"arthur" wrote in message
I want to start composting. I'd be grateful for any advice on the
following:
1 Can anyone recommend a good simple book?

I have several but since they are all published in Australia, they won't be
much use to you. There is lots of info on the net. Here are a few sites:
http://www.greenworks.tv/special/composting/index.html
http://searchwarp.com/swa9534.htm
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art10889.asp

2 How important is it to have a mixture of materials: e.g. kitchen
waste, grass, leaves, etc.?

Not very. Save that for if you become a fanantical composter. Till then,
just remember that anything that has once lived is able to be made into
compost - it's all nutrients and plants aren't too fussy about whether it's
a dead chook or the equivalent of a PhD in compost.

3 I have been wondering about these rotating drums that promise to
produce compost fast
(2 weeks or so) and (more important) without any heavy work involving
my weak back.
Do they do the job well?

They do a good job, but I don't know anyone who lives in a temperate climate
who has made compost in 2 weeks from them and I live in a lot hotter climate
than the UK (sun on them does help them to work). They will turn out
mulchlike material after 2 weeks but that is about it.

To get going you don't even need a bin. You can dig a trench and drop stuff
in and progressively bury it, you can sheet compost, you can build a big
pile, you can go the whole hog and have bins which you turn religiously, you
can have a wormery or you can keep chooks or a whole host of other things
that will also work.

I have 2 tumblers, 2 big anaerobic plastic bins that look like upside down
huge garbage bins with the bottom cut off and I have 2 tradional bins that
should be turned. I don't bother to turn them. They all work eventually.
I also sheet compost and put manure straight on the top of beds and top them
with leaves and leave them on the beds over winter so the worms can do my
work for me. I also throw the bigger rougher stuff and some of the other
weedings (especially milk thistles) to the chooks and let them turn stuff
for me which may or may not end up in a compost bin or just straight on a
bed somewhere or could just stay in the chook pen for ages.

I have a big garden that isn't at all neat or ordered by British standards
but it works like a big forest floor in some places.

Just start and do something/anything to keep nutrients on your own land
rather than sending it off somewhere else to rot.