Compost bins or not?

As some of you have guessed I am truly a beginner. This site has really gotten me hooked. I want to do what most of you do to make my gardens as beautiful as yours.I am interested in my own compost,but I want to know, do the majority of you buy bins,or just make yours? I can't turn them myself with a shovel,etc, I am somewhat disabled. My husband helps me do everything.Just a little input on what the average gardener does. Also,do most of you use greenhouses or hot houses? Have you seen the inflatable ones and are they any good?I would soooo,appreciate opinions and any input you have.
Thanks-Lynda

Lynda, if you haven't seen it already our host Dave has a video showing various ways to compost. Just go to the Guides & Information tab at the top of the page, or go to the Home page, and scroll down to videos. There iyou will find a list of all the videos available.

I don't know what percent of Dave's people have greenhouses- probably less than half, I'd guess. I don't have one- no room, for one thing- but I can tell you that an inflatable one isn't going to work, any more than an inflatable garage or workshed would. They need to be semi-permanent structures. Have you used a search engine to do some research?

There's a concept called lasagna gardening that's interesting. You might want to do a search and some reading on that. Instead of having a compost heap, you layer different organic matter in a planting bed. Over time, the matter breaks down and eventually you have a nice fertile bed for planting without the need for a separate compost heap. As I recall, you use about 50% "green" matter (grass clippings, leaves, etc.) and 50% brown matter (dead leaves, twigs, even cardboard).

So glad you're getting into gardening, and welcome to Dave's!!!

Thanks dp72,
I am always up for the simple way. I will do what you suggested.I had heard the term lasagna gardening,but didn't have a clue what it was.Thanks again.

On the greenhouses--the thin plastic ones can be OK if you're just trying to get a little bit of a head start on seed starting, but if you want to grow tropicals and keep them in there for the winter you'll have better luck with a real greenhouse. But since you're just starting out I'd hold off on buying anything like that--you certainly don't need a greenhouse of any sort in order to have a nice garden, so I'd wait and see what sorts of plants you end up enjoying and what sorts of things you like doing and then decide if you need something like that.

Thanks ecrane3,
You sound like the voice of reason. I tend to jump into something with both feet, before my brain kicks in. I do respect good advice and my saving grace is I will listen to a veteran.
Thanks again-Lynda

I agree with dp72 on the compost bin/heap. I am too lazy to put together a compost pile, then worry about it being too hot or too cold in the pile, then turning it, and all that.

I take all the compostable stuff and pile it into lasagna beds. Some people refer to lasagna beds as "composting in place", which is actually what it is. I made three new beds last fall/winter. This spring I planted tomatoes, bell peppers, and okra in them. Doing great. I'm planning another three or four beds for this year.

The reason I'm making all these beds like this is that our soil is impossible. There is no way to dig it up so amending it is really out of the question -- concrete-like red clay -- unless you have about five years to fool with it -- which I don't. I started by making raised beds with purchased soil, but that gets expensive. So then I switched to lasagna beds which are practically free to make.

There are percentages of greens vs. browns that you are supposed to use, but somehow I always come up way short on the green stuff. I bought a huge sack of alfalfa pellets at the Farmer's Co-op for about $15.00. I use them when I need extra green stuff. I'll watch again this fall for when folks start putting bags of leaves out to the street for pick-up -- there will be my brown stuff!

ecrane3 is right about the greenhouse. Those little ones for starting seeds early are cheap. I think mine was about $30.00 including shipping. Another possibility is to use row covers either where you want to start your seeds early or else use it as a cover for seedling trays. http://www.pvcplans.com/row.cover.plans.htm

If you want something larger than the row covers you can build a hoop house, either by using PVC piping or cattle panels. There are lots of discussions about this in the greenhouse forum, but here are a couple of links: http://www.kitchengardeners.org/hoophouse.html http://www.farm-garden.com/marketfarmer/quick_simple_hoop_house
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/581839/

Good luck,

Karen

I don't have a compost bin, yet, but have you considered a tumbler? http://www.cleanairgardening.com/patdesaustum.html

Hi Lynda, a big warm welcome to Dave's Garden Forums, you will love it here, even in winter when we gardeners cant all go out in the gardens, it educates, entertains and keeps the gardens alive over the bleak cold months.
I have a very large garden, so the need for a greenhouse is paramount to me, I also do my own composting which has become an obsession with me and many of my friends who noticed less garbage to deal with if you compost, I have a cold frame and have to grow a lot of tender plants inside the greenhouse that would be impossible for me to enjoy without this glasshouse cold-frames and compost bins.
I never had all this equipment for many years as my own gardening took off, for a start, it is very costly when you begin to go that way, for me, the outlay had to be equal to the amount of use I would get from it all, so that would be the first question you would ask yourself, can this greenhouse repay after ex number of years, you need to remember that enjoyment from this is also a factor.
Do you have room/space for a greenhouse no matter the size, as even a small greenhouse needs an area of some size to be able to get the light and sun/heat plants require to grow.
Then the equipment needed to help you get the most from this helpful growing space, also the time required to look after all the plants, you cant go away on a week/2 weeks vacation unless it is winter, or, you have someone who can water, open the doors and windows to prevent the plants from frying in intensive heat, they need watered, fed, moved into larger pots etc, etc, so this has to be another concideration to think about.
I am in UK and I dont really know which zone you are in, but for the enjoyment point of view, my greenhouse in priceless, when I have a tough spell, I can go outdoors to the glasshouse and loose myself, as soon as I have my bare hands in the compost, I relax and forget the troubles of the world, my own bad days and am at peace with the world as I concentrate on my plants, so how can you put a price on that.
I have very long cold winters, dark dull days with not too much good periods of sunlight, but I can keep all my tender/tropical plants growing and these need care for most of the year, so there is lots of work to keep me busy.
I only ever turn on a propane heater IF there is a severe frost for more than a few days, most plants can survive low heat, but I never use lights for my plants, so no cost there,
the best advice I can give to a new greenhouse buyer, is always try to get the biggest you can afford as you will always wish for more space once you get the idea as to how to work with this costly extra.
Extras required as you go along is, benches to sit your plants to get enough light/heat, loads of pots, water close by, a light for evening work, or even plug in fan for summer, trays to holding pots when you water, a place to store all your tools,feeds etc, but most of all, room for when your seedlings germinate and you need to move them into larger pots and keep them indoors till it is time to set them outdoors, others you can collect as your skills improve, so I have given you my honest ideas on greenhouse growing.
A cold frame is a shallow square, like a raised bed but you add a glass or clear top that you lift and close as the temps dictate, this is good if you have seedlings potted on and you need to get them outdoors but offer protection, you can add horticultural sand for the bottom as it works as an insulator and lets water from when you water the plants drain away, the sided/walls can be insulated with old polystyrene packaging for added protection as it keeps things warm in winter and cooler in spring with the class roof/lid open, make this as big or small as you wish but for me it is valuable space/protection.
Composting is great and uses up all the kitchen scraps you normally throw in the garbage, also gets rid of garden waist too, it is not as complicated as you are made to believe, all you need to remember is never add weeds that have seed heads or roots of perennial weeds as these with grow and when you add the lovely compost to your garden, you are adding fresh weed seeds and roots, compost all veg trimmings, the fluff from your clothes drier, tea and coffe grounds, egg shells, anything that is not man made and plastic, vac bag dirt and dust too, old compost from pots, grass cuttings so long as you dont add to much in one layer, add shredded newspaper between this grass mowing to stop it going slim and smelly, animal manure with the exception of cats and dogs as these can introduce disease.
You dont need an expensive bin, 4/5 good garden canes set in a square/circle and tie chicken wire around the canes, add an old bit or carper, cardboard wrapper in plastic will keep rain out, when you need to turn the heap, you just lift the canes and stick them into the ground next to the heap, then with your fork, lift the top of the pile and drop it into the bottom of the new area, keep doing this till you get the bottom of the heap laid onto the top of the new heap, so it can be as hard work or as easy as you want it to be, but you will know exactly what you are putting into your soil and costs you nothing, no chemicals or traveling to get this liquid gold, you can have as many heaps as you want as there is no rush, nature does all the work for you, you really dont need to worry about temps in the heap, it is ready when it represents nice dark crumbled soil and it helps to retain moisture around your plant roots.
This is all rather long, but I am really trying to let you know that you can achieve things without lots of expense till you gain more experience and a big fancy greenhouse wont give you that, you find this out as you go along and talking to other gardeners. good luck. I will be happy to guide you further if need be. WeeNel.

Many counties provide compost bins to residents. You may want to get online to see if your county has a program for that.