Compost Bin Review : Aerobin

How to compost. We review compost bins and compost making methods. We start with the Aerobin. Composting bins come in a range of styles and use various methods to help speed up the process or make the process easier. We trial some compost bins and you can follow our results. We even let you know wat we are composting and how we did it.

	Compost Bin Review

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We trial and review Aerobin compost bin

With lots of Autumn leaves and lawn clippings we are always looking for a 'better way' to make compost. By better we mean, quicker, easier and a good compost as the end product. Our good friends purchased an Aerobin, and they say its great. We decided to give it a road test. So here we go.....

What we are adding: We are trying to compost Autumn Leaves and grass clippings, and a few kitchen scraps that will not fit in the worm farm.	Our method. We set up our Aerobin on a solid base made from concrete pavers. Part shaded position, we are layering the dry and wet material as suggested. We started on May 12th 2009 and we will update as we go.
Autumn Leaves Grass Clippings

RESULTS
27th November 2009

So how well does it work?

Well to be honest we are not sure.

Yes it was decomposing. However not as much as we had hoped.

Maybe we did something wrong. ( we certainly didn't break up the eggshells as recommended, however that should not matter). We will contact the Manufacture to get an opinion.

UPDATE:

Not enough carbon.....

We talked to the people at Aerobin (very friendly and heplful indeed) and realised that we needed a lot more carbon in the compost, they suggested some balled up newspaper (carbon) between the layers of leaves and grass clippings, and as our leaves were probably still a little more 'nitrogen' than 'carbon' (still fairly fresh) we can see we might have to change the mix a little to make the most of the bin. So we are off to add some balled up newspaper, about 10cm between layers of nitrogen, and feel fairly confident that it will improve the result.

This is the most successful compost bin - that is easy to use, that we have trialed for keeping vermin at bay, and it certainly holds a lot of material.

The Aerobin is certainly easier to empty than tumbling bins we have tested.

We opened up the bottom of the Aerobin today, a little over 6 months after the start of our trial. Here are the results.
When we first opened the bin the contents looked as in the photograph below.

We dug a little out to see the inside as the outside of most compost bins is not a true indication. (see below)

We dug out the bottom layer and here are the results in a whellbarrow. (see below)

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