[deepinthewoods]

early this spring i set aside a compost bin just for waste vegetables id collected from my local veg shops, i was getting 2 sacks a week. i layered it with paper sacks and chicken straw bedding.i didnt turn it, but watered it a couple of times.
ive just uncovered it and its the best ive ever made.thick, rich and sweet. i was a bit concerened that the whole swedes and parsnips wouldnt rot down completely but they have.
 the best thing is, that i can pretty much be sure that its weed free. im laying it over the redundant beds and using it to give a late boost to the winter brassicas. yummy!

[Odin]

Like it. Put some in a bag & post it here, in fact we are discussing yours and we definately have room for another just for the house and garden waste so your idea sounds good. May turn the other composter into a wormery.
Are there plenty worms in yours or did it just cook ?

[deepinthewoods]

i wasnt sure, as i made it that i was doing the right thing, i was adding onions, fruit, everything that came out of the shops, but the brandlings were all over it pretty much straight away. ive 3 x 1 m3 pallet bins on hard clay, i bedded the compost on the last bins twigs. i must have added 30/50kg weekly with paper and straw between each load, i couldnt fill the bin, it was rotting that fast. but i never noticed loads of heat. it was definitely worm composted. id estimate ive got about 100kg in the bin, i could use double that.
 now the worms are fat and snake like!

[Plantoid]

We have a base sulphur/acidic dark bluish coal mine margins clay all over the garden it was like digging  plasticene so I decided to lighten it up a lot with sharp sand and lots of compost

So three years ago I wantd some express compost , I filled a Dalek composter bin to the top with fairly new unweathered straw and horsemuck  .
I  got on the steps and trod it down and kept doing it till it wouldn't take any more , as I went i added a few sprinkles of compost maker powder  then watered it in & bunged the lid on .

Three weeks later it was a mere five inches deep so I removed the Dalek and forked it in to a smaller bin adding a bit of composter powder as i did it and left it another fortnight . It had gone to a peat like consistancy and almost the same colour.

 This seems to have killed the residual seeds  and weeds  and gave me a great clay breaking compost for my front garden raised beds which have been free of residual weeds

I  repeated this exercise again last year but used three big Dalek bins. The resulting compost is all in the front lawn area awaiting the landscapers to come and do their deeds on the front garden.

[Fleecewife]

Your compost sounds scrumptious, deepinthewoods    Your soil and plants will love it.

[Blonde]

i wasnt sure, as i made it that i was doing the right thing, i was adding onions, fruit, everything that came out of the shops, but the brandlings were all over it pretty much straight away. ive 3 x 1 m3 pallet bins on hard clay, i bedded the compost on the last bins twigs. i must have added 30/50kg weekly with paper and straw between each load, i couldnt fill the bin, it was rotting that fast. but i never noticed loads of heat. it was definitely worm composted. id estimate ive got about 100kg in the bin, i could use double that.
 now the worms are fat and snake like!

Without turning it it would have been too hot. No worms live in kthe compost above 70 degrees farenheit.   It was broken down  by the fungi that live in the heap and the micro organismas that tolerte such heat.  it should take around 6 weeks to break down when turned and kept damp, and longer if not turned and hotter.