Making Compost without Compost Bins

I was absolutely buggered last night, and started dozing off half way through my dinner.
It's the sixth (or seventh) time in 3 months where I missed my routine blog entry (not bad hey?).

As with muscle pain, luckily it's not as bad as I had anticipated. Plus I had a long good night sleep, so I'm planning for another productive day.

This morning when I went outside to check where I removed weeds and grass roots, I also checked my 'composting spot'. A good compost bin could cost hundreds of dollars and I couldn't be bothered (or 'couldn't afford' to be precise) to purchase one. People used to grow vegetable without compost bin in the past, so I should be able to make compost without one.

My composting system is very, very simple. I have about 70 square-centimetre wide spot under the massive gum tree, where I chuck all the vegetable peels and tea bags, etc. Buy a smallest box of worms, throw in half the box of them, maybe mix some potting mix and cow manure if the soil condition is really bad...then cover the area with some grass clippings. That's all I do and do nothing else afterwards...earthworms do rest of the work. :D By this time you would already know that I'm hopelessly lazy!

So I checked the spot and saw there a few seedlings popping out of the compost. It happens when the compost is in good condition, dark and moist. All the necessary nutrients are there - I don't have any knowledge of PH balance or nitrogen balance as often referred to in the gardening books, but the balance must've been perfect.

It never ceases to amaze me how the vegies germinate from thin peels. Last time it was onions and carrots, this time it was potatoes.
I transplanted just to see if it will keep growing in my vegie patch, it worked with onions but I doubt if the 5mm-thick peel has enough nutrients in it to produce potatoes.

I remember my granny used to make compost by herself.
She'd burn newspapers (sometimes ads as well, which is not very good for it contains chemicals) and add the ash to compost that she made out of sewage and kitchen waste and garden soil. If I wasn't mistaken she was using part of the drainage to let it break down...hmmm, doesn't sound right, does it?
I think she was taking the pile out just before it started blocking the drain pipe.

Anyway, my point is that she wasn't using compost bin either.
There must be more ways to make compost without using compost bins.