Describe your Composting method- Cold, Hot, Outdoor, Pile, Bucket?

I do just about everything wrong. I just put it all in a big pile in the back yard, and eventually it turns to usable compost. I don’t layer, I don’t worry about how much of what I put in, I don’t cover it, I don’t water it, I don’t turn it. It takes a while, but it seems to work ok.

I have a teen-ager dig a big hole on the wood margins. Then I throw in vegetable scraps, tea bags, egg shells, coffee grounds, stale bread. Periodically my teen-ager turns the pile with a space.

I burn all papers that have no colored ink on them…at this time of year I use the paper for a fire starter, I use old newspapers with colored ink to line the cat carrier, I let the wind blow the autumn leaves around the twenty acres that I am lucky to have, I leave grass clippings on the grass. It’s pretty simple.

When there is six feet of snow outside, I force my kitchen door open just far enough to empty the compost bucket on the garden.

This is what I’m doing: http://phoenyxblog.tumblr.com/post/154481833/ive-decided-to-start-composting

I didn’t want my dogs or kids to get into the compost, so I knew I needed some kind of container. The water barrels have worked out nicely. I put compost material into the top and roll/flip the barrels to aerate. I’m going to complete them in the spring when I want to get the material out; something like this: http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Tumbling-Composter. I’ll probably add a wire mesh to allow me to sift out the decomposed stuff.

This reminds me: I should be adding some ashes.

I’m with Snarp. Put it in a heap, it turns to soil eventually.

The smaller the bits, the quicker that happens. I put vegetable scraps and egg shells in the blender with water and pour the slurry on the compost pile.

@jaytkay If my blender weren’t such a pain to clean and worked better I might try that.

@jaytkay & @Snarp—I can see the marketing wizards getting ahold of this to come up with “garbage processors”. Just you watch and see.

@CyanoticWasp hey, if my garbage disposal could be piped straight to the compost, that would be cool.

@Snarp ; DID… Ahhhh Hugh Ahhh Hugh… Seperate sink in the garage with a Disposal and the pipe goes into a bucket with an overflow into another bucket- first is Solids and second is Liquid!

When I moved to my current location the trash pickup here uses a rollaway bin that they supply, so my old plastic trash cans with lids were superfluous. So I use them as compost bins, even though they are non-rotatable, totally anaerobic and generally not too suitable for the purpose. But they collect scraps well, have tight lids to keep out vermin and pests, and stuff does decompose in them. I’ll probably dump them on the corner of my back yard next year and see what I’ve got.

@CyanoticWasp – good method!!! I have green plastic storage bins in the garage that serve the same purpose.

I used to have an old wood bin we built and I just threw everything in. It made great dirt. Now a friend has given me a fancy shmancy plastic ‘composter’ so we shall see. In the winter I just toss on the garden to be rototilled in in spring. My wood bin was easy to get at- have you ever cleaned up dog puke from her eating old compst veggies???!!!

Pile, outdoor, occaisionally watering, adding a few wood ashes. Spade it over once a year. I’m in no hurry.

@faye ; Square plastic??? sections you put together? makes for easy turning!

This is the composter! https://www.stopwaste.org/AlamedaCommerce/ProductList.aspx?View=Detail&ProductId=13

I dream of a yard where I can garden, but I have only a 10foot square deck where I can grow vegetables in pots. Still, I wanted to compost, for all the obvious reasons. So I have two bins, of the “Rubbermaid lidded tub” variety, which my husband kindly drilled many inch-wide holes in for me. In go the kitchen scraps, coffee filters, such leaves as I can gather from other places, paper towel and toilet paper cardboard cores, et cetera.

It takes a few months for everything to break down, since it’s not very big, but every now and then I turn it into the second bin for further rotting and begin filling the first one again. The next year, the compost is generally ready to mix with, and refresh, the dirt for my container garden.

@laureth ; I used to compost in a Five Gal bucket under the kitchen sink!

@phil196662 Nice. I have no idea how I could turn what’s in mine but not an issue, because I’m willing to wait. Where my old one sat the dirt is wonderful, now an asparagus bed. I don’t really like this plastic one. It itself is not natural, right, which is what I like about composting.

@faye ; I understand, at least it helps the environment making it easy in a compact space. I have Eight of those on the side of my house doing what is needed in a space that used to be wasted!

@phil196662 Good idea but too far in my yard- mine is by the garden. Some is in a bucket outside my backdoor because it’s just too cold and snowy.

@faye – ours are on the side, On cement and the youngest is by the door from the kitchen. but I like yours too!