My Current Composting System

Compost is one of the best things you can give your garden.  It improves the soil texture so that your plants can do their best, and helps provide some of the nutrients they need. Sure, you can buy it, but why not make your own?  Here is the composting system I currently use.



Bin 1 -- pyramid composter from Gardeners Supply
Bin 2 -- wheeled Rubbermaid trash can with lots of holes drilled in it, sits near bin 1
Bin 3 -- second wheeled Rubbermaid can like #2, sits by my back door
Bin 4 -- compost tumbler like this one from Gardeners Supply

Ground-up fall leaves go in Bin 1 and 2, as well as some bunny product and kitchen waste. Any larger finished garden plants I chop down as much as is reasonable into Bin 1. These bins have lots of brown stuff (high carbon stuff like leaves and shredded paper) and hopefully enough green stuff (high nitrogen things like grass clippings, bunny product, kitchen scraps, coffee grounds) layered in that it can go ahead and be slowly composting. Bin 3, by the back door, gets most of the kitchen waste and bunny product.

Each time I empty finished compost from the compost tumbler, I wheel Bin 3 back to the composting area, and load up the compost tumbler from bins 2 and 3. You want about 2/3 to 3/4 browns and about 1/4 greens, and don't fill it too full, so it has room to mix around. You leave a little of the last batch of compost in, to innoculate the new stuff with the active bacteria. Then sprinkle it down with enough water to slightly moisten it all, and just rotate it a time or two every day or so. It composts a lot faster than Bin 1, because of the mixing action and it's all smaller pieces. During the warmer months, it finishes a batch of compost in about a month and a half.

I check the bottom doors into Bin 1 once every year or so and shovel out the finished compost at the bottom, then I can add more leaves and chopped plants at the top. I do try to mix the stuff in Bin 1 once in a while with a pitchfork, but I know it would speed it up if I did that more regularly.

I also have a worm composter indoors. They crank out a batch of really great compost about every month, but the quantity is so small compared with all of the leaves and other stuff I have, that it's a pretty small component of the whole. I especially like this for use with my houseplants.

This is the system I've been using for a couple of years now, and it works pretty smoothly for me. I would like to crank more of the leaves and stuff on through during the warmer months, so this year I intend to stir the contents of Bin 1 more often, and I'd love to get a second compost tumbler.