Once we had moved into our new house, I couldn’t bear to throw away any vegetable peelings etc., so I automatically started a compost bowl in the kitchen. As it was summer and keeping an open bowl in the kitchen indefinitely wasn’t going to be a good idea, I quickly had to sort out somewhere to put compost in the garden. I kept checking the local ‘Freecycle’ group and eBay in the hope someone would have a compost bin they no longer wanted – but initially had no luck. I looked at compost bins for sale in local hardware shops, but they weren’t what I wanted and were also rather pricy.

I decided to try something new (and cheaper) by buying a plastic rubbish bin, with a tight fitting lid,  then drilled several holes in the bottom and around the lower edges, and I had a new homemade compost bin! I really had no idea what I was doing – I’d looked up some ideas on-line and seen differing ideas and opinions on whether holes were required. I decided it was worth a go.

I don’t know whether it was because the weather is wetter in England than Australia, or because of the nature and shape of the bin, but to start with my compost was very wet and cloggy and formed ‘lumps’; it was nothing like the texture I had in Australia. Perhaps, not having the wider bottom design (as on most commercial compost bins) may have caused the problem.

I added some compost worms, used my trusty turner and muddled on. In the meantime I found a second hand compost bin for sale nearby. When I went to collect it was rather larger than I had realised or wanted (I just managed to fit it in the car) but I was pleased to have it and started putting the compost in that one, while l continued to turn the compost in the ‘bin’. It did eventually, after the winter, resemble an acceptable ‘compost’ which I used in the garden.

I now have three identical compost bins on the go (Christmas present – thank you Granny and Grandpa Rambles!) which are working brilliantly. I still have the ‘bin’ as a back up extra, and although it is a little small and not quite the right shape, it did seem to work as an alternative compost bin.

If you would like to discover what I put in my compost bins, have a look at twitter #thingsIputinmycompost