Composters Assemble! Help required from a newbie.

[DigbyTheDigger]

I'm considering a Green Johanna, a Thermo Wood Composter, a Maze Tumbler or a wormery.

I have a smallish garden and small family. I thought a bog-standard beehive composter might take too long. We will use it primarily for food waste (no lawn) with some shrub clippings. I like that you can put hoover dust and pet hair in too. I'm now going round in circles and I need someone to make the decision for me.

for a newbie. I'm clearly no help to anyone.

What are you going to use the compost for?

I use mine for different reasons.

Wormery I use to make material for adding to potting compost, which is fed with the material from my tumblers to run it all through the worms.

Big composters, with the little holes in the bottom to take out the compost, well - it's so hard to get it out I never use that facility. I end up taking the whole frame off and move it, put the uncomposted stuff back into the top and shovel the bottom stuff into a bin where it finishes off. I then use it for adding to veg beds. So a bin that can be easily lifted up is much better than one that can be opened at the bottom in my experience.

In my experience, the one in this pic on the right hand side is the easiest to use, and big enough to heat up if you fill it all in one go. I really regret not bringing the two I had at my allotment with me when I moved to France as these are not to be found here.

I also make a huge amount of leaf mould, which once done is mixed with the wormery compost for the potting soil. I make this in a 1 cubic metre builders bag.

Just in addition, the faster you turn it the faster you make useable compost. The smaller the bits that go into it, the faster you can make it. The mix has to be right - so if you add greens, also add browns. It is done when you can no longer distinguish what it is. In my opinion, don't waste money on fancy composters, find one that you can move easily and doesn't take alot of dismantling. Better still, get one on freecycle and spend your cash on plants. And buy a pitchfork to turn it, that's what will speed it up.

I’ve done pallet wood compost bin homemade and got good results. I also have your green Johanna type, but just started using it, so can’t say how it compares yet.

I'm not sure you should put hoover dust in unless you have 100% natural fibre carpets.
Anything artificial won't compost and will end up in your garden.

If you are primarily composting food waste you will need to add lots of "brown" material too. You can use autumn leaves, scrunched up paper and ripped and scrunched Amazon boxes. It keeps air in the mix. I have only ever used standard beehive type cold composters though. You need double the footprint of the composter so that once a year you can lift it up, put the half rotted stuff back in on the new footprint and then access the fully rotted stuff that has formed at the bottom. It is great for general mulching/ top-dressing beds but you need to sieve it ( long tiring task) if you want to use it for potting.

I have two bog standard dalek bins and it works well for us. We have a lawn but don't mow very often so it's comparable to you in that the majority of stuff in there is kitchen scraps and cardboard/shredded paper.

I completely agree that the little door at the bottom is useless for getting compost out just lift the bin off.

The key to getting compost underway isn't really the bin it's finding a system that works for the whole family. So for example I know my compost would be done faster if I chopped up the scraps but that would mean teenagers hiding their banana skins in the food waste cos they can't be bothered to cut them up so we don't do that I just wait for bigger pieces to break down. I have found carrot tops break down faster if they are chopped down the middle of the root though and that's easy enough to do while chopping.

I keep cardboard boxes next to the bins to get rained on. They are then damp and soft and easily ripped up to add to the compost. Leaf mould goes in old compost bags and is stacked up round the bins. I keep a bent old garden fork behind the bins so it's easy to give the compost a quick turn. I don't add hoover bag contents because there are too many crumbs and synthetic fibres but I do add hair clippings from all home haircuts.

We have had a green johanna for about three years now, family of four. We use it mostly for food waste and some lawn clippings/other organic matter when it needs a bit of drier material.
I've barely emptied it at all - sometimes it does get quite near the top, in the winter when the worms are sleepy, but now it's back down to about half full again. It's incredible!
The once-a-year time I have taken the slidy door off and extracted compost, it has been rather awkward, but it is so infrequent I just live with it. If I was wanting a regular supply of good compost, I'd probably run two bins and then yep take the entire bin off when i wanted to utilise it.

We've got a hot bin. Been using it a year and still haven't taken anything out. At the moment it's 80 degree is there! Seems to be breaking the food waste and garden waste down a lot given the amount that's gone in and I've yet to take any out. We don't have many grass clippings and it needs brown waste such as egg boxes and brown paper adding. Ours has a stand to raise it up, which apparently helps when taking compost out.
Don't put worms in it they get cooked, I did that then felt super bad when I realised my stupid mistake.

I put my cardboard boxes on in one piece. They are still there in 3months, with loads of worms, but when I come to use the compost they have disappeared.

once you have your system going, it doesn’t really matter how long it takes. The stuff I put in now may not be ready till Mar 2024 but I have the stuff from Mar 2022 to use now.

we also have a hot bin composter - small garden with a very small lawn and lots of prunings. I put some food waste in (raw veg / bread / fruit) but not meat or bones etc because I don't want too many rats. It doesn't get super hot but it does compost pretty efficiently and is small and neat too.

the green joanna looks very big - you'll need a lot of food waste to fill that.

how about this
https://www.hotbincomposting.com/compost-bins/hotbin-mini.html

We have three bays made from pallets, so all a 'pallet square' type size. Fill first one, move on to the next, start again etc. ... so by the time stuff has been in Bay 3 three a while that is what will be used, and it gets turned as you move it on.

I use a layered wormery. It's ok, but actually I will use a pair of old lidded kitchen bins next. Drill a couple of holes an inch above the bottom, dump a shovel of earth in, a few scoops of compost, then a week or two later a packet of composting worms. Add layers of kitchen waste and shred/leaves. When it's full, start a new one stealing worms from bin one. When that's full, dump out the first one and start again. Any uncomposted waste can go as the start of the next bin.

I reckon I'll do two bins a year, basically. They slow down and fill up in the winter, but motor on down in the summer.

I have a tiny space to compost in so I use a buried composter/wormery Like this one here. As its got an open base I deliberately put it in a corner of the garden which has poor soil which I'm looking to improve. I figured that way I'll get compost I can use out of the top, but some of the goodness will go into the soil via the bottom as well.

It's the first one I've ever had and things seem to break down really quickly in it. I put vegetable scraps, loose tea, coffee, a few grass clippings, brown leaves and shredded up brown paper in mine. I was told as long as you're studious about balancing your green and brown waste you can't go far wrong. Just keep it damp and give it a stir occasionally. It's strangely addictive! I'm never going to make tonnes of compost in such a small composter but it's very unobtrusive in a small space, and its nice to feel like I'm doing my bit. I'm seriously tempted to get another in a different corner if I can squeeze it in!

I used to do that and it was fine but I started getting pockets where cardboard was getting wet and smelly and anaerobic for some reason so I decided smaller pieces would be worth the effort

This is all so helpful, thanks!

I want the compost to spread on beds, it's unlikely I'll be using it in pots. I'm hoping to do no dig, so anything I can get out of a composter to use as mulch will be mulch I won't have to buy. (I can use compost as mulch, can't I?)

We will have room for one bin, so it needs to be something I can get the compost out of without needing double the space. I can't do a series of pallets or multiple bins, which is why I thought a tumbler could be good. I was thinking it would stand on bare earth beside a gravel path.

I did see that little Hotbin one, but wondered if the strap would be annoying/get wet etc. What do you think, @parietal ?

Very interesting about the issues with getting compost out of the little door at the bottom, I hadn't thought about that at all. @picklemewalnuts that sounds like a very uncomplicated system compared to multiple trays.

That's interesting, @snoodrops , I'd seen the Green Cone one but had discounted it as I thought I wouldn't get compost out of it, the food just magically disappears.

I have two basic "Dalek" types. I empty each one once a year but staggered between Spring and Autumn. So Year 1 Composter 1: empty in spring, start filling, leave Composter 2 to rot down; Composter 2, empty in Autumn, start filling, leave Composter 1 to rot down, Year 2 Composter 1: empty in spring and so on. The Autumn lot I tend to spread on beds; the spring lot I sieve for seedlings (nb don't use for seed sowing unless you know what they look like when they come up) and pots. One of these takes out a lot of the effort. Mix of vegetable kitchen waste, soft garden clippings and paper. No turning needed.

Two tall bins won't take up more room than a bigger composter and will be easier to handle.
If I ever come across a retired wheelie bin, I'll use one of those!

Here's a video on composting from The Middle-Sized Garden. As ever, she is full of useful and practical advice.

You don't get compost out of a green cone. It literally disappears and if you want to move it about, you have to dig out the basket underneath [which is massive] and then shovel the improved soil back. It is also screwed down onto the basket. We used to use it for getting rid of baddies at the allotment and dug it out after about 5 years when we revamped it all. The concept is to leave it in place for the worms to take the nutrients into the surrounding soil.

Digging the massive hole is what puts me off a green cone, plus I want to feel all satisfied using my own compost.
Thanks for the video @senua , I look at her website a lot, and that video is really helpful.

Yes, I can’t pretend I get tonnes of compost out of it, but I use it for odd bits and pieces, such as a soil amendment with some manure when I planted some roses recently. I keep it really warm with some horticultural fleece on top during the winter, and it just seems to compost like biily-o. My original plan was to dig it up every year or so and move it around the garden to improve the garden soil more generally, but it seems so happy where it is I’m loathe to move it. Hence my eyeing up a second one…
My garden soil is atrocious in places, so I already had a garden auger drill bit which I use to dig holes in the tough bits, so luckily it wasn’t too painful to get it in the ground.

I am a bit obsessed by composting, and do a lot.

I had a green cone, but it was constantly under attack from rats, and you can't really use the compost out of it very easily. When I had some work done on the garden recently I had to move it. The thought of having to dig that hole again really put me off, so if anyone is in Cornwall and wants a free green cone...!

I have a big garden, so have two big wooden compost bins, most of my garden and vegetable kitchen waste goes on it, also chicken shed waste I also have a bokashi bin, and that waste goes on there too. I transfer stuff between them regularly to speed up the composting process. I also have some daleks which I use mainly in the summer to compost down grass clippings and nettles nice and quickly, again these take quite a lot of regular attention.

I also have a layered wormery which someone passed on to me, which works brilliantly in the summer, but the winter has been so cold and wet it has closed right down with the worms hibernating right at the bottom, so I haven't been able to put stuff on all winter.

So I have now got a Subpod instead, which I think will work better for me than the old wormery.

I was reading about subpods, but I didn’t think it was a very elegant solution to either dig another hole or to have to put it in a raised bed. How is it working for you?