[beesrus]

I would say make the compost bin much smaller, and more in keeping with what might actually be utilised. People's vision and actual reality are often quite different. Good luck with your plot.
Much composting can be done on the beds, for instance bean trenches, and even mulches.

[snowdrops]

Could someone give us a run through of a "how to do it" for setting up a diary

Scroll up the the top of this page,click on home,then scroll down to gardeners diaries & open a new thread. You can then start a comments page for us all to make comments in the comments thread. Hope that explains it a little

[BumbleJo]

Hi there, welcome to a whole new world!  I was completely new to this till just over a year ago.  We marked out beds of 4ft wide some 12 ft long, some longer due to the layout after spraying off the whole site with Roundup and rotovating and made semi-raised beds.  Some have wood boards round them, some don't yet.  Hear are my suggestions for what they are worth.. Leave paths in between all plots and scrape tops off to add to beds thereby making paths lower, beds higher.   Leave paths to grass spraying off or pulling out weeds as they grow or put down wood chips.  We've got some of both.  I find it so much easier to manage this way, have never done any serious digging after initial rotovating, just put loads of manure on top of each bed and never walk on them.  Easy to weed and easy to keep a record for rotation also. And agree with others, more, smaller compost bins.  Hope you love it as much as I do, can't imagine life without it now, good luck!

[cadalot]

Keep an eye of Freecycle composting daleks come up on a regular basis. My Local Authority is about to supply for the cost of delivery £5 so see if your Local Authority is undertaking a similar scheme

[Kristen]

Tenhens, I like your suggestion for the compost bin - it is a bit large.  There are some pallets further up the allotment, so should be able to craft something.

I don't think you need any pallets - pallets are right-size for compost heaps and thus often used, but its basically just a 1M x 1M measurement.  I'd go with the decking boards you already have, just remove the front and partition into roughly 1M square size.  I think much smaller than that and the compost heap doesn't have enough "bulk" to get good temperatures and compost well, but of course it does require that you have enough material to fill a 1M cube   I don't think that should be a problem with a full size allotment

The existing arrangement, with fixed sides (by the looks of it?) would be hard work to empty, so having no front, or removable panels on the front, would make it easy to fill, turn (if you like) and empty.

[ptarmigan]

I'd agree with the poster above.  If you took the front off the compost bin and then used that to fashion 2 partions then you'd have 3 perfect bays. 

So you can have one for fresh stuff, one to turn that into and one for pretty much done stuff (or stick everything you dig off to make your beds into the last one, stick a pumpkin to grow on top of that one and you'll have fantastic compost at the end of the season).

Maybe put a foot high bit of chicken wire along the bottom to stop stuff falling out but so you can remove to empty easily.  My composts don't have a removable front and are a real pain to empty right down to the bottom and to turn.

[snowdrops]

I'd use the pallets for the rear & sides & use the decking boards for slatted removable fronts . See ask 3 gardeners... & get Answers 

[colin120]

Hi
I got my allotment last year, looking at your pics, your plot looks like a walk in the park lol, my plot the weeds and bushes was 6ft high when I took it on .

Your best to just dig half of your plot, I double dug mine just to make sure I got all weeds out, then start planting on the half u have dug.

Use the decking boards as your beds 4ft by 6ft, then use the pallets for your compost and horse manure

good luck wish u all the best

[dant19]

Thanks for all the additional advice guys.  Just a quick update, I have gone against some of it and am well on my way to prepping the entire site.  Main reason being, there's not much else to do on it just yet!  blooming hard work, but at least going to the gym's paid off!

One weekend and 60% of it is dug over, hope to complete the rest of it this weekend.  All covered in tarp at the moment, and so should hopefully be in a good place to plant in a few weeks.

The awesome compost bin seems to be generating some discussion - I love all the ideas!  As it stands, it's just being filled as a single bin.  Depending on what level it gets up to, I may jump in and and shovel it into a pile then divide into two separate sections.

Now onto planning the planting!

[sunshineband]

That's the point of advice Dan... it is suggestions of how you can proceed for you to choose from, mull over and then do what you think suits you best 

Sounds like you are cracking on with things now... good stuff 

[cadalot]

Dan

We need you to start a diary and upload photographs. diaries have comment pages so you get this kind of interaction plus it's good to take photographs as you go along to look back on during the winter months.

It would also be good if you put your location in your profile as then regional variations in weather and soil can be taken into account.