I would always place a compost bin on soil. The reasons for this is to allow for effective drainage of your compost and access for compost worms and other insect to do their work on your compost
It also improves the ground the bin has been standing on, ready for planting something new. So, if you have enough space you can move the composter a bit each time you empty it and the worms will work your soil while commuting to your newly sited composter.
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill
First dalek I put down, a rat quickly learned how to borrow in. When I re-sited the bin, I used chicken wire beneath, and half buried the bin. This didn't get ratted, but mice I saw somehow slipping in under the lid through the smallest of spaces.
After two years of that bin, I moved it again and emptied the contents, I found many trees had found the compost, but the soil underneath looked just as bleak as the day I dug the bin in. Perhaps there was some conditioning to the immediate area, but I was surprised the soil beneath didn't appear richer. I doubt the compost would go far. The worms seem to be more interested in coming to the compost.
I'm always amazed at how the worms arrive, shed roofs - there, house chimneys - there. Heck; even on concrete they'll probably turn up somehow.
Wayside, yes, I moved a bag of compost that has been lying on concrete all winter and there were the worms. Loads of them. With no soil or vegetable matter anywhere near. Always amazing.
It would be interesting to do some kind of nutrient / aliveness test on compost bins sited on different bases. I have a system of black plastic dustbins with lids and holes for drainage as well as one standard green compost bin with no bottom, sited on soil. Just visually it seems the dustbins are more full of life - more worms, beetles, wood lice, slugs (yeay!), assorted flies, ants etc. Maybe because once they get in they are more of a captive audience perhaps. Or there are less predators than an open bin. Or it's warmer. No idea. I know that the big thing about compost is the minute microbial life, but still, I find the comparison of bins interesting.
My bins are sited in the only place bins could really be sited in my long, thin garden and there have probably been compost piles there (at the end) since the house was built in 1907. There is the obligatory 'compost tree' elder and the soil there is very rich and fruit-cakey. 100 years of falling elder leaves and berries would help, of course.
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That’ll save me a trip to the hardware store... I’m off to empty the bin now
The reasons for this is to allow for effective drainage of your compost and access for compost worms and other insect to do their work on your compost
Bin emptied and moved, and the resident robin’s about to split after all the worms he found!
It would be interesting to do some kind of nutrient / aliveness test on compost bins sited on different bases. I have a system of black plastic dustbins with lids and holes for drainage as well as one standard green compost bin with no bottom, sited on soil. Just visually it seems the dustbins are more full of life - more worms, beetles, wood lice, slugs (yeay!), assorted flies, ants etc. Maybe because once they get in they are more of a captive audience perhaps. Or there are less predators than an open bin. Or it's warmer. No idea. I know that the big thing about compost is the minute microbial life, but still, I find the comparison of bins interesting.
My bins are sited in the only place bins could really be sited in my long, thin garden and there have probably been compost piles there (at the end) since the house was built in 1907. There is the obligatory 'compost tree' elder and the soil there is very rich and fruit-cakey. 100 years of falling elder leaves and berries would help, of course.