Compost is a dark, crumbly, organic product that you can make yourself by using organic material you have around your house or can obtain from the outside. Compost is similar to the organic matter found in high quality soil and improves the quality of your soil when it is added. If you have sandy soil, it allows the soil to hold more moisture and supplies missing nutrients. If your soil is clay, it makes it more workable.

Hands holding finished compost

Making compost is not difficult. There are many different methods, such as compost bins, compost crocks, compost tumblers, and the pile in the corner of your garden. There are also many accessories you can buy to insure the success of your compost, as well as books on how to compost.  But a pile, the right mixture of ingredients, and a pitchfork are all you really need.

Compost bins, and compost tumblers can be made out of chicken wire, wood stakes, wooden pallets, food grade drums, wire mesh, black plastic sacks, and other materials.   You can also buy kitchen composters, such as a compost crock or pail made out of ceramic or stoneware,  that you keep in your kitchen until you can add it to your compost. If you are handy, there are patterns and instructions you can use to make your own compost bins or compost tumblers. You can even have a wormery (worm compost bin) and let earthworms do all the work!

Your method of compost making depends on several choices you must make.

1. Do you like working in your garden regularly and get a wonderful feeling when you turn the compost pile with your pitch fork and see it working?
2. Do you live in an urban area with limted space and your compost is important to conceal? Would a back porch compost tumbler be better for you?
3. Do you only get out to your compost pile infrequently and need something in your home to stockpile the raw materials?  Maybe a kitchen compost crock?
4. Do you get satisfaction from building things and would like to tackle building a compost bin or compost tumbler?
5. How much raw material do you generate each day?
6. What’s the weather like where you live? Will the earth freeze in the winter and your compost-in-the-making be covered with snow?
7. Do you want to get a jump start on your compost over the winter and have a good stock pile for Spring when you start your garden?

You need to analyze your particular situation and then do some research on your chosen method.

The next thing to pay attention to is the composition of the materials you put into your compost pile, whatever system you use. Here is a list of allowable things:

• Coffee grounds and organic coffee filters
• Tea bags
• Egg shells, but wash them first
• Fruit and vegetable scraps
• Herbacide free grass clippings
• Hay
• Shredded leaves
• Manure (not dog or cat)
• Peanut shells, but they are slow to decompose
• Pine needles – very acid
• Wood shavings, sawdust – slow to decompose
• Stable bedding – better than pure manure
• Weeds – cut them up first, very slow to decompose
• Wheat or oat straw – slow to decompose
• Wood ash – Don’t use a lot and don’t use ashes from charcoal fires or from wood that was painted

Here is a list of things you shouldn’t put in your compost:

• Anything fatty, such as butter, cheese, lard, vegetable oil, mayonnaise, sour cream, salad dressing, peanut butter, milk
• Chicken or any kind of meat
• Dog and Cat Manure
• Fish – too smelly
• Disposable diapers
• Diseased organic materials

To make successful compost, you need to make sure you have a good mix of several things, such as the good organic materials mentioned above, oxygen, moisture, micro-organisms, and heat.

Aerobic (with oxygen) compost making is what you strive for. This means your pile must be aerated regularly and not allowed to become compacted. Then it’s considered anaerobic (without oxygen) and can cause problems with odor. An anaerobic pile will still compost, and is very little work, but the process takes a long time.

When making compost with a pile or bin, you aerate the material with a pitchfork, or something similar, to turn the pile. With compost tumblers, you turn a crank or handle, which rotates your ingredients, or roll a ball filled with your material around your yard.

If you chose to have a compost pile, size is also important. If your pile is too small, it won’t heat up enough. If it is too large, it will heat up, but be difficult to manage. A good rule of thumb for a “pile” compost heap is about 3′ x 3′ x 3′. The best pile temperature is between 110 degrees F and 150 degrees F. You can purchase a compost thermometer to measure the heat in your pile.

When the heat in your compost pile, by whichever method you have chosen, has returned to normal, your finished organic garden compost should be clean-smelling, dark,  crumbly,  and ready for your garden.

A Guide on How to Make Compost is a post from: Compost Tumblers & Composting

What Are They and How Do They Work?

The theory behind compost tumblers is to tumble the compost so it stays aerated and decomposes faster.  You put all of your refuse with a little organic compost material into the ball or drum and tumble it in one of several ways.  It doesn’t take a lot of energy or time to produce good quality organic compost for your garden.  In your compost making efforts, you might find this is the best way to go, especially if your time and/or energy  are  limited.

The Ball Compost Tumbler. . .

The most basic of the compost tumblers is simply a ball or drum that you fill with compost making materials and roll around the yard from time to time.

This would be a good project for your children, if you have any!  These balls aren’t set upon a base, like some of the other compost tumblers.  One advantage is that you can roll them wherever you need them.

The Drum Compost Tumbler. . .

One of the rolling styles that has a base is simply a drum or barrel set on a base that either has or doesn’t have rollers to facilitate the rolling process. Sometimes they will have a place for your feet so you can sit there and rotate the drum with your feet.  Later when the compost is ready, you can put it on the ground and roll it to your garden location.

A little more sophisticated are the drums that sit above the ground and have a pole that runs in the center.  They can either be mounted horizintally or vertically, with the horizontal mounted ones being easier to rotate than the vertical ones, as they tend to become very heavy when full.

The Hand-Cranked Gear-Driven Compost Tumbler. .

The most sophisiticated styles are the compost tumblers that are operated with a crank.  These tumblers sit on an above-ground frame, normally with rollers, and they are driven by a hand-cranked gear-driven system.

The main benefit of these compost tumblers is their ease of use.  Some have internal baffles to mix the compost materials better and, since they sit higher on the ground, they are easy to unload into your wheel barrow or whatever.

Kitchen Composting. . .Compost Crocks and Compost Pails

Hand-in-hand with the compost tumblers are the kitchen composters, such as  compost crocks and pails.  The crocks are really nice and look like a cute cookie jar sitting on your counter.

You can stash your daily organic material in these kitchen compost containers until you can make a trip to the compost bin, tumbler, etc., of your choice.  Look for the ones that  come with replacable filters to control odor.

The compost pails hold 3 quarts of kitchen refuse and are very attractive stoneware or stainless steel.  They come with dual charcoal filters that last from 2 – 6 months depending upon the amount of your kitchen scraps. Also, they are dishwasher safe, which is handy.

It’s not hard to learn how to compost, whatever method you use.  Which one do you prefer?

Compost Tumblers – A Brief Overview is a post from: Compost Tumblers & Composting

Just because the weather has turned cold, doesn’t mean you have to stop your compost making efforts. Your kitchen refuse is still going to pile up so you need a system to extend your compost season as long as possible.

Here are a couple of ways on how to compost during the colder months:

Compost Tumbler System:

Keep a compost container, such as a compost crock or compost pail, in your kitchen and collect your kitchen refuse every day like normal.  when the compost crock or compost pail becomes full, transfer the refuse to a Back Porch Compost Tumbler, similar to the one pictured below.

These compost tumblers are small in size, measuring just 37″ high x 31″ wide x 26″ deep, weigh just 40 pounds, and sit on 6″ wheels, which makes them easy to move around.  You can easily keep it on your back porch, patio, balcony, or laundry room.

In one of these locations, it shouldn’t freeze and will continue to convert your garbage into useful organic compost.  If, for some reason, your compost doesn’t get hot enough, you can always add a compost activator to get things perking along.

The Bokashi System:

Another alternative is to use the Bokashi system in your kitchen, such as the ones made by All Seasons Indoor Composters.  With this system, you alternate your kitchen refuse – all of it – in an air-tight bucket with layers of a medium, such as wheat bran, which has been inoculated with effective microorganisms. This mixture basically “pickles” your garbage in 10 days to two weeks. It’s usually good to have two buckets and alternate them.  When one is full, you switch to the next.  By the time the contents on the first bucket have ‘pickled’, the second bucket is full.
When the contents are ready, you can put them in your back porch compost tumbler with the rest of your compost and proceed as normal.  If it’s still possible, you can alternately bury the pickled mixture directly in your yard and it will be ready for your garden by Spring.

A Word of Caution

Before you begin putting the contents of your compost crock, pail, or bokashi bucket into your back yard compost tumbler, the tumbler must already have a small amount of “normal” compost to interact with the refuse from your kitchen containers. A good mixture would be green and brown organic matter and a little dirt, just like you would use when you are starting a normal compost pile in your back yard.

Whichever system you chose, compost crocks or pails, or the Bokashi system, used with your Back Porch Compost Tumbler, you can effectively extend your compost making system throughout the colder months.

How to Extend YOUR Compost Making Season is a post from: Compost Tumblers & Composting