DIY Composter CHEAP & SUPER EASY

Life's been crazy. I've begun four gardens in two states and four locations only to have to leave them because sh!t happens.  Maybe I'll elaborate some other time.  

For now I wanna share this composter I made - it's still not finished, and I didn't even clean it up for a nice thumbnail pic, but that's just me trying to get out of procrastination mode.  Besides, I think you'll get the idea.

You can view the youtube vid here.

There are few things better for gardens than homemade compost using your own food and garden scraps.

To make compost you need four things:

1. Nitrogen (e.g., food scraps and green clippings or grass cuttings from your garden), 
2. Carbon (e.g., dry leaves, wood chips, paper, cardboard), 
3. Water, and 
4. Air.

To keep bugs and critters away avoid dairy, bones, meats, and oils. 

The typical compost consists of food scraps like fruits and veggies, clean egg shells (just nuke them for a minute), and coffee grounds - including the filters.  I also add used paper towels that don't contain oils, dairy, or meats.  Sometimes, if I'm feeling motivated, I'll cut up and toss into the pile of food scraps the empty rolls of paper towels and toilet paper, and cardboard eggshell cartons.

As for my DIY composter, I found a source who sells these 55 gallon food-grade plastic barrels for $5 each.  So I'm loading up!!

I plan to cut two one-foot square chunks of plastic from the middle of the barrel and secure wire mesh over the openings using bolts. That should aerate the compost better without allowing bugs to enter.  Or hell, I might just drill a bunch of holes into it and be done.

In the vid I mentioned "free woodchips."  I'll address that in another post.  But if you have access to smaller carbon-type material, it will compost faster than wood chips. 

Dry hay comes to mind but unless you can get the compost really hot, the finished compost might contain weed seeds so when you put your finished compost into your garden you might end up sprouting weeds where you don't want them.  Hell, I recently got some pumpkins sprouting using a different composting method where I tossed a rotted jack-o'-lantern into a compost pile then spread it around.  But that's another story, I need to stay on track here.

Paper is another good source of carbon and if you can shred it first, the compost will finish faster.  Be sure to avoid plastic and glossy papers as they may not compost and may contain toxins.

Perhaps the best source of carbon is dry leaves which are typically plentiful in the fall.  I've heard if you put leaves out on your lawn, run your mower over them to shred them, and rake them up, it will help the compost be ready sooner.

Another method I plan to try out is putting dry leaves in a similar 55 gallon plastic barrel and use my weed eater to help shred them. 

The smaller the carbon source bits are, the faster the compost is finished.  Therefore, I bet a really great source of carbon would be sawdust.

If your compost starts to smell funky, add more carbon and shake it up so you don't get pockets of "stank."

Keep it watered just enough so that only one or two drops comes out when you grab a handful and squeeze it hard.  Be mindful of rain.  It might just rain enough to water your compost naturally but if it rains too much you might have some icky-looking "juice" run out of the barrel.  Whether you add your own water or wait for rain, be sure to shake it up so the water gets distributed.

There's a ton of composting info online and I encourage you to educate yourself using your favorite learning method - youtube/reading for visual learners like me, or podcasts for audio learners or people who get stuck in traffic.  Hopefully this short tutorial will inspire to compost and grow some plants.

Please share your own experiences with composting, suggestions for how to make my DIY more efficient, and offer links so we can all continue to learn.

Thanks for viewing.

TigerLily