I've mentioned before that we compost using two different compost bins. The first one is a straight-sided, rest on the ground, open to the dirt beneath plastic bin. It takes about a year to completely fill. I layer yard and kitchen waste with cardboard and paper. I don't follow precise ratios, but instead try to remember to add some paper and cardboard from time to time.
The above photo is just after lifting the plastic bin off of the pile after one year of filling. The pile is about 3 X 3 feet. I've moved the bin to a new location, so we can improve the soil there.
After one year you can still see some paper and cardboard in the layers, as well as some dried stalks from plants. I'll begin to turn the pile over into an adjacent bare spot to improve decomposition sometime this summer, when I have more time of course. As material breaks down, the pile shrinks.
In the meantime, I can access some good composted material from the bottom. I have dug out a couple of gallons of compost to amend soil when planting some perennials and shrubs this spring and summer. I simply dig away at the bottom edge of the pile where everything is pretty well decomposed.
Occasionally someone in the household will add something to the compost that is only partially compostable. Here's the plastic lining from a take-out paper coffee cup. All that is left is the plastic. The paper part is long gone. I pick these bits out when I come across them when digging. In a perfect world, my family would remember that these cups don't go into the compost but are better set aside for fire starters in the outdoor fire pit. It does make you think, though, right? When we get a takeout coffee, our tasty hot beverage is steeping in a plastic-lined cup. That can't be good for us.
We've had the same plastic compost bin for 25 years. It's cracked and chipped, but still does a good enough job holding material in a heap. The pros- it was inexpensive. We bought it through a community program, paying about $10. It's great for bulky items like complete plants at the end of the gardening season. I pile whole tomato plants into the bin. Because it's open at the bottom, worms quickly get to work. Cons-also because it is open at the bottom, critters can dig into it from underneath. Also, as the material only gets turned after a year, it takes longer for it all to decompose. All in all, we're pretty happy with this composter.
Before we bought this one, we had an open heap behind an evergreen tree away from the house or boundary with our neighbors. The heap did work, but we had problems with critters digging in there and making a mess.
Our other compost bin is a tumbling one. I'll tell you more about that one, and what we think another time.
Do you compost? What type of bin do you use? Does your material breakdown faster than it does for me?
Yes, we compost, although I'm sure my husband could give you more of the particulars on what he does. He fabricated our compost pile out of wood and chicken wire, and it's open to the ground below. I don't think we've had problems with critters digging in underneath, although the blue jays like to pull out eggshells and scatter them around the yard. We used to have feral cats in the neighborhood, and one of them liked to sleep on the compost pile in the winter, because of the heat that it produces. We thought that was funny.
ReplyDeleteI think my husband turns it several times a year, and it mostly gets added to the garden. Our soil is mostly sandy, but several years of adding compost to the soil has improved the quality in the garden.
Hi Kris,
DeleteIt sounds like you and your husband have a good system.
I never would have guessed that you have sandy soil in your area. I don't know what I did think, but sand =deserts or beaches. in my mind. We have rocky soil in our yard. The compost has helped a lot for us, too.
The sweet little kitty wanted a warm spot on a cold day/night. I'm glad you didn't shoo him away.
We are close enough to Lake Michigan to have sandy soil. I have heard that the Wisconsin side of the lake is rocky. The action of the water going west to east has broken down the rocks over the centuries to turn it into sand here. We have some of the most beautiful sand I've ever seen. My husband works right by the lake, and the people in lakefront cottages end up with sand in their yards, so they have signs out for free sand. We had an amazing sandbox when our kids were younger.
DeleteThank you, Kris, for explaining this. I learn something new every day.
DeleteWe don't presently compost, but we had big compost piles at our old house because we had a lot of yard waste. The problem was that if the pile didn't get hot enough, it didn't kill the weed seeds. We were forever fighting invasive weeds, so that was a problem. We became very careful about what went in. BTW, here the county requires the use of a rodent-proof compost bin, with a tight-fitting lid, to compost food scraps. That's to keep down the rodent population.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteThat is a problem that plagues many home composters. In some years, it seems like I'm just spreading weeds around. So far this year, the only thing that has popped up from our compost was a whole bunch of volunteer tomato plants. They're everywhere that I mixed in last year's compost.
That's interesting about your county requirements. Our county is who sold us our composter. So far, they haven't required us to use any specific type of composter. This year we have a nice little garden snake who must be feeding on any rodents coming to the bin. We've come across him twice in the last week, both near the compost bin. We also have a lot of hawks and owls. One of my daughters came across an owl pellet near the wooded part of our property. She pulled it apart and found very small bones. My husband thought these were from a rodent. So at least the other critters are trying to keep a balance in nature for us.
I did a program at work dissecting owl pellets. It was very interesting to put together the bones we found. It seemed their favorite food was voles.
DeleteThat sounds interesting, Live and Learn.
DeleteYes, we compost. We started out with a heap on the ground 20+ years ago, then moved to one of the plastic types with a "garage" style door on the side. That quickly became too small for our family, especially as we gardened more and had more plant materials to compost. We eventually moved to a 3-bin system built of pallets that we still currently use. We use it right to left, meaning fresh plant material goes in the right-hand side, and the ready-to-use (or closest to ready) ends up in the left side. The middle bin is the turned and in-progress batch.
ReplyDeleteOver the past year or so, we've noticed an increasing rodent problem. So we made some changes this year that we hope will alleviate that over time. The idea came from Angela at the Growing in the Garden youtube channel. We have trouble vermicomposting here as it gets so hot in the summer, so we followed her idea and drilled holes in 2 gallon buckets, also removing the bottoms. These are sunk to the lip in our raised beds, and we added red wiggler worms and put the kitchen waste directly into them, topping with some shredded cardboard or whatever dry material we have (could be leaves, etc...). The worms come in and out, fertilizing the soil around the buckets, as well as leaving a lot of worm compost in the buckets, which can be periodically be spread where needed. Being in-ground insulates better than a free-standing bin and allows the worms to go deeper as needed. This is our first season doing this so we'll see how it works for us. This way, the compost bins can be mostly plant material and are less tempting for the rodents. This method is also part of my long-term strategy to reduce the need for outside fertilizers--would love to get us to a closed-loop system eventually, both for financial and environmental reasons.
Just adding that I do think the compost is ready more quickly when we turn it more, but how often we do that depends on how quickly the bin fills up. So some batches may take longer than others. Another factor for us seems to be how finely/coarsely the ingredients are chopped.
DeleteHi Cat,
DeleteUsing 2 gallon buckets In your beds sounds like such a good idea for kitchen scraps. I'd like to get to the point where I don't need to buy so much compost each year. Our soil is still so needy. Good luck as you work towards a closed loop in your garden.