[Dantheman]

I've used one long pallet and three small ones to make up my bins, with a slatted from section for easy access i put waste from the allotment and a little from home.  I use the natural way of activating with comfrey chopped up and added to the mix but best of all, pee.
Works great.

[sunshineband]

It is amazing isn't it that with the help of all those microbes, we are all able to make compost one way or another 


PS Forgot to mention the large quantity of chopped nettles I add 

[compostqueen]

I don't think I was "technical"     I think " bung it in"  is what I said 

[Dantheman]

if your struggling to build up you compost bin ask your friends and family to give you a hand, they have lots of kitchen waste too.  My mum helps out with the browns lots of shredded paper. I got myself a wormy to help with the cooked kitchen waste works good only had it since august nearly filled my third tray they are slowing up now with the cold on it's way.

[allotmentann]

Jay G, from everything I remember hearing regarding hot heaps, I think the only way to achieve it is to be able to build an 'instant' heap with vast amounts of stuff. I seem to remember hearing that it is very difficult to achieve at home because we tend to add to heaps in dribs and drabs.
The compost in my daleks gets warm, but never really hot, being in the shade doesn't help this. It does, however, make compost pretty rapidly. I do shred things as small as possible, keep a good mix of green and brown and keep the mix moist. I also mix it regularly with a Dolman Aerator, which is the most fabulous tool I have found for mixing compost and makes the job really easy. I have one dalek filling and the other finishing. Not that I ever actually fill one, because it rots down so fast, but at some point I concede it must be left to finish. Then I bag the finished compost for use and alternate the bins.
On the other hand I also make really, really nice compost in a friends dalek. They have far, far more food waste than me. In fact, nothing really goes in other than food waste and tea and coffee grinds. That dalek has turned itself, without any help, into a wormery, there must be thousands in there and it produces the most rich, lovely, crumbly dark compost.
I really believe that how rapidly you get compost for use, depends upon how much effort you want to put into making it, the more you shred and mix, the faster you will get useable compost, even without significant heat.   

[Nikkithefoot]

I have found that since I have had chickens my compost has never failed to 'brew'

All the veg peelings go into the dalek as well as teabags and the chicken bedding waste that's all.  Every spring I empty it into another dalek and put back in any unrotted stuff for take 2

[JayG]

Some very interesting (and varied ) techniques - thank you. 

As suspected I'm unlikely to get relatively small quantities of material to heat up much in a dalek, especially without access to any sort of bird poo, but even so I'm hoping to speed up the overall process by keeping it as aerobic as possible because my 100' garden is enclosed by privet hedges (and more at the front) and some of the clippings have to be put in the general waste due to lack of dalek space, which must be some sort of compost-crime! 

The Dolmen Aerator will go on my Winter Festival wish list, and will hopefully encourage me to mix and aerate the brew more often than I do with my "folding V" mixer, which sort of works but is a bit clumsy.

I may also experiment with creating vertical air passages with a metal rod - I did think about drilling holes in the sides to poke holes in the compost with, but remembering the stage trick where the lady in the box is run through with multiple swords and comes out unscathed, perhaps that might not work as well as hoped!   

[Totty]

Where possible, I smash all material to be composted with a mower. Same as with the leaves I'm currently collecting. Of course the heaps need plenty of air within them, but I think the initial smashing gives it all a bit of a head start. Other than that it's just heaped up, turned once and left until it's ready. In no rush.

Totty

[compostqueen]

I like the multiple swords idea. Take that you varlet! 

I use a long, metal thin pole which I keep by the side of the bin, which is a brilliant poker and stirrer.  Mice do a good job of aeration too.  When you take the lid off and it looks like a swiss cheese and everything is cooked and combined you can thank the big eared mice 

When I had chickens I used to keep their poo separate in builders rubble sacks. Then use it in situ for growing veg in.  Never fails, and it lasts about 3 seasons. When it's spent you chuck it on the garden.   

[sunshineband]

Like the idea of employing the meeces 

[lazza]

Wow! I didn't realise there was so much skill involved in composting. I must just be lucky, as I don't make any special effort at all, except the odd bucketful of water when it looks very dry. All the kitchen veg scraps go in along with egg shells, egg boxes, tea bags, coffee grounds and the occasional bag of shredded paper. All my grass cuttings go in, as does most of the foliage from plants that have finished producing... and it seems to work a treat. Every time I open it and turn it a bit, there's a seething mass of worms below the surface!!

Having said all that, I got a remarkable number of rogue tomato plants this year where I used home-made compost...!

[allotmentann]

Lazza, you are not lucky, you have actually just described the perfect recipe for great compost! You may have done it without realising, but if you stopped adding say the egg boxes and shreddings or the bucket of water now and then, it probably wouldn't be so great!
Good compost is, as  you say, not much effort, as long as you create the right mix. Many people, and I was once one of them, do not realise that brown waste is needed as well as green. I was not as lucky as you, and didn't stumble on the right formulae by chance!     

[JayG]

Having said all that, I got a remarkable number of rogue tomato plants this year where I used home-made compost...!

Yes, that's the problem with cold composting (and what my original question was about) - nature makes sure that any old pile of vegetable material will eventually rot down and be recycled - the "Holy Grail" of getting the heap to heat up sufficiently to kill most pathogens and weed seeds, and be ready in weeks rather than months is much more challenging, but I'll keep trying! 

[compostqueen]

If you're hot composting you have to have everything to hand and into the bin in one go, in hot weather. The addition of grass mowings or some muck - and placing the bin in the sun - should get things boiling 

[Mbmyco2]

2 questions please

can i make a compost bin from white 2 mm plastic sheets will this work?

and should the weeds go in the compost or not?>

thnaks