Where should you put your compost bin?

There are a number of basic requirements to keep in mind when placing your compost bin in your garden or allotment. 

First and foremost it must be outdoors! It also needs to be accessible all year round, even in the winter. If you don’t like to look at it, put it behind a screen or a trellis. A decent path to the compost bin is useful if you are going to use it regularly, particularly in winter. It is also important to have a bit of room around the bin so that you have space to work when filling and emptying.

It is preferable to have your compost bin on bare ground (or lawn) so any liquid produced by the decomposing material can drain away. If your only option is to place it on a hard surface, you can still make perfectly good compost. Put a thick layer of newspaper or cardboard in the bottom of the bin to soak up as much liquid as possible, although it is likely that the slabs beneath will be stained. A sunny site for your compost bin is also preferable since the sun will speed up the compost process, but this is not essential.

Permanent spot or move it around?

The ground under a compost heap will be very rich after a year or so. You can make use of this fertility by moving the bin elsewhere and growing courgettes, pumpkins or spinach beets for example, on the spot. You can also grow vegetables around a compost bin to take advantage of the fertility of the soil in the near area. As it is not advisable to grow the same vegetables in the same place every year, it makes sense to be able to move the compost bin to different areas of the garden or allotment.

Article supplied by Garden Organic from their book The Garden Organic Book of Compost.