St Nicholas Fields
Composting Equipment
There is a wide (and possibly bewildering) variety of composting equipment available via the internet or at garden centres but if you're a DIY enthusiast, you can easily make a compost bin yourself. What you need to know is how much space you have available and what type of waste you’ll be composting. All of the following ready-made equipment is on display at the Environment Centre so you can see it before making a decision. We have a small range available in our little shop and we can direct you to other places. As of September 2009 there are no subsidies on composters but there will be some available through the City of York Council so watch the space.
Jump to:
- plastic bin/ ‘daleks’
- Komp (square bin)
- New Zealand bins
- fabric bin
- bokashi
- tumbler
- wormery
- Green Cone
- Green Johanna
- making your own
Plastic bin/ ‘Dalek’ (220 or 330 litres)
These black daleks, made of recycled plastic, don’t fly but they are the most common type of composters because they tend to be the cheapest option. They can work really well, keeping your composting tidy and keeping the heat in. Aerating the compost may be a bit tricky though - one solution is a nifty little tool called CompostMate which makes it much easier and which we stock in our little shop .
Type of waste: garden waste, uncooked food waste (you can include cooked food IF used in conjuction with bokashi)
Komp (square bin, 250 litres)
Komps with their green colour blend better into gardens and their square shape makes them easier to fit into corners. This make also comes in bigger sizes and different shapes, and they are easy to assembly from flat-pack. They don’t come with a base but can be sighted on hard-standing surfaces on an old paving slab and sheets of cardboard.
Type of waste: garden waste, uncooked food waste (you can include cooked food IF used in conjuction with bokashi)
The New Zealand box
The New Zealand box has wooden slatted sides and a removable front. This allows the compost bin to grow as more materials are added and for easy access to the finished compost. By using two or more boxes it is easy to move compost from one to the other and thus aerate the heap. It can be bought, or made using reclaimed timber (pallets work well for this).
Type of waste: garden waste, uncooked food waste
Flexible fabric compost bins (130 litres)
Made of rot-proof fabric and particularly suitable for use in backyards where space is at a premium and you are not generating large amounts of organic waste.
Type of waste: little amounts of garden waste, food waste (you can include cooked food IF used in conjuction with bokashi)
Bokashi
Bokashi bins are designed to digest all kinds of kitchen waste including cooked food, dairy products and meat. The containers are relatively small and can be kept in the kitchen or outside – the lid shuts tight so there are no smells. When one container is full, it needs to be left for two weeks to ferment. During this period you use a second bucket. After the fermentation period you need to empty the resulting “pickled” material into a standard compost bin or dig it into the soil. You will get a fantastic liquid from a Bokashi bin which can be used as a plant food or placed down drains to prevent algae growth.
Type of waste: all food waste. Bokashi needs to be used in conjuction with a standard compost bin such as ‘dalek’ unless you are digging the contents straight into the ground.
Tumbler
Tumbling bins make turning or aerating the material–thereby introducing more oxygen–much easier. The container is filled with the same ingredients as the usual heap, left for a few days to allow the composting to start, and then turned as often as possible. Tumblers tend to heat up very well, and after three weeks or so will produce immature compost, which can be used directly on the garden as mulch or stacked up under cover to mature to a finer product. They can be used to compost food waste but it is a batch process so you would need to store the food waste until the bin is emptied – e.g. by using bokashi.
Type of waste: garden waste
Wormery
Worm composting differs from traditional composting as no heat stage is involved and it’s a bit like keeping a pet – you need to keep the worms happy by keeping them moist, well fed and not too hot or cold. Wormeries are particularly suitable for composting kitchen waste. Their resulting worm casts create fine textured, nutrient rich, high quality compost. Liquid can also be collected which can be used to feed houseplants. Worms used in vermicomposting are redworms (Eisenia foetida) which are also called brandling worms or tiger worms. Never use worms dug from the garden as these are likely to be a different species not suited to the conditions found in a wormery.
Type of waste: most kitchen waste
Green Cone
Probably the best known rat-proof composting unit, specially designed to digest cooked and processed food waste. The Green Cone is dug into the garden and requires a sunny spot - it will not work correctly if located in a cold, dark or wet place. Green cones don’t work well in clay soil, and since a lot of York is on clay soils, we recommend that you check carefully what kind of soil you have before purchasing a Green Cone. Green Cones are relatively small and are therefore suitable for gardens with limited space.
Type of waste: all kitchen waste
Green Johanna
The Green Johanna composter was developed in Sweden to provide a way of composting all kitchen (including cooked and processed foods) and garden waste all year round. It has a specially designed base which is supposed to make it rodent proof, it has an adjustable ventilation system and you can buy an insulating jacket for it which allows the composting ‘season’ to be extended into the colder months.
Type of waste: all kitchen and garden waste
Making your own
Many compost bins can easily be constructed out of recycled materials. You can download (248 kB PDF file) some practical tips on how to go about it and a few examples of the most common bin types, which we have mostly borrowed from RRFB Nova Scotia’s website. Another good place to look is The Gardeners' World website and there are plenty of instructional videos on YouTube.
design Page last updated 5th February 2010 © Friends of St Nicholas Fields, registered charity no. 1068909
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