Starting a composter

[TheHorseyouRodeInOn]

I've just bought a composter for our small garden after realising that I was putting an awful lot of food into our recycling bin that could be used to make compost for the garden.
Not sure where to start now!
It's this one.

At the moment I'm putting in everything except food scraps because of the rats.

What do you mean food scraps?

If you are putting cooked food eg bread, meat, leftovers etc then yes you will get rats. If you are just putting uncooked veg scraps and garden waste in, and putting an equal amount of 'browns' eg cardboard, shredded paper etc, you should not have a rat problem at all.

I put all food waste, bones etc in the council food bin. All peelings, coffee grounds etc go into my composter. Before I changed to the enclosed one they were chowing down on my swede and carrot peelings!
However they can't get into it now 😂

TheHorse yes all tea bags are made with a paper plastic composite. It's totally mad.

I'm sure some eco brands might have 100% paper bags, but it would be plastered all over the box, coz it's so unusual.

I found out when I was sieving the compost for my veg bed- 100% intact tea bags a year later.

In fact I accidentally washed a tea bag in a kitchen cloths wash the other week. Yep still 100% intact.

So now I let them dry out, tear them open and put in with our coffee grounds that are waiting to go to the compost.

@Howzaboutye
Oh dear! So all the ordinary teabags that I'm using have plastic in them? Who would have thought?! I do use some organic ones too so maybe they are ok 😒
Thanks for the info 😊

Small gauge wire mesh under your bin will keep rats out. Even the odd teabag cover can be riddled out on use.

Equal measures green and brown waste - egg boxes, card, good place to chuck shredded paper. Avoid shredding window envelopes.

Ants are good, so don't worry if they appear in your bin. Break down waste beautifully.

As well as tomatoes, pepper seeds seem to survive well.

I have a 3 bin system - lots of hedge and lawn clippings. With an additional bin for storage. Bin one gets full is turned into bin 2. Bin 1 full - bin 2 turned into bin 3, 1 into 2. Bin 1 gets full - bin 3 riddled and anything not broken down yet goes into 1, bin 2 to 3 and 1 to 2.

Got it down to a fine art now that the digging over just takes a couple of hours twice a year. Riddling takes a lot longer.

I don't worry about bits of egg shells gives slugs/snails something to nibble so they leave my plants alone!

Haven't needed to buy compost for years.

Ants are good, so don't worry if they appear in your bin. Break down waste beautifully

Best compost I ever had was when the ants got in. Absolutely gorgeous it was.

I have been caught scooping up the ant mounds I find on the lawn and chucking it in my bins

I used to throw egg shells into the compost and was amazed to find, when emptying the bin many moons later, that they came back out in the same condition as when they went in. I then heard a handy tip: cook your eggshells in the microwave for a minute. They are then very dry and brittle and can be easily crumbled into tiny pieces before adding to the compost.

Ooh good tip senua thanks. It always annoys me when I throw them in the bin