Compost Making

One of my favorite methods for compost making is through the use of the Compost Tumbler (opens new window) due to the large amount of material produced in a short amount of time! It is also one of the easier ways to compost due to the design of the device, which allows you to turn, or "aerate", the compost by using a simple lever which spins the entire bin. I own the largest bin available, and if I had more time, I would probably own two of them.

When I cut the grass, I add the grass clippings that I have available, a bucket or two of kitchen scraps (I keep a gallon ice cream bucket in my kitchen for regular deposits of scraps) and some dry material such as dry grass clippings, dead leaves, pine needles, etc. It is ideal to turn the Compost Tumbler at least 5 times once every day, and at the end of 2 weeks, you have useable compost.

I often find that I have more grass clippings than what my Compost Tumbler can accept. In this case, I pile the grass clippings around the tumbler, and allow them to decompose slowly on their own.

Also, because you are not supposed to interupt the compost making process during the 2 week period, I often have a bucket of kitchen scraps ready to be dumped during this time. I throw them on the pile, along with the extra grass clippings, and allow them to decompose naturally. Surprisingly, I have not had the trouble with animals, smells or insects that you might expect from following this process.

One year, I added several potatos to my kitchen scraps bucket, and dumped them in the pile next to the Compost Tumbler. Before I knew it, I had tons of potato plants sprouting around the compost pile, which actually produced about 10-15 potatos that year. You can imagine how quickly and effortlessly they grew with all of those nutrients to feed them!

Currently, I have 2 new lilac bushes planted nearby, and they are growing very well in this enriched soil.

Something that frustrated me was that I didn't have a way to keep my kitchen scraps throughout the winter. I had become accustomed to not adding those items to the garbage, and didn't want to go back to my old habits. My parents were able to find about 10 5-gallon containers with covers, that were being thrown out by a local restaurant.

I decided to start adding my kitchen scraps to those containers throughout the winter, and bury them in the soil in spring. Surprisingly, this worked out quite well!

It took me a little while after dumping them in the yard to bury them....I don't recommend this as I "funkified" the neighborhood just a bit with those moldy scraps...but once I buried them, they went to work enriching the soil, and providing nutrients, nutrients, nutrients to all my plants!

I have been able to utilize all of these methods because they are easy and require very little maintenance.

Browse through this website to learn more about different methods of compost making to find one that works best for you.

Happy composting! :)