A pile of wood - destined to be burned on a building site - came our way last week, so it was a perfect excuse to get on with a project that has been top of my list of "allotment works" for ages. I've never cracked composting, in part because I've always been struggling with unsatisfactory composting infrastructure - or, to put it more simply, crappy compost bins.
The kind sold in garden centres and sometimes given away by local authorities - a plastic Dalek of a bin, wider at the bottom, narrowing to a dustbin-style lid - just don't do the trick. Why? Because, as I have said before on this blog, the key to crumbly, rich compost that smells sweet and resembles Christmas cake crumbs is turning the mix regularly. The plastic bins make this job messy and unwieldy. The answer is two compost "bays", make from the salvaged wood, with an open front to get in and give the compost a good forking to let in air.
The bins in production in the back garden
Rick did a fabulous job with a jigsaw and a hammer to create the bins, and we settled them in on sunday. They'll be covered with carpet this winter to keep them ticking over, and next summer I should end up with a compost production line that's second to none. It's also worth mentioning that turning compost is one of the best forms of upper-body workout you can get: albeit a little more, um, earthy than a trip to the gym.
I won't get rid of the "Daleks", of course: they'll be an overflow for the two bins, or possibly a storage area for compost that is ready to be used.
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