composting

Can anyone tell me how effective the rotating compost bins are? Thanks!

Pretty hopeless I would imagine.  I suspect the contents would clump at the bottom so as you turned they would just go round the outside of the bin rather than mixing as the advert would have you believe.

I would imagine they would get rather too heavy to rotate, but then you might have good biceps!

That's what I suspected Welshonion and gardengirl6, thanks! Has anyone actually tried them?

A lady on the next plot said she was getting one. I said there had been a discussion on A4A & the overall opinion was that they were a waste of money. She bought one & never uses it.

Thanks- thought they'd be useless but good to have confirmation! Back to turning it over with a fork then

I grow in pots and troughs I wish to reuse the compost as I only use some for a few weeks. I grow peas and  change the compost to plant the next batch. I rotate 5 troughs  planting every 3 weeks and harvesting then replanting so I have a continuous supply off peas. I wish to save the compost to use  with my other plants can I do this or is it a bad thing to do. I will not use compost for same plant groups.

This a different subject to the rotating/tumbler compost bin but however-you can recycle the compost providing you keep adding nutrient the only downside is that you may get a build of pest and disease-so do not do it indefinitely- it will be false economy-you can then used spent compost just as a soil enricher in the garden

I just chuck old compost from pots onto my flower garden.    It all helps to enrich the soil, and to improve the heavy clay.