How Do You 'Turn' Compost in the Compost Cone?

Lotus-eater

Your secret is probably a good mix of ingredients, get that right and it's difficult to get wrong. If you get that right, then you don't really need to turn it at all, although turning it will produce compost quicker and without the bits of half done material on the edges.
Rhubarb leaves are fine in there.

usignuolo

I had the same problems as the OP so I got my OH to turn it for me. It is situated on a corner flower bed at the end of our small town garden. We didn't put anything comestible in except broken down eggshells which our LA leaflet said was Ok. Anyway the OH must have not put it back down quite straight because next time he went to turn it, he found a family of baby rats had taken up residence inside. We live quite near the river and apparently if they find a warm dry spot they might just move in, food not being the prime issue. So I gave it up at that point.

wssla00

I have this bin and I use a garden three prong thing like this. I put it in the top then turn it so everything gets mixed up

pcyam

we dont have the compost bins with lids, we basically have a big plastice container with holes in the sides and started putting all sorts of veg and fruit waste, junk mail and newspaper, and some leaves. did turn it to start off with but its quite difficult. I havent added urine in it. BUT was thinking of adding urine into the soil the actual ground/soil is this ok??

Also, over the winter will worms crawl into the compost bin or does everyone buy some and throw them into the bin??

I am so enjoying being a greenfinger, its so exciting to see the veg grow and hopefully have some compost for mum next year ti grow more tasty chinese veg and tomatoes.

Whats everyone grown this year so far??

Orange_King

Once the compost has been produced and resembles nice healthy looking soil, is it ok to mix this with the shop bought veg compost for planting seeds etc or should the home produced compost be mixed into the patch?

Lotus-eater

Usually the home composting temperature doesn't get hot enough to kill all weed seeds, so if you use it for seedlings you'll end up with a mess.
On the other hand, using home compost in a pot is a good idea, as it's full of great stuff for plants, just remember to top it off with a couple of inches (at least) of shop bought sterile compost, so you end up with no weeds in it.

emiff6

dogstarheaven wrote: »

As it's Autumn now, do you think it's wise to help the compost bin by wrapping it with a protective layer like bubble-wrap/hessian? Or do you think it isn't worth it?

My local council sell composter cones for £7 plus buy one, get one half price, too good a bargain to pass up, even though I don't really have room for two in my small garden, so I put one over the top of the other to save space until the first is full (will it ever be?) and now it's turning cooler, I've stuffed the gap between the two with newspapers to make a nice insulating jacket to keep out some of the frost over the winter.