Le compost

Well that's one way of attempting to put a suave French name to a pile of rotting stuff! Le compost.

When I went to Masters and Bunnings to find one of those square shaped compost bins, some time ago, there were none in stock.

So, because I didn't have much money at the time, I compromised and bought a cheap plastic bin with a lid to put my scraps in, and garden stuff, although I knew it would not hold everything. (I put the extra residue from a garden mow in the recycling bin. One shouldn't...but everybody does).

This bin seems to be holding up well enough, and certainly the stuff inside is breaking down quite quickly. Now and again I upend it all and expose it to the sun and air and chook scratching, and that is good for it. Then I shovel it back into the bin. So far, so good, although I am not quite sure when I should or could use it as mix for the plants in the garden. It looks crumbly and has no smell, which is the way they say good compost is, but I keep adding chook poo to it, and they say that's too raw for plants and can burn them.

I also bought one of those stick-stirrer things (the green stick to the right of the bin in the photos above), but I find I don't use it much as the up-ending process does the job of aeration just fine. It's not a big lot, so I can manage it at the moment.

When the black plastic bin begins to disintegrate due to sun-'brittling', I'll get one of the square ones.

What I would really prefer is a tumbler, like this

or like this

I think I prefer the second one to start with.