with this mix? I do have one here and could try it if anyone is interested.
This is the finished product, a little less than a year old and just looks like soil now:
It's very fertile and seems to drain surprisingly easily.
In Summer it dried on the surface despite being covered, all the worms then head to the damp core. We've had a few rain showers lately so I pulled the cover off, it's got a soaking and the worms are now working away near the surface.