On Oct 6, 5:37 am, JakeD wrote:
On Wed, 03 Oct 2007 17:18:38 -0600, SteveSch
wrote:



I guess it makes sense to treat the timber with wood preservative, so
that it lasts longer, yes?

Many folks would say no. The preservative can, and probably will, leach
into the compost. I'd rather have to replace the pallets. You might not
want to use treated wood either.

Have you thought about sheet composting? You just spread the organic
matter over the ground and till it in. Over the winter the worms will
feast on the matter and improve your soil. In the spring/summer you can
just make a pile. Then when your peas are done, till it all in that area
along with the pea plants. Very little storage area is needed that way.

I have one area (5' X 50' strip) in the backyard where I tilled in approx
400 pounds of pumpkins. Two years ago I tilled in a pickup load of leaves
in another small area. We have great soil compared to the rest of our area.

We do have 2 plastic compost bins that we fill on a regular basis, 5-6
times a year. When I fill them I have to pretty much sit on the lid to get
it on. Everything I add in whole. I had to bend the corn stocks to get
them in the bin. I throw entire squash, pumpkins, tree branches (1" and
smaller), weeds. My wife is giving a class on composting and she is going
to take photos of the insides of our bins. I guess to use as an example of
how not to use a bin. I don't cut anything up I put into the bins. I also
don't care about green brown ratios. Don't put meat into the bins,
although you probably knew that already.

We've only used the bins here for three years. We haven't had to empty
them one time. I am amazed at how times I've filled them.

Thanks for the replies. What is the pc angle on wormeries? Are they
worth having?

Very much so. What takes your backyard pile six months to
break down, with frequent pest problems, a converted 14 gallon
Rubbermaid bin in the cellar can transform into black gold in two
weeks, the worst pest problem being a rare, transient fruit fly
outbreak.

I often wonder if they expend a lot of valuable
nutrients on raising worms rather than raising plants! If I want rich
fibrous compost, would I be best advised to use a traditional compost
bin or heap?

I've also wondered if there is some kind of small, hygenic compost bin
one can keep inside the kitchen for food scraps.

5 gallon paint pail.

Ventilating and draining the pail with lots of 1/16" holes and
throwing in wet newspaper turns it into a worm bin.

Two such pails, with an unventilated, undrained third
bucket underneath makes a barebones cheap stacking
bin.

At the moment, I use a brown paper bag at the back of the kitchen sink
draining board, but it attracts flies into the kitchen even when it's
only half full. Perhaps I should empty it more often, but the compost
heap is located some distance from the kitchen, so I like to keep
trips there to a minimum.

The brown bag itself will be converted into black gold if
you feed it to the worms.

We did try using a black bin on the concrete area right outside the
kitchen door, but it didn't make good compost, as it had no drainage
or air holes, and was too far away from earth and vegetation.

Go with the worm bin.