Selfsufficientish.com

I have ordered a compost bin from recycle.com but have found out they are running behind and I may not get it for a few weeks. I have quite a lot of waste ready to go in so was wondering how to start off the heap without the bin.

I would just chuck it into a sheltered corner but I have cats, and they have a habit of bringing me gifts of whatever is lying about - they brought in a rock last week. So is there a temporary thing I can do to start off the compost in the meantime? I have a recycling bin I can put over the top if that it any good.

Any tips would be appreciated.

dig a small trench and bury it. It will still enrich the soil.
we trench compost that way to prepare the ground for when we plant our runner beans.

I have the same problem, I ordered my compost bin yesterday, and it might not come for up to 28 days! So I have like a big plastic storage box that I am using, I have a little lunch box sized box in the kitchen, and the big out outside until my bin comes.

Take a look at this link, you could just use a smaller bucket for the time being to tide you over.

http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/ ... php?t=1227

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I think I will use my recycling bin, especially as I have just found the page for making seed pots out of newspaper and that is the only thing I tend to recycle.

Flower,

Do you use trench composting as your main means of composting? And would you grow your beans before it is fully composted?

I am thinking of doing this as well, in a different area, then bringing it to the garden on some kind of rotation. The garden's not big, so I'm not talking about a lot of compost here. Would it take longer to decompose if there is no aeration?

I find that the beans speed up the composting.

I used to live in an area that was on thick clay, you could trench compost winter/early spring, then grow beans during the summer, leaving the roots in the soil to fix nitrogen.
By autumn you had a beautiful bed of enriched, free draining loam

and all you'd done to get it was dispose of your rubbish and eat great beans

Now that I keep chickens in my garden, I get quite large quantities of bedding (aubiose) and chook poo. Too much for my compost heap.
So I'm trench composting it at my allotment to aid water retention and so I can benefit from it without waiting for it to rot down.

Another solution is 3 pallets formed into a U shape with wire netting over top and down the Front for keeping vermin out.

We use a bucket in the house to collect the stuff then put it it the bin-ours are like tomatoe cages-big circles of wire, the only raiders are 2 rats living in my greenhouse and the dog from next door!

Lois