Home Composting advice please!

[thell]

Blimey, this might be a really dull question!

I've been filling my compost bin for probably nearly two years (it's perpetually about half full, which I take to be a good sign). I can't see any rotted compost when I lift the little door - the new waste keeps falling down in front. I'd quite like to be able to use home made compost soon, now I've got tons of little veg seedlings which will hopefully grow into hungry plants for containers.

So...when my council introduces kitchen composting in a month's time, will it help to stop adding new material and give it a regular dig over? Or would you leave it alone?

Sorry - that's two minutes of your life you won't get back!

I would keep using your own composter if I were you, though I am confused as to why after 2 yrs you still have no compost? Have a really good poke about through the door, there must be some there by now!

are you not putting very much in?
you're right, if it seems to stay the same volume that suggests what's in there has rotted down, but stranget that the new stuff is falling in front of the old.
can you try digging down into the middle of it?

My garden is North East facing, and therefore in cold shade for about half the year! I don't think anything much happens in there over the winter - it only gets busy with life in summer when we get a teensy bit of sun.

I think we've not been chucking the waste in evenly - it tends to fall to the back, which is why the compost is a bit thin at the front. I might give it a bit of a poke, but don't think I can get any compost out without a flurry of flies up the nose!!

Stir it up a bit, and just keep adding stuff. If you ever have occassion to wee in a bucket (or dcs are outside and using potty) tip that in, will speed it up.

Ooh, thanks - I'll enlist my little DD I think. If I wee in a bucket for this purpose I won't be telling anyone I did it!

You know we had a similar problem in that I had a compost bin for several years before it really got going. Now it seems to work quite fast, maybe something to do with reaching a critical mass of bacteria and wiggly things? I'm also more careful than I used to be about not adding too much of any one thing in one go - so if I have a big heap of grass cuttings I'll layer them with other stuff.
Definitely give it a dig over.

If you go and put your hand in thell is it warm?
What sort of waste are you putting in?
Don't forget to add newspapers, waste paper and cardboard torn up, grass clippings. Give it a dig over and then put some thick cardboard on top to try and get some heat going.
If it's cold, you need to introduce some bacteria, either from urine or manure.

you could try your council, ours has composting gurus!
(think I'd like to be one

It's definitely warm now when the sun shines, and swarming with fruit flies and woodlice

I will give it a dig and add some urine for good measure - thanks chaps!