On Sat, 26 May 2007 10:23:28 GMT, Pam Moore
wrote:


Hi Pam in Brizzle ;-)

Did you turn the bin upside down?

No I didn't. I cut (most of) the bottom out and left it at that, it
being pretty parallel and only 'small' in either case (it's about 3/4
the size of those big black dustbins) and was rally just to tidy up
the free form ground heap.

If you do so, putting the wider part (tp rim) on the soil, there is
more soil surface in contact with the compost and also you can easily
lift the bin off to inspect the lowest contents.

I did think about that but because of the limited space I just
modified one of those cheap market telescopic hand forks as a 'muck
turner' and that seems ok so far (not as easy / efficient as with it
all on the ground but ..). ;-)

I find this works very well.

Oh for the space (and my own garden Pam) ;-( When my
next_door_neighbour bought the place there was just a (rough) lawn and
a narrow border that had some scruffy flowers in. He let me widen the
strip, cover it with that black fabric stuff and put my bean canes in.
As long as I keep it tidy and don't take the mick he's not bothered.
He also drinks a lot of coffee but in spite of the offer I've never
seen any coffee grounds in my compost bin (but I have had to pressure
clear his drain of them once though). ;-(

Ants, flies etc will love it if it is warm and dry.

Well it's just these tiny flies and one slug so far (he's probably in
there since I put crushed shells round my new runners) ;-)

Try watering with "Recycled tea, coffee, beer", "kidney filtered" as
one Urgler said recently.

Well I did the latter this morning (recycled tea, beer and gallons of
lemon squash .. not a good day for mowing the garden////// meadow
yesterday, very hot / sticky ..) and will give it all a turn about and
water a bit later.

Apparently a 'good sign' that 'something' is going on in there is that
in spite of adding to it fairly regularly it seems to be going down as
fast as we add to it .. and that's in spite of not having 'watered' it
at all (till now) and not having it in an ideal container?

All the best and thanks again ...

T i m