Composting

[Gizmonster]

Well, I was under the impression that you just put your waste food into a composter and let nature take its course.
I've just been watching SuperScrimpers on Channel 4 and it showed someone putting their waste food into the composter - he lifted up what can be best described as a piece of loft insulation .... it was apparently some kinda cover to help increase the composting speed.
How long should it take for waste food to compost, 'cos on this show it said you should have compost in a matter of weeks !!!!!

[woofgang]

I had to give up composting because the bins became a home to rats. I only ever put garden waste in, not even any raw veg waste, let alone cooked food of any description. They were the plastic council offered compost bins and the rats even ate the bins too.

[rowanwitch]

small bins are not much good unless you use accellerators and have no twiggy material... I had two at my old place plus two leafmould bins the third year the leaf mould was mixed in with the compost on its last turning my bins were approx 3ft wide 4ft deep and 4ft high

[jomifl]

If you put twiggy stuff through a shredder first it helps by inreasing the surface area and allowing it to pack closer together.

[katerich48]

You can get compost bins that are like "tumblers" so its sort of barrel shaped on a stand with a handle on the side that you turn every so often and all of the compost inside gets turned over..I think this type composts much quicker than the normal floor standing ones - For the simple reason the whole thing gets churned over regularly...FYI needless to say they are more expensive.

[julia-mag]

I have a large plastic compost bin, works wonders, (never put food scraps in!), but I would like to know, where do all those little worms come from? When I lift the lid there are literally hundreds of them all around the the lid and they just as quickly disappear. They dont grow any bigger, just multiply. What are they? (I know they work hard!)