How do you know when the compost is “done”? Is it a matter of so many days, or the appearance/texture, or what? How do you know when it is safe to put in your vegetable garden – especially if you are constantly putting new stuff on top?
Has anyone here ever composted something like horse manure, or even kitty litter? Maybe “composting” isn’t the correct word here. I know you have to wait awhile for it to get “hot” enough to kill the bacteria/finish the decomposition, but how would someone know when it was ready? Does it not look like… manure after a while?
We have a tiered system. We start the compost in 10 gallon buckets that I can roll down the hill to turn in once a week or so. There are three buckets, when one fills, the next gets used.
When the third bucket gets filled, the first bucket gets emptied into a large garbage bin with holes in the bottom - its pretty composty usually at this point.
In the Fall I dump that out onto my flower beds, in the Spring it gets tilled in.
My parents, uh, sorta compost. Basically, they have an old trash can out in the backyard with veggie scraps in it. Yup, it stinks.
I think we did it the proper way a long time ago, in that it was out in the open and there was plenty of airflow. Dunno what made them use their current method.
I recently moved to a new house and started a compost bin; previously we just had a pile. I like the bin better. It is 4 shipping pallets, wired together. 4 walls, no floor and the front wall is wired on only one side so that I can open the front to turn over the compost. It cost me about $14 - the price of the wire.
I turn my compost every Friday - actually I better go out and do it before the sun goes down here. I also water it a few times a week if there is no rain.
Never put pet waste in your compost. Horse manure can be used, if you have it handy but I wouldn’t bother going out to purchase it.
I have a large yard, so I use the “chuck everything in a big pile under one of the trees” method of composting. Leaves from the trees get mixed in naturally. I just went back to my compost pile yesterday to get some good dirt for my spring veggie garden, and everything I had chucked in last summer/fall had rotted except for the corn cobs and one or two carrot tops.
I’m too lazy to build a compost bin, so this method works well for me. But as others have pointed out, it’s slow.
I built my compost bins as two, three sided bins. The open front has guides down the posts so I can slot planks in from the ground up. When empty, I only have a couple of planks in so the front opening is low and the barrow can be tipped straight in. As the bin fills, I put more planks in to keep the contents from spilling, and also as the rest for the lid, which is just a sheet of corrugated pvc roofing cut to size. It keeps the rain from saturating the pile and keeps my dog from fossicking around in the kitchen scraps that get dumped there.
The sides and back are made with 2x4 recovered from a ramp that used to be outside the kitchen door. Although they are made from treated pine, I’m trying not to worry about leaching into the compost. The corner posts are 4x4 sunk into the ground about 18". The wall height is about a metre. (3’3")
The removable front allows for easy turning of the contents and easy removal of the finished product.
Most non-meat kitchen waste goes into the bin. I have a 20 litre lidded bucket in the kitchen. It gets used during the week, and I can empty it when full or at the weekend, without worrying too much about smell in the kitchen.
If some scraps of meat do get in, because of the lid, cats and dogs aren’t going to get at them. The only things I’d worry about would be rats, and I’ve only seen them around very infrequently and not for some years now. The bins don’t smell and don’t even look bad. They’re down the back of the garden and around behind a shed from our outdoor living area, so can’t normally be seen. If there wasn’t a shed, I would perhaps plant a hedge or at least a couple of bushes to screen them.
Here is a neat composting trick. Take a 3" dia. PVC pipe about 4 to 6 feet long. Drill a bunch of holes (1/2 or 3/8" dia.) starting at one end and going in about 2 feet. How many holes and where they are really isn’t that critical. Put the pipe in the middle of your composter and build the heap around it. A well ventilated circular bin is best. Build up layers of green and brown compost. The pipe will act like a chimney to increase airflow. In a few days you will be able to feel the heat from your pile by putting your hand over the top of the pipe. On cool mornings you will see fog rising from the pipe. It is extra work but if you have kids they will love it.
I have a small city lot, so gotta keep it “out of sight” and non-stinky.
I stick to veggie scraps, lawn and garden clippings, and eggshells and coffee grounds.
I also made really awesome rain barrels last year, using plastic industrial barrels fitted out with pvc components, and brass hose fittings. Mmm, free garden water.
Several decades ago, King County (here in Washington State) in a rather rare burst of generosity, had a sort of promotion where they either gave away or sold for a very cheap price (don’t remember exactly which at this late date), compost bins made of cedar slats held together by vertical rods at the corners, looking sort of like a miniature corn crib, 4’ on a side. I got two of them, and they have worked like a charm for many years - it’s amazing how the cedar slats are still OK after all these years. No obnoxious smells ever, just a rather pleasant woodsy sort of odor.
I think I’ll try that bit with a 3" PVC pipe. The bins were emptied yesterday to provide raw material for rebuilding a section of lawn so now would be a good time.
I’ve got two plastic compost bins - they’re both in the shape of a squat truncated cone, open at the top and bottom, with plastic lids. All of our vegetable trimmings, sweepings from the gerbils and guinea pig and soft garden clippings go in there - typically they spend three months rotting in one, after which we turn the bottom half into the second one where it spends another six to nine months. Two bins are not really quite enough for the volume of waste we could compost - if we had the space, another two would probably be good - but I’d still chain them up, turning one into the next and so on.
Anything twiggy or woody needs to be shredded before it goes in the compost, and we also have a bin in the kitchen for cooked food waste, bones, etc - which is collected weekly goes off to a municipal bulk composting facility.