Composting - homemade troughs, bins, wormeries or bokashi?

[megonthemoon]

We've just moved into a new house and actually have a garden with veg patch. We also have a council who don't recycle any food unlike our old one. So given both of these, we want to start composting.

We have the space to build our own wooden bins/troughs, but I'm worried about rats. Is a plastic bin any better at keeping them away? Is it easier to make compost in one way or the other, or does it not really matter?

I know that I can only put raw veg/fruit peelings + eggshells, teabags and coffee grounds in. Can you put more in a wormery?

What are your opinions on wormeries in general? I'm assuming the are fairly rodent-proof and pretty easy to maintain. Is that correct?

Finally anyone know about this bokashi thing which seems to imply you can put meat products in too?

Thanks!

Composting novice meg x

i had a bokashi and it worked really well. yes you can put meat in it, just make sure you use enough bran to cover it.

it didn't smell when it was closed and only had a slight vinegary smell when it was opened to put food in.

wormeries die, without fail.

quickly eleanor (i.e. not worth bothering with) or after a year or two (so maybe worth trying)

i like the sound of bokashi. We used to be able to recycle all food with our council - meat, fat, bones etc. - so it would be great if we could continue with that.

We had rats in a plastic compost bin, but my pallet bin has been fine (I do make DH fork it over or stir it once a week which probably helps)
I'm on year 2 with a wormery and so far so good. I did have some initial teething problems (worns drowning in the sump) I moved it into the potting shed when the weather got very gold and the worms are still fairly active.

I've got a bokashi bin and it's great. In fact, just this afternoon I filled up one big compost bin and turned it out into the other bin to air it and noticed that most of the bokashi stuff is pretty well composted, even though it's been winter when things slow down a lot.

Yes, you can put meat in it, and as bamboo says, it's fine as long as you use enough bran (you can get it online in bulk). Get two bins though so you can have one filling while the other is fermenting (it takes about 2 weeks after you've filled it). The liquid that comes out of the bottom is good too for drains (neat) and diluted as a plant feed.

I tend to put fresh, uncooked fruit and veg bits straight into the compost bin with the garden waste and use the bokashi just for cokked stuff. But you can compost anything - pasta, bread, dairy, fish. I am slightly concerned about putting too much processed stuff in, just because that is obviously going back into your compost, but generally I'd recommend it.

Oh, also, make sure you break it up a bit when you add it to the compost - it comes out in a bit of a wodge.

Not sure about bokashi, but have had rats in plastic bin (yuck) so now have chicken wire under base (will see if it woeks when I empty it this year)

Have a pallet heap on allotment and that's fine, but there's so many other places they can go there!

I have a bokashi although don't put meat in it as mainly we are veggie and just didn't like the idea much.

Its very good and once its full I put it in my big plastic bin. Never have rats or anything.

Since I have had bokashi the big bin has been going really well and is full of worms.

Emptying the bokashi is a bit yucky but usually don some rubber gloves to do it.

I usually do a bit of a turn out of the big bin in spring - dig out the bottom bit, shuffle all the top stuff around and mix in some autumn leaves and paper. Autumn leaves I put into black sacks and hide behind a bush untilt eh spring compost clear out.

It does take quite a lot of effort but its worth it for the warm glow of satisfaction that I feel when mulching the garden. Since we have had bokashi & with recyling our household rubbish is down to 1 black bag a week and that mainly plastic containers.