Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!
I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.
We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.
To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!
Tuesday 5 February 2013
Refurbishing The Recycle Works compost bins part 2
So, having done a lot of digging and barrowing and working outside in the cold on Sat, my back went on strike Sunday and it really really hurt. I decided discretion would be etc. etc. and left doing outside heavy stuff for another day. I contented myself with tidying up the dining room and study.
So on Monday we got cracking again
This is the empty space we have cleared of the old bins. Keen eyed readers of this blog might remember that the very right hand side pair of bins were actually put up in 2008 so the posts and boards from those two bins were in OK condition.
A lot of the other posts and boards from the other, 2004, bins did need replacing, however.
I was lucky enough to have received a gift of some new posts and ended and plain boards from The Recycle Works - who were interested to see what my old boards looked like and kindly offered me a contribution to the replacements. 4 posts and six of each of the boards helped with the rebuild when added to those new ones I already had in stock, so thank you Sylvia and Debbie!
A couple of the 2004 posts were a bit soft at the end where they had been in contact with the ground, but were OK when turned upside down and will be good for another few years. I shall paint them with the Chroma preservative.
As you can see the new posts/boards were used in the middle, where they get the most contact with composting material and compost.
The older boards were reused on the outside surfaces where there is less contact with the damp compost.
And also up the top of the bins, where again they are less likely to be in contact with composting material for a long time.
Four bins finished! We need to put down geotextile weed matting at the end before we put the last two bins back in place.
I have always been very impressed with The Recycle Works - these bins in particular work very well, are made from FSC timber and treated with a non-toxic preservative ( called Chroma) which will not harm plants or worms and bugs in the Compost.
I also use this Chroma preservative on my hen houses and Guinea Pig runs and it works very well indeed.
These bins make excellent compost and I love the idea that if one component of the bin is damaged you can just buy a replacement part to fix it.
Obviously other bins like this are available from other manufacturers.
So, we now have four ( soon to be six) empty bins back in action, which is a good job as the "working bins" are full and have been shut down!
So, time to get gardening and fill up the empty space :-)
( I did not receive any payment for this post. I did receive some posts and boards from The Recycle Works after I contacted them to place an order for the boards and posts and talked about what I was planning to do - they were interested to see what the old bin components looked like and offered me some new posts and boards for this project.)
Wow! They look business-like! There's something exciting about new empty bins - a bit like an empty sheet of paper or a new length of material! or is it just me?
ReplyDeleteNo, it is not just you - I LOVe the sight of an empty bin, waiting to be filled up :-)
ReplyDeleteThis is on my to-do list this year, I need to get some compost bins in rather than having just a big heap which I can't manage! I built some for my mum a few years ago, I think she has around 8 in rotation and is really good with making her own compost
ReplyDeleteWould your Mum like to become a Master Composter? We are always looking for new people to join us :-)
DeleteI buy a three foot high roll of fencing at Home Depot make a circle with it and join the circle with wire ties. SO easy to make and when I am ready I take the whole circle off, turn the compost put it in an another empty circle. Very cheap and lasts for ever, so light and convenient.
ReplyDelete