If you add a little material at a time, it will take longer to heat up and produce compost. STEP 4 If you want to fill the bin gradually, follow a simple rule: every time you add green material, add some brown too.
This will create air pockets to speed up composting and stop the mixture from becoming too wet and slimy. Cover the compost to keep out rain and stop it getting slimy.
Turn it over once a month to aerate it and speed up the process. Use a garden fork to mix the outer contents towards the centre. Eventually, you can decide to stop adding ingredients and leave the heap to mature. Or with a plastic bin, you can start to use the lower layers which have finished composting. To check the moisture levels, turn it over with a fork. It should look damp all the way through. If your compost is woody and not breaking down, try adding more green materials like grass clippings.
You can also buy a compost activator to add that extra bit of nitrogen. Get rid of them by covering the compost bin with a lid and burying any fruit and veg scraps, rather than just tipping them on top. Is your garden ready for winter? Find out below:. Or check out my Pinterest board for more ideas:. Pinterest Board. Related Posts. Jackie Gilmore March 21, at pm - Reply.
Deborah Underwood September 10, at pm - Reply. Leave A Comment Cancel reply Comment. My mother in law built her compost bins from three sides cinder block, front stacking tight wood slats, filled from the top, all covered with a tight lid. What are your thoughts on such a bin? Am considering this myself. I wonder, though, organic matter from the chicken run will need to compost for a certain amount of time before it is safe for the garden, so perhaps that could be added to a regular compost bin when it gets cleaned out to continue composting?
Good point! I already do a six month composting minimum on the coop shavings to avoid pathogens. With the egg shells I bake in the oven, when cooking other food items there is no need to wash egg shells as the drying process kills smells and makes it easy to crush into smaller pieces either by rolling pin or by hand held blender.
The inoculated bran, does not smell but does transfer to the food items aiding to assist in the breakdown of the food structure with the microbes so produced. So apart from fish on it will also be dinner on, no bad thing, what say you? When bin 2 is full, I empty bin 1 and start all over again.
They are smaller than my other bins by about half, but supposedly decompose faster. Wish me luck. I have a question about covering food scraps with fallen leaf matter. Our leaves from last Autumn are wet and rotting, black and fragile after one winter sitting in a pile.
Are they still suitable for covering food scraps with, or does it need to be dry brown matter? If so, do you store leaves indoors for this purpose?
Yes, these rotting leaves will be great for covering food scraps in a compost bin. One or the other is usually okay. There is a link above in the article that will take you to design plans and building instructions. Hi, this post really helped me figure out what I need, I love the simple wire design you started out with!
Just wondered what size does it need to be to compost effectively? I would start with at least a 3-foot wide diameter. The wider diameter allows the pile to heat up sufficiently to fire the composting process. If you find that you enough food scraps and yard waste that it fills up quickly, a 4- or 5-foot diameter bin is better, heating up even more, speeding the process and better killing weed seeds. I have mostly built a compost bin with a cement base, aluminum sides with the front side removable, and a plastic top.
Main use is for kitchen scraps. I plan a section with leaves or the like. Total space is about 30 by A compost bin needs to be breathable and moist to accommodate the organisms that break food scraps and yard waste down into compost. Hello Amy.
I am going to build your 3 section composter, have lots of room in a corner that we never plant, anyways. Do you use just regular chicken wire, like a pea row fence? Or what about the tight weave of replacement screen-door mesh? Helly Amy, These are the plans I have been looking for and am going to buy your book!
During the pandemic I build a built a large garden as want to work on creating my own compost. I have 7 acres and many trees and want to put all of those leaves to work! What is the completed size of the 3 bin system? I definitely have room for something pretty large. Thank you! Thanks for the info. In the palate bin — how do you get the pile from one bin to the other?
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Designing a Resilient Garden. Permaculture Mini Course. Related Articles. Comments We used old magnolia logs and oak logs for our sides and then some cedar posts for the front to keep the compost semi-organized. My MIL has a much, much smaller garden. Perhaps you have already known that there are two different kinds of stuff you can add to your compost pile — green and brown.
Always take care to keep the ratio of carbon and nitrogen. You should decide how large compost pile you want to make. My advice is to be modest. Smaller heap will decompose faster, and you will get nice, mature compost earlier. Every time you add new waste, try to turn over the material to mix stuff and add some oxygen to the pile. It will make the microorganisms easier to do their job. Always put a thin layer of soil above the new material.
That way, you will add new bacteria and fungi to the pile and prevent any foul odor and consequential complaints of your neighbors. As long as the material resembles a sponge when you squeeze it, you can be satisfied. If it is too dry, you just need to add water.
Otherwise, if you notice more than a drop or two of water while squeezing composting material, you can be sure that it is too wet. Turn it over to balance the level of moisture and air as well as optimize decomposition conditions. After a few weeks, you will notice that your compost pile starts to shrink. That means that the process of decomposing is progressing. Once you notice that the temperature of the material starts decreasing, it is time to turn it over. Try to put all the undigested ingredients and stuff, which was placed outside until then, into the center of the heap.
Once the material placed in the middle of the pile reaches F 60 — This process has one huge advantage. In the same time, you will aerate the content appropriately and allow a more proper and faster composting system in the future. After you finish transferring the first compost pile to section number two, your first compost bin will be empty and prepared for new ingredients.
Your primary goal is to make a cycle of regular composting. That means that you need to take care to avoid adding any new stuff to the second bin from the moment of relocating this material from the first one. The second bin is a transition section, and its point is to allow additional breaking down existing ingredients and smooth further process of composting.
Once the second bin is entirely filled, you should relocate the heap to the third one for the further process of decomposing. When you notice that your pile is changing and shredding, the time for action has come.
Decreasing the value of the material is the decisive parameter when your heap is ready for the final phase. Keep in mind that you should move the content of the first bin to the second, empty one at the same time. At that moment, you have the second and third section full, and free space in the first one for the new stuff. While adding fresh ingredients to the first bin, you need to monitor the old material placed in the other two simultaneously.
After noticing that the bin number one is almost full for the third time, material from the third one is probably fully composted, and you can start using it.
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