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How Do I Start Composting?

How can I easily & inexpensively get started composting?

  • I want to start composting, or at least try it out & see if it is something that I can get the other members of my household to participate with. I spoke to someone at a garden center and was recommended a plastic composting bin for $90. Can composting be done, at a very small scale, in a regular plastic container while we try it out to see if composting is for us? Any other advice for a beginner is also welcome. Thanks!

  • Answer:

    More people should Compost!.....It's a great way to give back to the earth.....No need for expensive "composters" Just find an out of the way spot in your yard where you wont mind a pile of debris forming. Take all your Raw Kitchen scraps like fruit and Vegetable peelings and leftovers(apple cores, Lettuce + cabbage leaves,banana peels...etc)...NO meats or fats or pasta/rice.or anything cooked pretty much.(tends to attract vermin) ... Now take all your "junk Mail" (no plastic)... like credit card offers,flyers,unread newspapers and shred or rip them into small pieces and layer this(it is your carbon source, also called "brown" material) with the food stuff (your Nitrogen source, also called "green" material) and you will have success-full composting going on in no time.Take all you garden debris when put your garden to bed in the fall and add them to the pile also. keep adding shredded papers/cardboard/dried leavesor "browns" etc.. to the pile along with the daily "green" and keep it wet...thats right... water it in the summer(water helps theings decompose) Dont worry about it over the winter... You will see the pile shrink down over time... go out in spring and turn or "fluff up" the pile and use whatever is ready on the bottom of the pile(looks just like dirt) and start watering it again when you notice it is very dry. and turn it now and then.... My compost pile is behind my shed in the corner of the yard. The shed is on an angle just wide enough to get a wheelbarrow through..... Composting is easy...dont be frightend off by all the people with their technical mumbo-jumbo.I have been doing it for over 20 years.... and P.S.... your pile will decompose weather you turn it or not........Good luck with it! Just rember, the smaller the pieces you put into it, the faster it will compost (decompose)

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t-pot has good advice. also, take a good look at the one they want to sell you and you can figure out what to do. i used a 55 gal. drum with the top and bottom cut out and drilled about one thousand holes in it. GOOD LUCK!

Jack the Toad

you dont need anything but a pile of grass clippings, food scraps, leaves etc. turn them over occasionally. if you want a container, get old wooden pallets from local construction sites or stores. many will give them away for free just to get rid of them. nail them together in a box shape. or use other free wood (damaged plywood) to make the container. or get wire like chicken wire and stake it in place. fill with organic material. You can get all this for free.

Siddhartha

This will be your best answer for sure since I was in your exact situation last year. This is my own invention and it's simple, inexpensive, and works great. Even seasoned gardeners in my neighborhood said it works great !!! Here go's : I bought a regular size Rubbermaid garbage can. I cut 4 holes about as big as your fist around the bottom half of the garbage can, and 4 in the very bottom. This is so worms and stuff can get in. Then I found a spot next to my garden where I wanted it. I dug a hole big enough and deep enough to place the garbage can in, about half way to the top of the can, making sure all of the holes you cut are underground. Then place the garbage can in and start filling around it with the dirt you dug out so no critters can get in from above ground. I also put wood chips around it to retain moisture and heat (both very important elements in composting) . . . but that's totally optional. Now you start composting !!! The most important thing is to turn the compost every few days. The reason I like this method is because you have a lid and it's totally contained . . . you have NO bugs or critters. You'll have excellent compost in 3-6 months and it's very neat and convenient. Let me know how it goes . . . and happy gardening. Total cost about $10 !!!

Jay Dub

Go to a farm and ranch store and get a 5-6 tine manure fork. Pile the stuff to be composted in a simple pile on the ground, hence the name 'compost pile' or you can 'pen it in' as suggested. Every couple weeks turn the pile onto another spot. The 'stuff' that slips through the tines is the good stuff, ready for use. The rest is the start of your new pile, easy and cheap. RScott

RScott

http://www.recyclenow.org/r_composting_getstarted.html Here try this website see if it helps

H K

Create yourself an area for a composte pile. Then, every time you need to take a dump, do it in the pile instead of in your bathroom.

sonofbrunhilde

I took2 sheets of old plywood that were free at a local brush dump, bolted them to the corners of my fence and pile stuff there It takes up about 3x 3 ft plus a 2 ft or so overage and I rake it out add new stuff in and mix it in and pile it back up and after 4 mo have awesome compost, didnt cost me a dime and my husband, dog and daughter readily do the mixing (kate has backyardigans gardening gloves. works really good, I cant see spending 90 dollars though-you could buy plastic sheets it you didnt want to replace the plywood every few years like me and that would be it and it is alot easier than trying to turn it in one of those binsI have also seen some people take a large rubber maid tub put lots of drainage holes in it, take the metel circular blade from a push non gas-electric mower(the old fashioned kind) put a l shaped metal rod through it and have the blade in the lower 2-3rds of the bin with the rod going out the two ends and the l shaped part they turn to flip the compost and mix it(they used an assortment of washers and such to attach securely to tub wall. good luck

mommy to be of 3

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