What Do You Put Your Compost In For Ease And Efficiency?
Any suggestions as to what to keep your compost in? I'm new to gardening and I'm not sure how to do it and what to put it in to maximize my efforts. I do know that you put all your raw vegetable matter together and that's about it.
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My compost bin is big, for my 1 aacre garden. It is made of four hog panels hooked together at the corners with rebar, and I can take out the front rod and swing the front panel aside so I can get to it. Compost bins can be made of many things: I have seen them made of recycled pallets, concrete blocks, fencing formed into a circle and hooked together, fencing made into a bin with posts at the corners. There are as many different compost bins as there are gardens.
Here is one website:http://eartheasy.com/grow_compost.htm
My favorite site: http://extension.missouri.edu/xplor/aggu…
and another:http://www.compostguide.com/
You are on the right track…. only raw vegetable matter. Nothing cooked, no meat, no fat. If you are on a small scale you could use a 5 gallon bucket but next year you will surely want to invest in a good mulcher. There is one that will rotate and as soon as I see it I’m going to get one. Some people make something with a 5 gallon tub with a lid and some PVC pipe. I saw instructions on “Incredibles” that looked very interesting. Also, if you have a shredder, newspaper is just the greatest mulch. Just stir it in with the vegetables.
Welcome to composting! I suggest that you get a compost bin. Many towns have a program where you can get one at a reduced rate to cut down on greenwaste. I use the biostack by Smith & Hawkins :http://www.smithandhawken.com/catalog/pr…
It’s ideal if you layer green and brown material. Example: shredded newspaper & green leaves. Even if you don’t do it perfectly you’ll get the most wonderful moist compost for your garden. I don’t like to turn mine so it takes mine a little longer but it gets there just the same! Oh, don’t use any fat or oil in your compost and no meat.
I’m a lazy gardener. Well, not lazy, maybe, but anywhere I can reduce or eliminate labor, I do it.
My compost used to be a simple pile. Can’t get any easier than that.
Well, yes, you can. I’m a no-till gardener. I tilled twice to make the garden the first time, but now I just move the mulch and dig a hole to add a new plant.
And now I don’t even maintain a compost pile. Kitchen scraps get tucked under the mulch. Yard waste goes on top as new mulch. The kitchen scraps decompose right there where they will be needed, and as the mulch decomposes into dirt, the nutrients are right underneath.
In a nutshell – there are about a hundred different ways to compost. And they all work. Find one that fits you.
Almost any organic matter (not animal – although egg shells are an exception) works. How you compost depends a lot on how much material you have, how quickly you want it turn, etc.
You don’t want to put in weeds or woody branches, unless you chip them. Newspaper (not the shiny ads) and brown paperbags can be shredded, and coffee filters can also be added, but you want to make sure you can mix these in.
In smaller yard the tumblers or bins work best. Following directions you can have workable mulch in a couple of months (or less). Personally I perfer the tumbler vs. a barrel/bin, they are easier to turn.
I have 1/2 acre with several mature trees and between grass clippings, vegetable garden, leaves, etc, I overrun even large tumblers so I built 2 4′x4′ bin using landscape timber. I use what my grandfather called the 3 color method, green, brown and grey — for every 6-8″ of fresh clippings, etc, I add about 1″ of brown (manure), and 1/2″ or so of grey (ashes). From winter clean up to fall, I can fill 1 bin 4-5 high, turning every couple of months. During the summer I add water a couple time a week (helps compost faster – although too much water can be a problem). That winter I cover the full bin with black plastic to reduce the amount of water and keep the heat in. Then I start building the compost in bin #2. By March/April, the first bin is a pretty good mulch.