Compost Discussion Thread (Merged Threads)

MaureenHB

Have you seen the "wormeries" that places like Wiggly wigglers sell?
http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/
look up can-o-worms. They are about the size of a dustbin and give great plant food as a by-product! I do not own one myself as I have a large enough garden for a big compost area but I ave always been fascinated by them! (Sad I know)

WestonDave

I'd second the wormery idea - not only are they smaller but they are also better suited to disposing of kitchen as opposed to garden waste. Having said that obviously as the worms are living they need a decent supply of food - i.e. waste - so its possible that just your kitchen scraps alone might not be enough to keep them going.

The other alternative is to make your own compost bin - chop the base off a plastic dustbin and drill some holes in the side to aid ventilation. Site it on soil and use away - the lid should be kept on to keep it warm.

Finally you could build one from scratch - this site shows how but there are plenty of others. dorset council site

elhadders

I tried a wormery last year. Not quite sure what I did wrong, but the worms went on hunger strike!:o After six months, I was still binning about 90% of my kitchen waste 'cos the worms weren't eating fast enough.

Then we went away for a weekend and came back to a fly infestation all the way up the back wall of our house where the wormery was sited. So it's safe to say that a) I'm not a fan, and b) I can't be trusted with even the most basic of horticultural tasks!:D

Hacking a dustbin to pieces, however, appeals in two ways: it's much smaller, and I get to indulge in destructive DIY!

mrs_baggins

you could always build your own that way you can have one whatever size you want! you dont have to be good at diy -in fact i dont really think you even need a bin as such- you could do the job with just a heap thats covered with old carpet or something

voodoozoe

MaureenHB wrote:

Have you seen the "wormeries" that places like Wiggly wigglers sell?
http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/
look up can-o-worms. They are about the size of a dustbin and give great plant food as a by-product! I do not own one myself as I have a large enough garden for a big compost area but I ave always been fascinated by them! (Sad I know)

Also on the wigglywigglers site is some small "kitchen sized" compost bins that use "bokashi bran" to speed up the process. These look quite good but are not cheap. Don't see why from the pic that you can't buy your own bin, then get some of the bran to recreate the effect...possibly worth a go!!!!!:D

alanobrien

Just make your own from tongue and groove board or simar, its not that complicated and pretty cheap to do.

voodoozoe

Or maybe not.......!!!!! Just had a better read and it has a special little tap to drain off liquid... click http://www.wigglywigglers.co.uk/shop/foundcategory.lasso?category_id=16&-session=shopper:519DFF04144a222565yvFF24EDB4 to see them.

Hope that works!!!:o

Addiscomber

There are instructions here for building a box, which you can dismantle to deal with the compost. You could make it out of pallets - you can get them free at a garden centre here - and you could make it a size to suit yourself. DH and I made one from this design and it works very well. You could grow a climbing plant over and around it to pretty it up a bit, if you are bothered about looks.
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/factsheets/gg24.php

Contrary to what the manufacturers would have you believe, wormeries are actually quite tricky to run successfully, and in my experience do not process anything like as efficiently as claimed.

SusanCarter

My mum got rats in hers but that's once in over 25 years so I don't think it's a huge problem. The rats had dug a tunnel under the compost heap and up to the top where she put the fresh vegetable waste. She never put any meat on it - just veg, garden waste, newspaper and garotter. She phoned the council and they put rat poison down for free.

robnye

dont forget to make whatever you put into the compost bin/pile as smaller ie the smaller it is the quicker it breaksdown, so cut up your fruit/veg peelings and cardboard.... especially the toilet/kitchen roll inners.