compost bin without a bottom!

beccatt

I just got my reduced price compost bin from the council but have realised it has no bottom on it. Ideally I'd like to be able to move it around as we're planning to do some major work in the garden next year. You can buy a base for £8 but I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on a ms way to stop up the hole!

jellycat40

Mine does not have a bottom either, this lets the worms, slugs and insects get in and do their stuff!! You can move it around but it means that you have to lift the body of it and then get busy with a shovel and a wheelbarrow!!

Good Luck with the bin, I enjoy mine, my family think I am mad!!! :xmassign:

cath-w

Compost bins are not really supposed to have one. As jellycat40 says you need to have the waste in contact with the floor in order for the worms etc to get in. More importantly you need all the bacteria / enzymes that are in the soil to get into the compost to help it break down too.

Just do as already suggested and use a wheelbarrow and spade.

meadowcat

If you have a bottom in your compost bin, it would fill with a foul smelling liquid as everything decomposes. Believe me, I know from experience.

MATH

I too got one of these bins from my council when they did a special promotion a few years ago. TBH I found I could get better quicker compost by creating aheap in the corner of the garden than by using the bin. I have no lawns so I have no 'hot rotting' grass cutting to speed the process up so don't know if this is why the bin method wouldn't work.

Lemoncurd

I bought a special bottom for our bin as I was paranoid about rodents getting in, one suggestion I saw was to use chicken wire instead though.

skipton

I have just got a new compost bin without a bottom and all was well until my neighbour said rats were living in it. So I thought I ought to check under it just in case.
But first I dug a new shallow hole the size of the base and put some fine mesh in the bottom. I moved the bin on top and folded the mesh up the sides. I then put what little compost I had back into the bin - no rats found living under or in it.
However I do have a shrew living in my old bin which is covered with old carpet.I don't know who was more scared when I lifted the carpet last weekend and saw a tiny long nosed creature looking up at me.
My garden backs onto open fields. I just wish the field mice would take up winter residence in the compost bin instead of finding a way into my kitchen.

apprentice_tycoon

I have 3 bottomless compost bins and a old plastic dustbin the has had holes drilled all around and up and down it, this is my pre-compost bin where things sit until there is room in a proper composter, sometimes it sits there so long it composts itself in the bin.

Perhaps you can use this dustbin idea till you get your major jobs done and the proper composter can have a permanent home

maryb

Rats are a real problem in suburban London. I had to give up feeding the birds when I saw one on the bird table not two feet from the kitchen window which was totally unconcerned by my frantic banging on the window. (and it would have to be when my SIL had wandered into the kitchen to talk to me!!!) However I have never found a rat in the compost and I think it's because I am absolutely strict about only putting uncooked veg in there. Even boiled carrots will go in the bin rather than the compost because they don't rot in quite the same way.

skipton

I have only ever put garden rubbish, fruit skins ,tea bags and veg waste in the compost bins. I never put cooked food in so I doubt this has caused the problem.

Alfietinker

We've got 4 bottomless bins which we move from time to time. Good excercise shifting all the compost! Never had a problem with rats although I have heard of this. I wouldn't have thought it could be any worse than keeping a rabbit hutch.

At my last house I had a compost bin standing on concrete. It never really rotted down properly, went slimy and smelt revolting. We've not had this problem since putting these on soil. So I wouldn't put a bottom on if you can avoid it.

Hope this helps.