Starting a Compost Pile
For many home gardeners like myself, this time of year is like our little hiatus. There’s not much we can do other than dream and maybe begin a little prep work for spring. And one of these “prep” list items should include creating a compost space if you haven’t already done so. Thanks to my gardening mentor, Joe Lamp’l (aka Joe Gardener), he convinced me I could tackle this project. Just to be clear, Joe does not know me – I stalk him on social and religiously listen to his podcasts. Maybe one day …
How To
If you have an area of your property where aesthetics aren’t really an issue, this is the simplest, cheapest design for a compost structure. I live on a fairly wooded property so I had many options for locations that were out of sight and close enough to the house to be useful.
Here’s what you need to build this compost structure:
· 7 old wood pallets
· Screws
· Specific instructions in the website below-
https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/building-pallet-compost-bin/
Yep. That’s it. My hubby regularly keeps a stack of old pallets laying around so we didn’t even need to scavenge those!
You’ll notice in the picture that there are 3 bays. Turns out it’s serious over kill, at least for me. We are a household of 7 (my parents live with us) and we cook nearly every meal. So, I figured with the amount of raw food waste we produce, we’d fill up these bays in no time! And we have chickens – so all of the chicken poo and bedding is great for compost. It’s been 6 months and only ½ of the first bay has been used! Composting is amazing- I’ve never been good about recycling or doing my part to help the environment but this is SO EASY and makes me feel so socially responsible every time I dump a bucket of stuff onto my pile.
What Can Be Composted
So, what can you compost? SO. MANY. THINGS.
You can find extensive lists online but here’s how I try to keep it simple: you can compost any fruit, veg, paper products, bread/pasta. No plastic, aluminum, dairy, meat, or fats. Those last 3 things are what makes people think compost heaps must reek. The stink you may be thinking of is rotting meat – if you don’t put meat in your pile, there’s no meat to rot and stink. Also, critters enjoy meat, cheese, and other dairy products – so stay away from these and you won’t have any unwelcome guests. Now think through your kitchen … every fruit peel, moldy strawberry, corn cob, paper towel, egg shell, nasty nearly liquefied forgotten for months cucumber, garlic skin, carrot peel, newspaper, piece of cardboard … so. many. things.
Here’s an important tip though – the smaller the pieces, the faster the item will breakdown. This is especially important with paper, newspaper, and cardboard. Invest in a good paper shredder, set that baby up smack dab in the kitchen, and get to work. Actually, shredding newspaper is so zen, I find myself looking forward to attacking the piles.
Click on image for downloadable print!
So then, how do the kitchen scraps get to the pile? Why I use my very sophisticated compost container- a stainless mixing bowl sitting on my counter. That’s it. Don’t make this more complicated. Now I did buy a bougie counter-top bin for my parents to use in their apartment. There’s a charcoal filter to eliminate any smell but I have not seen any need for this. Just about every day, I send a kiddo out to dump the bowl on the pile and we are good to go. The bowl can be rinsed out and ready to go back into service.
“Fancy” countertop compost bin
Pile Maintenance
Once your structure is built and you begin dumping those beautiful kitchen scraps onto the pile, there is a little maintenance to keep up with. Your pile needs water and it needs to be turned. I am not good about either of these steps. I have decided to let the rain take care of the water. I want to be better about this but the pile is just far enough from the spigot to be a pain. Turning your pile is also important. This basically means taking a pitch fork and tossing your scraps around a few times each week. This gets harder and harder as your pile grows – it gets heavy! I have tried using a shovel, and tiller, and a pitch fork – the pitch fork seems to work best for me.
Fully turned pile (with a very curious kitty). Moved all compost from 1st bay to 2nd bay. I will let that sit for the next few months and only add new items to the empty first bay.
I cannot even begin to imagine the amount of waste we have kept out of a trash can in the last 6 months! It really does make me happy.