I decided that I wanted to compost my own material as well as horse manure that I knew I could collect every time I took my daughter riding. The horse manure is fresh and needs to be composted for several months before it is useable.
When a bin is filled to start with it has a large volume, but as it rots, it ends up occupying 20 to 25% of the original volume and the space in the bin is wasted. The photo shows a bin containing horse manure that is ready and 4 modules high, and an adjacent one that I have been filling that is 9 modules high.
Lying awake at 3am is no joke when you cannot get something out of your mind and for a long time I thought of how to get the most efficient system for composting.
The whole plot is divided into beds using decking 2.4 metres long with individual modules allowing frames and netting etc to be added..
I decided that 1.2 metre square compost bins would be too large as they would take such a long time to fill that the material at the bottom would be nearly ready to use while I was still piling it on the top.
As I could cut three 80cm boards from each length, I decided that would be my standard.
As I already had a construction method for my raised beds, I duplicated it except that each board was 80cm and therefore was linked in a circular fashion so the whole section was about 82cm square, ie each face had only one end grain showing.
(See my Raised Bed link on the right).
Corner posts were added, each post about an inch shorter than the 6inch width of the boards. They were fixed with coach screws as usual.
Lids were constructed as shown, making sure that the joining timber fitted inside the module.
They are heavy enough to stand the strongest winds.
All the waste from the allotment and my house is put in a bin and at peak times of the year it is amazing how high it grows, but as other bins are are sinking, the modules are just transferred. My current record is 10 high, that is 5 feet. After that it is inconvenient to put it in.
One bin last year had sweet corn plants, runner beans, broad beans and courgette plants and they all fitted.
Almost anything is the answer, even tree trunks rot eventually, and in my first year as it was a new plot I had barrowloads of couch grass, thistles and bindweed. I put all these in black bags, folded the tops over and placed a brick on each.
After about 6 months when I had built my bins they were transferred and the result is shown on the left. Not a single root has sprouted which exposes the accepted wisdom of burning perennial roots as a myth.
All it takes is patience and method.
I would not compost diseased plants:-
Brassicas-Club root
Potatoes-Blight
Onions-white rot
Strawberry-Virus
And any others that have been affected by disease.
The one thing that I must emphasise is the importance of turning if you want fast composting.
As I have 5 bins, I use up bin number 5 and then turn 4 into 5, 3 into 4 etc and now have an empty bin to start filling. This usually happens every 3-4 months and accelerates the rotting process dramatically.
It also allows further mixing, and if there are pockets that are rather dry, they will not have started to rot and can be watered.
After turning the contents of each bin rapidly heat up again.
