Starting from Scratch

[ForesterEd]

I bought a hotbin last year and the results were very poor. Wet and not properly composted. Today I am giving it anothe chance and starting it off from scratch. I have just bought a shredder and will be blogging about it during the year

[ForesterEd]

I bought a hotbin last year and the results were very poor. Wet and not properly composted. Today I am giving it anothe chance and starting it off from scratch. I have just bought a shredder and will be blogging about it during the year

I will be blogging today about this. 1 tip for you all, get rid of the straps that come with it and buy a bunjee strap. Easy to get on and off and works a treat

[Kateeg]

Are you having any more success? I'm still only three weeks into first try - it looks quite wet and in the week looked like it was going anaerobic but adding more shedded cardboard seems to have recovered it - though not sure what its like further down!

[Salexander]

I got into awful trouble this last winter with my hotbin. My own fault really. I was adding in mainly kitchen waste and no wood chip. It was working away nicely for quite a while and every now and then I would take a bit out from the base to improve the aeration of the bin. Last time I did that the top of the bin never heated up - the kitchen waste had just gone in to a gooey mess with no gaps for the air to get through. So I just cleaned the whole thing out and started again - put the gunge into a separate plastic bin. You need plastic gloves for this job.

[ForesterEd]

You do seem to need vast quantities of paper and cardboard. It is certainly better if you shred it rather than just tear it up. Keeping my fingers croossed

[GeoG]

Very impressed so far- set up bin on Saturday. It is now Tuesday and it has reached 55 degrees already