A BELTING GOOD IDEA.

[MINESAPINT]

Take a 15 foot length of heavy duty conveyor belting 5 to 6 feet wide and half an inch thick. Roll it round into a cylinder and bolt it securely together. Stand it up vertically and you have made yourself a very useful compost bin. I must have watched too much Blue Peter as a child!

[Rod in Japan]

I see a few design problems here -

• Getting material in
• Getting material out
• Mixing material
• Checking state of composting
• Overall too large for timely management of contents

Getting a few mates together, laying it horizontal, having a few pints, getting inside it and seeing how fast you can get it moving across a bare field might be a more suitable application. If you get it going fast enough you can do (short) anti-gravity simulations.

[Jobi1canobi]

Getting a few mates together, laying it horizontal, having a few pints, getting inside it and seeing how fast you can get it moving across a bare field might be a more suitable application. If you get it going fast enough you can do (short) anti-gravity simulations.

Now that - I'd like to see!

[Millymollymandy]

Errrr..... quite HOW do you get hold of a conveyer belt??? Or did you find it in a skip?

[MINESAPINT]

I have 5 compost bins/containers and have to admit none are easy to use. Additionally I have an open compost/manure/seaweed heap for whatever comes along in quantities too large for the containers. I just accept it that making compost is laborious. The only way I am able to mix compost relatively easily is on the open heap. I have a serious weed problem with rampant creeping thistle, plenty of dandelions, docks, plantain, nettles and wick grass. All these persistent weeds I collect and put into plastic bags long term (2 years or so). I then throw the bags into the conveyor belt container and forget about them. If the fancy ever takes me I fish the bags out, empty them onto the grass, mix the contents, rebag and throw back into the container. It is tidier than having a heap of bags kicking around. However I do not see what would be wrong with using it as a conventional compost bin. It is no different/better or worse than others I have seen with the exception of those tumbling ones but I would need at least a dozen of those.

I cannot remember how I discovered I have a used conveyor belt dealer living a few miles away. I understand he buys them second hand from the industries that use them then chops them up and sells them for all sorts of uses. I originally bought it for hitting golf balls off to avoid digging up the lawn!

Another compost bin what I ave! It may have a mouse in it, or maybe a rat!

[Rod in Japan]

You seem to be aiming more for silos than compost bins...

It occurs to me that the rubber one would be more useful cut in half with the two cylinders arranged side by side. That would allow you to fork the compost between the two once a week or so, and thereby have happy compost.

I used to follow the 'just pile it up and leave it there' approach, and it's really quite unsatisfactory. I have a two bay affair made of wire, and when the growing season ends, I intend to upgrade it to a three bay for greater ease of forking and maturing.

[Millymollymandy]

We have loads of different compost bins and our most successful one to date is a 500 litre water butt (it leaked so couldn't be used for water any more) with loads of holes drilled into the sides and bottom. The stuff in there is perfect and ready to use whilst stuff in another much more open bin (old pallets, chicken wire etc) remained only half rotted!

[Mrs Moustoir]

Are you a very tall person, Minesapint??

[MINESAPINT]

..........

[Rod in Japan]

It looks like a crime scene. Is everybody OK?

[MINESAPINT]

Just accident prone!

[Millymollymandy]

[Peggy Sue]

I have had my garden refered to as a crime scene recently- I made a greenhouse, or should that be 'made' a ''greenhouse'' from an old gazebo frame and taped on clear plastic- got to say it did get the neighbours worried but also wasn't really secure enough for this windy summer!

The Aubergines have been very good about it and despite one or two giving up the ghost oit seems a few have risked flowering