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On 27/02/2016 20:21, earthstick wrote:

Does it matter if the heaps have a lid, should there be gaps in the sides like no.3 or not?

It depends how big your heaps are. Mine are roughly 2m^3 each and I
generally add stuff to them in significant fractions of a cubic metre at
a time. At that scale it gets mad hot quickly and will rot through
almost anything. They really only need a lid if they are tiny and you
are adding only small amounts of stuff at a time.

Be aware that a compost heap may smell a bit funny when hot so you don't
want it too near your back door. I have had mine up to smouldering
internally once or twice too...

It helps get things started to use a proprietory compost starter like
Garotta when starting from scratch.

I'm with the recycled pallets camp provided you have the space. Plastic
things are overpriced gadgets for very small gardens.

Our local council doesn't provide a green-waste collection service
so they provide anyone who wants them, with a couple of free -plastic
dalek compost bins. Not something I'd buy but as they're free, I have
two. They are light and easy to move round the garden so I stated using
them, tucked behind shrubs or in the veg garden, as a handy dump for
weeds; when full, just lift the dalek off, leave the stack to decompose
then scatter it in situ. Then the ants moved in. I opened the lid and
found they had chewed up the compost and used it to construct a whole
city if fine brown friable material, a nursery for thousands of ants
eggs. In winter they disappear leaving antcity vacant.

In summer I harvest ant eggs for the pondfish, and in winter I
harvest the incredibly fine-grain potting compost.

Janet.