Let’s Talk Compost

I used to have a rotating compost bin but it got really full really fast which made it really heavy and hard to turn. It wasn’t the greatest.

Then we had a pallet compost pile. And while that was more successful, it was still hard to turn with a shovel/pitchfork. Also it’s openness to the suburban wildlife attracted some unsavory characters to our yard.

I’m getting ready to reinstate my compost with the hope of the garden following next year, but I’m not sure the route to go: bin vs pile vs ??

What do you do for composting? Tips/tricks to make it easy and not a chore? Any recommendations for type/style or products you’ve tried and loved? All input welcome!

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We do large scale manure composting in a pile and turn it with our tractor. Not helpful, I know! Thanks for starting this topic, it will surely be valuable to a lot of our members.

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Lol! But AWESOME!

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That is pretty awesome. Tractor composting wow!

There’s compost pick up here but the system I’ve used in the past worked very well. 2 clean garbage cans, one filled with dry leaves in autumn. The second can got a layer of food waste then one of leaves. I could really pack it with a lot of scraps & it got quite hot in summer so would be mostly broken down into soil without any turning. You can add another can for the next year if needed, dumping the oldest one out every other season.
Have you seen The Green Cone though? It’s a compost “digester” that doesn’t need to be turned or emptied out. I haven’t used it because there is pick up here but it gets rave reviews.

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Um. That seems pretty awesome. We have a yard waste pickup for compost in our town but not for food scraps. This seems perfect for the balance. No turning? Sign me up!

We just use a plastic one that’s open to the ground for vegetable scraps and it does it’s own thing. But my friend has a tumbler which is a barrel that rotates, it says it makes compost in as little as 6 weeks

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Yeah that’s exactly what I had - the rotating tumbler. It was really cumbersome for us. I didn’t even know about these just in the ground composts. This is a revelation!

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We gave a barrel tumbler away last year, I hated that thing.

We had an “Earth Machine”–stacked plastic tubes open to the ground–at our house in Hawaii.
We did alternating layers of food waste and shredded bills. It rained 150"/year and was warm year round, so compost pretty much dissolved; we never emptied it, and it never filled. It was on a slight rise, and the plants below it did really well. Three papaya trees grew out of the bin, too.

We had a second earth machine by the pond, that we used for water hyacinth. We were able to harvest compost from that one. That was a great cycle; sunlight + fish poop = flowers + compost.

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Over our years here I have occasionally looked into bear-proof composting and haven’t found satisfying results. :disappointed: Delia had a raccoon encounter last fall (or the fall before?) that was a bit harrowing and that she was fine after, but I don’t want to attract them, either. I’m also not sure that just the two of us can make enough veg waste to keep it hot through winter.

I hope your find a great solution!

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This is the kind we have https://www.ecostore.ie/p/330l-compost-bin/scc330lgre?gclid=CjwKCAjw7diEBhB-EiwAskVi1w41eN-7Il6mxSP0muDKXtkeZiwsD2OkHlPukFeVPMn1isgwrjQBkxoCU1IQAvD_BwE

But i don’t know enough about composting to know if it’s climate dependant. Ours never gets hot, the worms slowly turn it into compost, but it takes a long time. I should put shredded paper etc into, but tbh it’s mostly veggie peelings, kitchen roll and it just slowly does it’s thing.

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That looks like something I may need! We only have a small backyard so I’m looking for something that’s not taking up too much space, and preferably not a lot of work. We have compost pickup as well, which is very convenient, but I want good compost for my veggie patch. We can get free compost from the city every spring but I don’t trust that. I’ve heard too many bad stories about that.

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Oh Hawaii…to have wild papaya trees in your back yard…sigh.

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We have 3 of the same type as Edel and rotate the filling of them. I find that we get a decent amount of compost the following year, although we do sieve it, as we do add tougher material (chipped tree trimmings, for example) that don’t always break down fully in the year. We just add the larger stuff back into the bottom before starting again with that bin.

I do have one of these - https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Selections-Compost-Aerator-Gardening-Hand/dp/B07GFR3CMC/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=compost+turner&qid=1620498517&sr=8-5 but I don’t use it regularly, maybe once or twice when the bin is “new”. We have a lot of slow worms that live in our compost bins and I am scared of hurting them :frowning:

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We do the compost pile method. Two 4 x 4 bins made out of scrap wood and our scraps, non invasive weeds and garden debris, leaves, and straw go in. We don’t turn very often but usually clear out one side in the spring, toss the un composted larger stuff in to the other side and start over. But it is finally falling apart and we need to build a new ones.
As to keeping critters out, you would have to add a wire screen lid anddoors. But if you don’t have much space the cone ones work fine but unless you add material regularly, you don’t get much cause they work pretty well and really break down the compost. Add lots of leaves and a bale of straw really helps.

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Yeah. I think I’m willing to give up the actual compost for the ease of use factor of the cone. Anything I can easily maintain/keep up is a win in my book! That’s why we did the pile before. But I think we always overloaded it with yard waste and didn’t have a good ratio. So many factors to consider. That’s also why this cone is blowing my mind, lol.

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