making a compost bin from a wheelie bin?

carole.uk

Hi all
Can you make a compost bin from a old wheelie bin or a large plastic water butt?
i have started composting in my kitchen but now need to move it out side
I also have some old bits of decking laying around but not very good with a hammer n nails etc
any advice welcomed

Golden_Anemone

Whatever you use should be open at the bottom so uness someone could cut the bottom off the wheelie bin or water butt for you. I have a couple of dalek type bins that my local council sell for £5 each. Have you checked whether yours do this?

margaretclare

Anyone who wants a compost bin can have mine. I have 2 of the green 'Dalek' type and another one, a black one which is bigger.

I can't be bothered making compost any more, it's too much hard work. Gardening at my stage of life has got to be easy-care.

South-east Essex, if anyone is within travelling distance.

Lotus-eater

How can compost be hard work? All you do is put stuff in a bin and wait for it to rot down. The only hard part is emptying the bin once a year or so.

tomterm8

It depends on whether you're doing it as a hot heap or a cold heap... with a hot heap, you need to "turn" the heap regularly (i.e. you need to mix it up). This involves, in my experience, a lot of sweating and not a small amount of swearing. But it kills of any seeds, and can rot down very quickly.

A cold heap won't kill of seeds, but it basically involves shoving stuff on a pile and leaving until it stops smelling.

You can easily convert a wheely bin to a cold compost bin, all you would need to do is cut the bottom off and shove it into the ground. It would be difficult to use it as a hot heap, because it would be difficult to turn the heap - a wheely bin is too tall and narrow.

ariba10

We use some old blue plastic industrial barrels that we acquired.

Drilled a series of holes in the bottom and they work OK.

margaretclare

Lotus-eater wrote: »

How can compost be hard work? All you do is put stuff in a bin and wait for it to rot down. The only hard part is emptying the bin once a year or so.

There speaks someone who hasn't got replaced hips, a damaged back and a heart problem. And a husband who has been seriously ill and is still incapacitated.

Make the most of your good health and strength. It may not last.

Lotus-eater

I knew you would write something dramatic :rolleyes:. The guy who started me off in gardening was in his eighties, could hardly walk, yet somehow he still managed to hobble the few yards from his backdoor to his compost heap that stood in a corner of his garden, where he threw his compostable waste. He never turned the heap, the only time it ever moved was when he let me dig into it for worms for fishing.
I guess he just didn't like to see any compostable waste go into the rubbish bin. Like him when I am old, I hope I still care enough not to throw kitchen waste into the bin, but manage to hobble the few yards to my compost bin.

tomterm8

It's not really recommended any more that you use kitchen waste as part of your compost, because it encourages rodents and maggots particularly on a cold compost heap. Instead, people in my area normally include it with waste to be recycled which the council takes away.

Golden_Anemone

As long as you can guarantee that it is organic matter only - that means nothing cooked, no meat or dairy products or contamination of raw vegetable waste with these - then it is absolutely still recommended to compost your kitchen waste.

I can do this fine as I'm the only one preparing food and have never had a problem in 10 years of composting. My sister had to stop as her OH couldn't or wouldn't ensure he separated the waste properly and she ended up with rats in her compost.

Lotus-eater

You put wire under your bin to stop rodents getting in and as for maggots, I've never seen any, I didn't think you got maggots on vegetable waste, only meat.