On Sep 5, 5:59?am, Janet Baraclough
wrote:
The message
from "Dave" contains these words:

An above ground compost bin is okay for warm climates. Since you're in the
UK, forget it.

Nonsense. Above-ground compost bins are used successfully by
gardeners in every part of the UK.

UKers must have a strange sense of success.

Above ground bins are never okay, above ground bins don't compost...
rotting organic matter is not composting. Organisms only found in the
earth must be present and in abundance and especially earthworms for
composting. Your above ground bins are making putrid slime, not
humus. You should be happy to have cool weather, your slop pots won't
stink so badly.

In gardening compost used as a noun is actually inaccurate, composting
is a process (verb - to compost) that produces humus, not compost...
in gardening organic matter is either partially composted or it's
humus. Humus is organic matter that has been fully digested, not
rotted. Some folks who use above ground bins add digestive enzymes,
but that does not function very long as it does not renew itself.
Some add earthworms (because proper humus is composed almost entirely
of earthworm castings) but unless they can reach the earth as needed
they will quickly die as exposure to sunlight heats the mass and the
worms will cook.

Above ground composters are a type of industrial equipment used as
chemical digesters for dealing with sewage (from port-a-pottys to
municipal sewage treatment facilities), not something practical for
gardening.

Those above ground bins are nothing other than port-a-pottys
masquerading as composters, they produce sludge, not humus.