composting for small gardens

Get yourself an allotment?

I live in a flat with a small balcony and didn't bother composting until I had the space offered by an allotment.

Why do you want to compost? If it is for purely "green" reasons then don't bother. Composting releases methane which is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

A small wormery is the way to go, plant food and soil improver. Try asking on freegle or freecycle if anyone has one to get rid of for free, then you just need to buy the worms.

I want to compost becuase I hate waste. And buying all of this soil is bloody expensive! I have a bad back so I can't really be lugging sacks of compost around (I used to cycle to the garden centre after work, and balance a 60L sack of compost every now and then!), I think it would be nice to have fresh soil at home to use.

And I do want to do it for green reasons, too - and I'm not too worried about the methane, as I don't have a car, cycle everywhere and am a vegan which cuts down my own contribution to greenhouse gases enough

I am on a waiting list for an allotment, should be with me in the next few years all being well I wish our council did garden waste collection, that could take the burden off me a bit but its still a shame to spend so much money on soil and compost to just throw it away to the council when it could be used again in 6 months...

wicked - will it smell/attract bugs etc? I don;t mind the smell but my flatmates will and the main concern is that it will be right next to the 2 house bins that are constantly overflowing with binbags. If I could find a flat one that I could put stuff on top of (such as another bin, or a plant) then it would be much easier to fit on into the garden.

What do you lot compost? I grow everything in pots, and was told to recycle or compost the soil each time I move a plant on, but some have told me this is not true. This would bring my need for composting down to the point where I'd only need a reasonably small bin. Can you re-use pot soil, do you need to add any nutrients to it after use to prepare it for the next lot?

No, it doesn't. Anaerobic decomposition (landfill) does, but proper composting is aerobic (decomposition).

From Garden Organic: "Composting does not create methane ... If the heap becomes stagnant and anaerobic, then methane may be produced.
However new research shows that even if there are pockets of methane within a heap, the rest of the aerobic heap acts as a bio-filter to break down the methane as it moves through the heap, leaving only carbon dioxide."

more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/composting.shtml

You can't really use garden compost as potting compost, it's more of a soil improver. Leafmould is great for seedling compost though (bags of autumn leaves rotted down for a year)

You don't need to put the bin on grass or soil. I had very good results with one that sat on a brick path. Surprisingly, I had a large number of the brandling worms too.

Could you build a compost bin a bit like this one out of wood ? Then use the space on top for your pots.

link a bord.

What sort of compost to soil ratio would you use for pot plants though? So if I composed stuff and bought in soil, would it really make a difference?

Also, if someone could tell us if you can reuse pot plant soil that would solve most of my problem haha!

Just a thought buzzingtalk, do you have any relatives or friends nearby that you could maybe share their garden or part of it. Yours does sound a little on the small side to be growing & composting as compost can take 6 to 9 months to break down, it's not an instant fix & as TS mentioned would not really be suitable for sowing seeds or potting up.

I'd still have a wormery though - as it really can get through alot of greenery in a small space and it doesn't smell....the worm wee is used to feed your pots and you can put the resulting compost into your pots of veg like toms and peppers.....

Do you have room for a Dalek? You don't just compost your used potting compost, you can add veg peelings, teabags, shredded newspaper etc. It will take a bit of sorting but it can be done.

In Norwich? I'm surprised at that, I have a couple of friends who work in the council there in the recycling department and I thought they were really good at collecting everything?
I thought one of them even went on radio broadland to talk about composting.

Found this link for recycling in Norwich for you Norwich City Council: Council Services

Problem is I live right in the city centre and we have no front/back gardens, so no where to put bins. we are all allocated 1 black bin (fits 2 binbags at a push) per house (4 story houses!!!) per house and no recycling collection/bins. The poor binmen have to walk down this horrible alley to get to the back of our houses and drag each binbag round to the lorry at the front

When I first moved up here I lived in Costessey on the outskirts, and I'd never had recycling facilites before (coming from a council estate in london where they almost encourage people to fly tip), I found it amazing that we had 3 bins for different waste! It was lovely, and bi-weekley bin collections were fine as most of our stuff got recycled. In the city centre, living in such a big house with 5 other mid 20's people, we make quite a lot of waste, and have no where to put it!

I don't blame the council as theres not much I think they can do, but its pretty lame considering my council tax is absolutley extortionate!

Bigmally - yes, we have a few bits growing somewhere, but the house is mostly empty and is a good 45 min drive from mine - a big problem considering i dont have a car! its great for things that don't need much attention but i couldnt plant some things there as its too far away for me to get to regularly.

keith - i did consider getting a dalek but i heard they werent suitable for putting on concrete so i decided against it. i am looking into getting one of thse, or a wormery.