[ambodach]

I'm under instruction to make a new compost area.  So far I have come up with two designs I like from the net, and both have been rejected by SWMBO !

My wife has collected various leaflets over the years and they are thrust in front of me saying a bin should be like this; as these leaflets and a book are contradictory in some aspects I need to get some help from elsewhere please to be able to steer a central path!

Two design elements need to be resolved. 

Firstly, is a lid necessary ?  If the lid is down, the compost will require to be watered as it will dry out - if it is up then can it actually get too wet ?

Secondly - ventilation; this is the trouble point, and is not helped by designs that go from solid walls to those with various degrees of mesh netting.  The design I did fancy has widely spaced wood planks with chicken wire to hold the compost in, but the 'authority' says it will get wet - I forgot to say that it also doesn't have a lid!!  But then I get to see the New Zealand style design which has plank walls without any ventilation spacing at all, either from the sides and none from below either.

I'm near Edinburgh - sheltered from the N, E and S, but less so from the west.

Any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks
Rob 

[wrinkly1]

mine is made up of old pallets. it needs air. i found the dalek type slower. the reason for a cover is to keep too much wet out.it needs to be damp. it will creat a lot of heat so will need turning regular. thats why i use old pallets for easy access.hope this is some help. good luck wrinkly1

[8doubles]

Compost heaps were the originals and they still work!

A bin will hold heat and compost faster, the dalek type keep the  moisture in so not much watering needed.

The traditional top for a compost box or bag is a square of good quality carpet, not cheap foambacked which will fall apart and possibly leach nasties in to the heap.
Carpet lets air and moisture in, holds heat and will even run off water at the sides in a downpour.

Not particulaly good looking after a few months though!

[Kristen]

This question will definite qualify for an "Ask two gardeners and get three opinions" award.  Pile up the weeds and they will compost ... other variations are also available

I used to make good compost - the sort that composted at high temperature and didn't take very long to mature. But it did take a lot of my time looking after the heap - finding enough new material for it when the bin was not very full and I needed to keep the high temperature running, and then having to turn the heap etc.

Now I just pile everything up and leave it for a couple of years ... once the initial 2 years wait is over I make as much compost this way as I would do in a high-temperature method.  I have no idea if my compost is "as good" as before, but it qualifies as "good enough" in my book (although I'd be interested to hear if a hot composting method would be better for the plants - no doubt there would be less surviving weed seeds etc. in a high-temperature heap).

So by my reckoning you have:

A chuck-it-on, untidy, pile.
A wooden slatted box, ideally large enough to be efficient, e.g. 1 M Cube
A Dalek
Another variation-on-a-theme, such as a "Hotbin" (insulated box designed to maintain high temperature composting)

Wooden box, with removable "front", allows easy emptying.  Three boxes side by side, of reducing size if you like, allows turning one-to-the-next.  Reducing size allows for the fact that at each stage a "complete bin full" will shrink in size. When the "filling box" is full then empty out the "completed" box, for use on the garden, and move "middle to completed" and "filling box to middle" and then the "filling box" is ready for more material

Or have two or three wooden slatted boxes where you will fill one of them and when that is full leave it, in situ, to compost and start filling one of the other boxes, in rotation. Ideally "turn" the compost to aerate it, or use a plunger to aerate it in situ (a long rod with barbs on it, push into the compost and then withdraw, the barbs will pull on the compost forcing some gaps into the pile to allow air to circulate)

A benefit of this type is that it can be any size, suitable for your size of garden / plot.  However, 1 M Cube is the ideal minimum size as it is big enough to keep the heat in and operate in hot-composting mode.

A Dalek keeps all the messy stuff neat ant tidy. I've never know anyone make good & friable enough compost to be able to shovel it out through the slide-up door at the bottom, i.e. a continuous process. IME it is better to fill, and then when full to lift off the Dalek leaving a neat cone shaped pile of composting material and place the Dalek alongside to start the new pile (or have two Daleks).  Supposedly Daleks which sit in the sun get nice and hot and that helps composting process, OTOH they don't let much air in (although I've never found that a problem). Dalek bins [and other types] are often offered by Councils at subsidised prices.

Re: lid. I think you need a lid. Daleks have one as standard, but I would make one for a slatted wooden box. I would leave it off in Summer, to allow rain in, and put it on in Winter to stop the heap becoming water-logged.  It Carpet will pass by management's requirements then go with that, it is the ideal filter allowing enough water through, whilst keeping a deluge out.

[cadalot]

check out freecycle daleks come up on there all the time, I now have a little dalek army

[Elm street]

Check out my three new built bins on my diary page 

[surbie100]

I'm a dalek fan, all picked up for free or a fiver on the internet. We have a steady supply of manure, which helps the speed of composting. And I move from one to another in the year so they are maturing at different rates. I use 2 in one year to fill, and turn it into the third to mature for a year before using. It's blackish crumbly stuff at that point.

I turn it by sticking a fork in it and twisting. Gets air into it nicely. And I do chop everything that goes into it. It takes a bit of time, but the stuff composts really quickly. It needs a little bit of watering in the summer months, but not much.

Having said all that, go with what you really want to do. Whatever your better half has to say, you'll be the one grafting at it.

[cadalot]

Whatever type you use I now believe that spending time chopping everything up and getting the layers right, with a little comfrey and pee to kick thing off is the key. I'm going to actively grow green manure next season early to be harvested for the compost bins and later to be dug in.

In addition I will be drowning more weeds next year to make weed tea, and harvesting the early spring nettles to make nettle teas. Wyevale have 6 sacks of farmhouse manure for £18 at the moment so I'm going to get some this weekend.