i want to make compost!

A question about : i want to make compost!

Hi all,

I only have one flower bed in my garden, the soil is really heavy, and often water logged.
I want to start a compost bin to help. I've started collecting tea ,eggshells, veg scraps ,etc in a plastic tub for around a week...
what next?
I have an old plastic dustbin hanging about, no lid though,could I make use of this?
could I go about making it into a compost bin,if so,how? No money to buy one

Best answers:

• Secret of a compost bin is size and variety. So with a small garden you are going to have a problem.
  Think wormy, or even abandon the whole idea.
  ps , you tube is a good place to get some ideas.
• Whatever you decide to use it will need a cover of some sort to keep rain / vermin out
  Depending on space available you could try a plastic Dalek type of bin. ignore the pretty illustrations of pretty girl shovelling lovely muck out of the base door, it never does
  Some councils have a subsidised scheme to buy these, check you local council web site, often under the environment label
• Check if your council composts the green waste - they usually sell the compost reasonably cheaply.
  You'll need 10-15cm of compost over the whole flower bed to make a difference (every year for a few years) - you'll never produce that much from a small garden.
• thanks for all replies, now confused.
  flower bed is about 1 metre wide and 8 metres long.
  I'd just wanted to replace heavy soil with some home made compost, will this be impossible?
• No, just will take too long. I have a fairly large garden, my compost bin is about a cubit metre. Takes me about a year to fill it, then I remove top foot or so, and I find I have about 8 wheel barrow load. Which would give a thin topping to 'your' bed.
  Quote:
• You maybe shocked at how much (little) compost you produce.
  We have one of those green darlek bins and fill it with kitchen waste and grass cuttings and paper etc.. Filled to the brim, During the summer it goes down very quickly, 2 bin fulls is probably equal to a mop bucket worth of finished compost.
  As mentioned if teh soil is that poor you will want a minimum of 6" covering over the whole area.
  And you will probably need to do that for 4 or 5 years.
  Money or time to get it to decent soil.
• For a start you need to aerate the soil by turning it over. Hard work to begin but good exercise, just do a bit at a time. Ask your neighbours if they've got any compost and if so dig it into the soil. Most people put out their compost to be collected but ensure it's only vegetable matter and no cooked food or vermin will come. (Rats etc do not come for veg matter). Worms will only come to well ventilated soil and soon you will have rich soil and lots of flowers maybe for the summer.
• Agreed about the quantity that the home composter can generate, I have two compost bins on my allotment made from old pallets so the volume must be around 1 cubic metre, I filled one of those over a year and left it for a year this produced about 10 inches deep of compost it's good stuff mind you and the experts like Monty Don say that you don't actually need loads of compost and that a thin layer activates all sorts of good nutrients in your soil. If you do go ahead with the compost idea be sure to put the bin in a sunny position as it will work much quicker if it gets hot in the summer months.
• ah, thanks all for the help.
  right, lots of turning over to begin asap. will ask around for compost or buy some! will keep collecting my bits for future use, maybe in pots next year
  flower bed is mainly shrubs/prennials, my pots have the colourful flowers.
  no lawn either, so now realise it would be a veeeeeeery long time to produce enough compost myself!
• Do you have trees in your street? You could sweep up the leaves into bin bags and leave them to break down for next year? I once did this by accident, swept leaves into a bag meaning to dispose of them then forgot about it. When I eventually got round to opening it I had a bag of lovely leaf mulch!
• May I ask, is the soil always heavy and water logged or is it just like that now?
  The colourful flowers that you put in pots in the summer can go into the compost bin as well.
• I would avoid putting eggshells in, rats love them
• Rats will eat anything so avoid everything?