compost?

Was the compost you bought 'peat-free'? If it was, it was the same type that I tried back in the early summer. That had pieces of what looked like shredded cardboad in it, it was very coarse in texture. I pricked out some healthy seedlings into it, and they virtually stopped growing! It was awful stuff and I shan't be using it again. Yes, old compost can be put into your new bin when you get it! - without sterilising it, too. Just mix it in with other stuff, veggie peelings, begonia leaves, shredded paper, whatever you've got. Go for it - even a small amount is useful!

Hi Mark, why not contact your local council, my council did a campaign recently and offered compost bins for cost price, i got my first one for just eight pounds and they also sent me loads of info with all the do's and don'ts with composting, even if you have the compost bins it might be worth a phone call, i also got a kitchen waist bucket - which is really handy, and a fridge magnet with 'browns' and 'greens' listed - this pack has made it really easy for me. i've never done it before this year but it seems to be working! - good luck!

Hi Mark. IWe got our first compost bin free from our Council in a piloy ptoject, and the second for £8 with a free kitchen caddy. All advice I have read and hold says to place bins on soil to allow access to worms, minibeasts and micro-organisms, with a layer of twiggy material in the bottom for said access and for air circulation. Our bins were sited and started in this way and produce great compost. I do not think, therefore, that it would be good for you to site a bin on slabs. Could you, perhaps, lift some in a corner somewhere?

Thanks for all the comments, i have been reading through them all. I think i've found a small space behind one of the greenhouses for a bin to go (need to get the bin and see the exact size to be sure). Glad i'm not the only one that found some bad compost as now i know that it's not just me! Hopefully if the problem with that compost was just that westlands had bagged up the compost too soon, they should also learn how to compost properly soon, although if they are selling it you would think they would have done that before they sold any!
Before i go any further i do need to know how good the quality is likely to be, I suppose it depends on what i put in, but i have no actual garden with plants growing in it, there is only what is in the greenhouses. I don't have a lot of food waste either as i live alone. There will be a lot of compost that i have used for the plants this year, as I brush the compost from the tubers before starting them off again next year. I would assume that i will need to mix something with it, perhaps multipurpose compost, I don't know, I I do need good quality compost if the Begonias are to win at the shows in future years. I would assume that any compost i start to make won't be ready to use for a year or two?

it does take a while mark i started in the spring and mine is still not ready, so i would guess a year to 18 months to brew. to be honest i am not sure about old compost as i generally chuck mine on the garden, i do get lots of kitchen and garden waist, leaves, shurb cuttings after pruning, grass after cutting, i have to add cardboard and paper to level out the 'greens' and 'browns' and i think that is the key to good compost, equal quanties. so i would'nt know what to saggest, how about autumn leaves do you have any of thoughs in your garden? i would think manure would be good - but not one i use myself - far too smelly! lol

Hi Mark! I think that the most important thing to consider, as far as type of compost container is concerned, is ease of access for turning the pile and extracting the compost. I believe that a site in part shade is better than full sun, and equal quantities of brown and green waste are needed to make the best material (brown includes paper, cardboard, eggshells, etc. and green includes foliage, plants, grass cuttings, etc) In my mind, I always think of brown as being alkaline, and green as acid) - or, if I were on a diet - a green week or day, or a brown one!). Unlike our bodies, however, we can churn it all up once in a while to mix it sort of evenly. We got our first bin in April last year and by March this year it had produced enough smooth crumbly compost to fertilise all the veggy beds, without any real effort apart from 2 turns with a fork and - I hate to state this online - 3 bottles of personal urine - not wine, or even champagne, but good old Tetleys - as an accelerator, LOL!