Kind of in response to a request from a friend, I've dredged up an old (2018) post of mine from a blog I had to shut down. It's fun to revisit this: who doesn't love making dirt?
The one-year Compost Bin Experiment update
It was a year ago that I took down my old wooden-pallet compost bins and started a metal-fencing system. And now, a year later, what do I think? I think, two thumbs up. Probably green thumbs up, in fact!
If you're as into compost as I am, here's the dirt (heh-heh) on how the first year of a new compost era has gone.
Basically, ever since I moved to this city about a quarter century ago, I've been honing my skills at turning plants into dirt. I am generally much better at turning plants into dirt than the other way around, in fact (although as the decades pass, I have occasionally had success at the dirt --> plant version of this process). The basic method for composting is (1) put plants and food scraps on the ground, and (2) wait. That's about where I was, oh, 25 years ago, and you'd better believe that I was amazed at myself for having my own compost pile. My three-year-old daughter bragged to my friends, "My mom has a PhD AND a compost pile!". Yes.
Moving up a notch is having a structure that encloses the pile. When my husband and I moved to this house, I built two wooden pens out of old fencing. One pen held the "new scraps" pile, and one pen held the "cooking" pile --- at least in theory, that's how it worked. Every so often, I'd head out with the pitchfork and "stir" the piles. But "stir" is in quotes because compost is kinda heavy, so this was a lot more like digging ditches as far as muscle and activity goes. When the plants-and-food-scraps had sufficiently decomposed---usually after about a year---I'd use more muscle to shovel the compost from the piles into a wheelbarrow and move the dirt over to the garden.
But then my neighbor Morgan ---who has an actual certificate designating her a "Master Composter" --- recommended another method. This uses portable circles of metal fencing: one circle for the active, lasagna-style pile, and one circle as a holding pen for leaves. I clip the metal fencing into circles using binder clips, which makes removing the fencing from the dirt as easy as undoing binder clips. THIS is the method I've been trying out this year, and THIS is a new level of composting awesomeness for me. I tell you, I'm better than ever at turning plants into dirt now.
This picture on the right is the latest "active" bin, and if you look super carefully, you'll see an almost-empty "holding" bin behind it, with the leaves almost gone. The bin in front has a bunch of food on top; I'm about to grab leaves from the holding bin and put them on top.
So, what's great about this system?
First, the layering thing *really* works. Food and green stuff goes in, and then I toss leaves on top. More food and/or green stuff goes in, then I toss in another layer of leaves. I never once stirred this stuff, and yet it happily decomposed down into dirt way more quickly than in the past.
Second, because I put the active bins right there in the garden, I don't have to use a wheelbarrow and muscle to get the compost to the right place. Once I have dirt, I open up the circle, move the fence to another place, and the compost is right there, in the right place. I've done this twice now -- twice in one year. This is really almost like magic here!
Third, I really like having a giant bin to hold all those leaves I rake up in the fall. It's nice thinking of these leaves as "fuel" to add to the top of a pile of food. Somehow, for my large yard, the ratio worked out beautifully; this holding bin just finally, magically, emptied out right now -- just as fall has started tingeing the leaves that are hanging on the trees in our yard. We won't start raking again for another few weeks, but when we do, I have empty bins ready to hold those leaves to make the next round of compost.
No matter what style of compost bins I use, I love the fact that composting reduces the amount of stuff we send to landfills -- less gasoline for garbage trucks, less stuff in the landfill overall. I also appreciate that, because my food scraps go into the ground instead of the trash can, my garbage doesn't stink. We can (and do) leave a garbage can in the garage for a couple of months, slowly filling up with stuff from our home, and we don't have to put it out at the curb early because of bad odors.
Whereas compost piles, in contrast, are happy living places. Squirrels, birds, and bunnies visit my compost piles more often even than I do. I really love walking by these bins in the morning and seeing the flurry of activity happening there.
And that's myOctober [now June!!!] homage to compost bins, with a thank-you to Master Composter Morgan for bumping me up to a new level, for cluing me into the notion that Fence Circles are the new Black Gold.
If you're as into compost as I am, here's the dirt (heh-heh) on how the first year of a new compost era has gone.
Basically, ever since I moved to this city about a quarter century ago, I've been honing my skills at turning plants into dirt. I am generally much better at turning plants into dirt than the other way around, in fact (although as the decades pass, I have occasionally had success at the dirt --> plant version of this process). The basic method for composting is (1) put plants and food scraps on the ground, and (2) wait. That's about where I was, oh, 25 years ago, and you'd better believe that I was amazed at myself for having my own compost pile. My three-year-old daughter bragged to my friends, "My mom has a PhD AND a compost pile!". Yes.
Moving up a notch is having a structure that encloses the pile. When my husband and I moved to this house, I built two wooden pens out of old fencing. One pen held the "new scraps" pile, and one pen held the "cooking" pile --- at least in theory, that's how it worked. Every so often, I'd head out with the pitchfork and "stir" the piles. But "stir" is in quotes because compost is kinda heavy, so this was a lot more like digging ditches as far as muscle and activity goes. When the plants-and-food-scraps had sufficiently decomposed---usually after about a year---I'd use more muscle to shovel the compost from the piles into a wheelbarrow and move the dirt over to the garden.
But then my neighbor Morgan ---who has an actual certificate designating her a "Master Composter" --- recommended another method. This uses portable circles of metal fencing: one circle for the active, lasagna-style pile, and one circle as a holding pen for leaves. I clip the metal fencing into circles using binder clips, which makes removing the fencing from the dirt as easy as undoing binder clips. THIS is the method I've been trying out this year, and THIS is a new level of composting awesomeness for me. I tell you, I'm better than ever at turning plants into dirt now.
 |
| My "active" bin, about three feet in diameter and three feet tall. The compost-makings are about a foot high right now. |
This picture on the right is the latest "active" bin, and if you look super carefully, you'll see an almost-empty "holding" bin behind it, with the leaves almost gone. The bin in front has a bunch of food on top; I'm about to grab leaves from the holding bin and put them on top.
So, what's great about this system?
First, the layering thing *really* works. Food and green stuff goes in, and then I toss leaves on top. More food and/or green stuff goes in, then I toss in another layer of leaves. I never once stirred this stuff, and yet it happily decomposed down into dirt way more quickly than in the past.
Second, because I put the active bins right there in the garden, I don't have to use a wheelbarrow and muscle to get the compost to the right place. Once I have dirt, I open up the circle, move the fence to another place, and the compost is right there, in the right place. I've done this twice now -- twice in one year. This is really almost like magic here!
 |
| A nearly empty bin that used to be full of leaves. This is about 4 feet in diameter and 3 feet high. |
No matter what style of compost bins I use, I love the fact that composting reduces the amount of stuff we send to landfills -- less gasoline for garbage trucks, less stuff in the landfill overall. I also appreciate that, because my food scraps go into the ground instead of the trash can, my garbage doesn't stink. We can (and do) leave a garbage can in the garage for a couple of months, slowly filling up with stuff from our home, and we don't have to put it out at the curb early because of bad odors.
Whereas compost piles, in contrast, are happy living places. Squirrels, birds, and bunnies visit my compost piles more often even than I do. I really love walking by these bins in the morning and seeing the flurry of activity happening there.
And that's my
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