The new landlord has a compost bin, and you'll be excited to know I am allowed to use same.
However this particular example appear not to be composting with the expected efficiency. It has been filled to capacity for the last few months while I used it, and now any fresh compost has to be hammered down in order to fit.
I'm wondering if this is because of the presence of a watertight lid. As I understand it, compost kept dry just looks bored, whereas that which has the requisite supply of dampness rots down with enthusiasm and is generally an asset to the garden, bringing joy to all.
Can someone with more expertise advise?
I'm guessing you are putting garden waste in to this bin? If so you need to be careful about the type of material you place in the bin and ideally layer and mix it well. I've been using one on my allotment for years to compost household waste, mainly vegetable peelings, as one does not want to incorporate potential food for vermin etc. in to a traditional compost heap. My bin takes about six months to break down vegetable matter unless I add an activator, I use spent hops as I have a local source, which means the bin contents compost in a month at most. If you Google "compost activator" you'll find many home-made recipes for compost activators, alternatively you should be able to buy one in a DIY store or garden centre. Whether these work or not is debatable.
To be blunt these bins are pretty useless, I've never seen one work as advertised. In reality you have a large plastic container for storing waste which will decompose over time, it could take up to a year. To work well composting needs a mix of compostable materials, air, moisture, microorganisms and insects plus the top layer should be turned over when new material is added. If you are ramming material in to the bin the effect will be to compact the contents of the bin which will either slow or stop the composting.
If you want to persevere I suggest emptying the bin and then reloading it loosely with what you already have. You might try adding some garden soil to introduce microorganisms to the bin but there's no guarantee this will work. Materials suitable for this type of bin are grass cuttings, leaves, annual weeds, cut flowers etc. Do not put in anything which has become woody as such material takes far longer to breakdown. It's important to layer and mix the contents, simply dumping the grass cuttings in will create a sludgy mess, the same will apply in autumn with fallen leaves. Mixing newspaper or cardboard with both items will help and also provide a source of carbon to your bin. Each time you add new material fork the top few inches of the contents before adding the new, this helps to prevent compaction and mixes the new material with the old material which is hopefully already decomposing.
will help..
