Composting - Barber's Mobile Bins
If you have a small garden the bins advertised on the back cover of Hill & Valley this month will probably meet your composting needs. If you have a larger garden and grow vegetables you may be interested in our experience.
The garden looked very tidy in May when we looked at the house. But our predecessors stopped weeding when they accepted our offer and when we moved it was covered with weeds. We'd never had a garden before so, flushed with enthusiasm, we started to pull them up. The first day we made a huge heap. The next day we added more and the heap grew bigger. But after that it didn't grow even though we added lots more weeds. Perplexed we took it to bits and discovered it was hot and decomposing inside. That's how we discovered composting.
Then we built a compost heap behind the shed using some wire netting. It quickly filled with lawn mowings and weeds but we soon found that it wasn't a good idea because it made the wall of the shed all soggy and horrible. So we made a free standing bin out of bits of wood and used that instead. Then we made another one because the first one (which was about three feet square) got full. By this stage we had old cabbage plants and twigs as well as weeds and grass so we chucked them in as well.
The compost was a failure. The couch grass didn't die. We tried commercial 'accelerator' but the cabbage stalks and twigs didn't rot down (in the end we had to burn them). The compost was smelly and nettles sprang up where we used it. And another bit of bad news was that the grass behind the shed where the first bin had been was growing like mad.
Then the light dawned. What we needed was bigger bins so they got past 'critical mass' and heated up well. We needed to chop up the bits that wouldn't rot quickly to speed them up. We needed covers keep off the rain and stop it getting too soggy. Lots of the goodness from our compost was being lost because it went into the soil underneath where we couldn't grow anything because it was covered by the bins. So we needed to be able to use the ground under the bins.
The fence blew down in the gales, we demolished a corrugated iron shed and we had what we needed to make Barber's Mobile Bins. They are very simple. Roughly five foot square by two foot six high. A piece of old fence post at each corner and tin between. Easy to make with a hammer and some galvanised nails. If you haven't got a shed to knock down you can buy the tin from building sites.
Everything goes in. Grass, nice weeds, household waste (the lot, not just vegetable stuff but meat and some paper as well), any muck we can get and even nasty rooty weeds and twiggy stuff. It just goes on as we come by it. There are two main rules. Smash big stuff to bits and keep putting on grass cuttings to keep up the heat. If we are feeling very enthusiastic we may stir it about a bit but only the top few inches. In very wet weather we put more tin on top to keep the rain out but it isn't vital because what goes down into the soil is not wasted.
Each bin takes about 4 to 6 months to fill. That is to say to fill properly. We fill it about half full each time we mow the grass but it shrinks in a week. When number one is properly full we cover it with tin or carpet and start on number two which is on a different part of the vegetable plot. By the time number two is full the contents of number one are pretty solid. So we lift the tin off number one and start number three on another part of the veg. plot. Heap number one can be used then but is better left to mature for a further few months. After a while you can work out where to put the next bin so it will be ready when you need it and where you need it. Each one gives us nearly three cubic yards (1,700 litres if I've done the sums right) of compost which we don't have to carry far to use on the veg 'cos it's there already. And when the compost has been spread the most fertile ground of all is where the bin was.
All weeds including the nasty rooty ones are killed. So are weed seeds though our compost does sometimes grow the odd tomato.
Small weeds (up to 18" or so) are simply tossed onto the grass when we pull them up. They dry out for a while on the grass and we hoover them up next time we mow. The same goes for hedge trimmings. Larger woody stuff like fruit bush and tree prunings, cabbage stalks and brambles goes through the shredder. If it is too thick to shred then it is thick enough to be worth burning on the stove.
We don't need commercial accelerators and we've given up bonfires. The system is ever so simple but it probably wouldn't suit a garden less than ¼ acre as there wouldn't be enough material to reach critical mass (unless, of course, you get together with the neighbours).
(Thanks to HDRA's Compost Bin where this article was first published.)