Composting is a gardening technique you can’t help but love. For the pragmatist, it’s a cheap way to generate a useful soil amendment. And for the die-hard environmentalist, it’s a way to turn waste into fertilizer through natural processes. So what exactly will you need to try it out yourself?
There are lots of options when it comes to home composting supplies, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. Stationary backyard bins work well for those with large lawns and lots of yard waste to process, while rotating tumblers are more compact and easier to use. If you’re just looking to recycle small volumes of kitchen scraps, a worm composter might be your best option.
Successful composting is a matter of striking the right moisture levels, nutrient blend, and aeration. When those factors are in balance, the microorganisms that break down your kitchen and lawn waste can work at maximum efficiency. We’ll explain how to strike the right balance for your compost pile and suggest some tools that can make the process easier.
Choosing the Right Composting Technique
The first question to ask yourself is whether you care more about speed or convenience. There are basically three types of composting: hot, cold, and worm, and each of these has different levels of processing time and input needed.
Hot composting converts discrete batches of waste into finished compost in just a few weeks. “Hot” isn’t just a metaphor in this case – the process actually causes the center of the pile to reach 110-140 degrees Fahrenheit thanks to the action of heat-loving bacteria, destroying harmful pathogens and weed seeds in the process.
This method requires a fair amount of attention and effort on your part. You’ll have to gather all the raw materials for a single batch ahead of time, and once you start, you’ll have to mix up the pile periodically to keep it aerated. You’ll also need to monitor the temperature, moisture, and ingredient balance to ensure that your batch is breaking down correctly.
The benefits are speed and efficiency. Hot composting is quite fast, and it produces a better yield – fewer useful nutrients are lost in the form of escaping gases.
Cold composting is much easier but also much slower. It basically involves piling up a heap of compostable materials and letting them rot. You can keep adding waste to the pile as you go, and there’s no need to turn it or keep an eye on the temperature. The downside is that it can take a much as 2 years to get usable compost this way.
Vermicomposting uses worms to chew up food scraps rather than relying on microbes alone. A worm bin typically can’t handle the same amount of raw material as a backyard compost pile, but it’s low-odor (if used properly) and faster than cold composting. It’s great if your main goal is to dispose of kitchen scraps in an eco-friendly way.
Once you know which method is right for your home, you can start gathering your tools.
Bins for Backyard Composting
The most important piece of equipment in any composting setup is the bin you’re planning to use. Of course, you can make a compost pile with no equipment at all by simply piling waste on the ground, but most people find that somewhat unsightly. A bin can also make it easier to insulate your batch during the colder parts of the year, and the sturdier ones will help deter unwanted scavengers.
Here are a few options to get you started:
Greene’s Fence Cedar Wood Composter
This is an easy version of the classic wood-pallet DIY composting bin found on small farms everywhere. All you need to assemble is a rubber mallet to hammer the slats in place; they have tabs that slot into grooves on all four sides of the corner posts.
The modular design means you can easily add on a second or third bin if you want to create a multi-stage setup. Note that there’s no gate, and the slats can be tough to remove once they’re in place. So if you’re using it for hot composting, you might want to leave one side open so that you can reach in and turn the pile more easily.
It’s hard to beat this compost bin for price and ease of use. It’s basically a roll of durable, well-ventilated rubber that you can form into an upright cylinder. Then you dump your raw materials inside.
You can reach in through the top to turn your compost, or simply unwrap the Geobin, set it up again, and scoop the pile back into it. Some reviewers have found it helpful to stake the base down or prop tall sticks inside to help it maintain its shape.
The Demeter’s latching lid is excellent for cold composters who want to avoid making their heap a target for birds and rodents. This is a good choice if you’re worried about a compost pile ruining the aesthetic of your garden – from the outside, it looks like an ordinary storage bin.
We wouldn’t recommend this one for hot composting since there’s not an easy way to reach inside and mix up the pile. The hinged access panel in the base lets you scoop finished compost from the bottom of the heap even as you’re adding more up top.
Tumblers are a fantastic hack for those after an easier way to practice hot composting. Because they’re fully enclosed and fairly compact, tumblers can sit on a porch or in a small backyard without looking messy. Aerating the compost inside is as easy as giving the rotating compartment a spin.
The Vivosun model has two separate chambers so that you can have one batch going while you’re building up a pile in the second. Assembly can take a while, but once it’s put together, it’s solid. Note that it won’t seal in liquid or smells – hot composting requires aeration, so there are holes in the chamber. You may want some kind of drip tray beneath it if you’re keeping it on a balcony.
Raw Materials
Getting a good bin is helpful, but selecting your compostable ingredients is far more critical. To get the correct rate of decomposition, you need the right balance of Carbon (C) and Nitrogen (N).
When there’s too much carbon in the mix, the microbes will be slower to digest it. Too much nitrogen results in a mushy, slimy, smelly pile as the bacteria release the excess in the form of ammonia and sulfur.
Both elements are present in any kind of plant matter, but their proportions vary. Woody, dry, or dead material tends to be much higher in carbon, while fresh and fleshy stuff has a good amount of nitrogen. In composting, we call these “browns” and “greens,” respectively. A good compost pile should have a brown-to-green ratio between 2:1 and 3:1.
Green ingredients include:
- Fruit and vegetable scraps
- Manure (never from dogs, cats, pigs, or people – as they contain too many pathogens that could infect you)
- Seaweed
- Coffee grounds
- Grass clippings
- Fresh trimmings from plants
Brown ingredients include:
- Wood ash
- Peanut shells
- Corn husks
- Dried plant stalks from gardens (remove roots)
- Dead autumn leaves
- Bark
- Paper
- Cardboard
- Cotton
- Sawdust/wood chips (in very small quantities – these can take a long time to break down)
The ingredients above are listed from most carbon-heavy to most nitrogen-rich. Over time, you’ll get a feel for how much of each to add. In general, you should add greener ingredients if your compost is too cold and slow and browner ones if it’s too hot and smelly.
Ingredients to avoid include:
- Meat and bone (especially in cold composting)
- Dairy
- Oily or greasy sauces
- Glossy or receipt paper
- Treated wood
- Large, intact branches or boards
- Citrus (except in very small amounts)
- Diseased plants or weeds that have set seed (can be used in hot composting, but not cold)
It’s best to shred leaves, paper, and cardboard, or they may decompose too slowly. You can run over the leaves with a lawnmower and tear paper products up by hand (or feed them through a shredder if you’ve got one).
How to Make and Maintain a Hot Compost Pile
Now that you have your tools and your recipe, it’s time to cook some compost. The best time to get started is in the late summer or fall, when you should have plenty of yard waste to use as raw material. Winter is a tricky time to get a compost heap going; cold weather inhibits the microorganisms that make the magic happen.
Step 1: Pick a place in the yard to set up your pile. The best locations are sunny but sheltered from the wind. This is especially important later in the year when the weather is getting colder.
If you’re thinking of adding another garden bed to your yard, you might want to place your compost pile there. Some of the nutrients released in the decomposition process will trickle into the ground and prime it for you.
Step 3: Set your bin up and lay down a base of twigs and branches – this will help keep it aerated. Then add your ingredients. Many guides recommend stacking alternating layers of greens and browns, but mixing them all together works just as well as long as you get the ratios right.
Pile up a heap that’s roughly 4 feet wide by 4 feet tall. If it’s much larger or smaller than that, it’s hard to maintain the proper moisture and heat levels. Moisten the ingredients thoroughly as you’re stacking them up.
You may want to insulate the top and sides with brown, dry ingredients like straw, dead leaves, or cardboard. This helps retain heat and moisture and avoids leaving rotting vegetable scraps on top of the pile.
Step 3: Monitor, maintain, and feed your compost heap. The most important thing is to turn it over every 2-3 days, pulling it apart and restacking it so that the stuff in the middle gets moved to the outside. This helps keep it oxygenated and avoids it getting too hot.
You’ll also need to keep an eye on the temperature. After a few days, you should see it start to rise until it reaches the “sweet spot” of roughly 130 degrees Fahrenheit. If it gets to 150 degrees or higher, turn the pile over, adding some brown ingredients to cool it off. If it’s not heating up fast enough, mix in some green materials – the fresher, the better.
Check the moisture level whenever you turn the pile, grabbing a handful and squeezing. (We recommend using gloves!) It should feel damp and spongy, but not soggy or slimy. If it’s too dry, give it a light shower.
Step 4: Eventually, the temperature in your compost heap should peak and start to drop off. Continue turning it every 2-3 days as it cools. Once it’s all turned to dark, crumbly, sweet-smelling black compost, your job is done. Earthworms and insects will start making their way into the pile at this point, helping to break down the ingredients even further.
If you’ve really nailed the ingredient mix, moisture levels, and aeration, this whole process takes around 3 weeks, with the temperature peaking after around a week before slowly tapering off. Don’t worry if it takes you somewhat longer; composting is more art than science, and it can take a while to master.
Once your compost is finished, it’s best to let it sit for another month or so to “cure.” During this time, the microbial mix in the compost should level out to roughly the same balance as garden soil. Meanwhile, worms, beetles, and other critters will free up even more nutrients for your plants.
Hot Composting in a Tumbler
Composting in a rotating bin is obviously a bit different from using a backyard heap. Turning it is a lot easier, for one thing – though it still does require some back and bicep strength!
Tumblers also tend to take a bit longer because airflow is somewhat restricted. They can usually turn raw ingredients into finished compost. In around 4-6 weeks. Be careful not to put in too much nitrogen – shoot for 3 parts brown material to 1 part green.
Take extra care to chop or shred your materials before putting them in a compost tumbler. You won’t have worms and bugs helping to break down the bigger stuff. Leaves are especially tough.
The basic temperature and moisture requirements are the same for a tumbler and a pile, though it’s a bit easier for them to get out of whack in an enclosed chamber. Turn your tumbler every day, and give it an extra spin or three every time you add water or new ingredients.
Cold Composting
Making compost is much simpler when you don’t have to worry about sustaining heat and moisture at just the right levels. You’ll use the same basic balance of ingredients, and in this case, we do recommend layering browns and greens to cover up rotting food. You can build the pile slowly, adding a little at a time as you generate more waste.
It can be helpful to keep a bag of dead leaves, straw, cardboard, etc., next to your bin, piling more on top whenever you add more kitchen scraps.
Note that you can still turn and dampen the pile occasionally to speed the process along. Most people’s compost piles fall somewhere between the “hot” and “cold” techniques we’re outlining here. With a little extra aeration and temperature control, you may be able to get usable compost in 6-8 months, as opposed to the year or two you might need for a completely cold approach.
Vermicomposting Supplies
Using worms to process your food waste calls for a very different setup than a backyard compost pile. The most popular bins use multiple stacking trays that allow moisture to drain down and worms to migrate up, leaving behind finished batches of castings. Here are a couple of examples:
You can keep this cute little bin right in your kitchen, and your guests will never suspect it’s full of worms – until you start bragging about your awesome, convenient home composting setup, of course. Despite the name, the trays don’t actually contain tiny mazes for your worms to navigate.
Those looking for a beefier capacity from their worm bin will appreciate the depth of this 4-tray system (which can be expanded to as many as 8 trays with optional add-ons). The Worm Factory 360 also includes lots of helpful extras: worm bedding, instructional materials, hand tools for aerating the trays, and more.
Composting With Worms
Once you’ve got your worm bin, you’ll need to set it up and populate it. Line the bottom of your first tray with paper to keep the worms from slipping out of the holes in the base. Then add a layer of moist bedding made of fibrous organic material such as coconut coir, strips of newspaper, or shredded cardboard.
Then add in some worms and food. It’s a good idea to start by figuring out how much waste you produce on average; composting worms can eat about half their weight each day, so you’ll want to start with about two pounds of worms for every pound of kitchen scraps your household creates.
You can feed your worms most types of fruits and vegetables as long as they’re not oily, spicy, or too acidic (so leave out the citrus). Don’t give them any meat or dairy, and limit their intake of starchy stuff like bread, rice, or potatoes. Crushed eggshells are great, but actual egg products tend to stink up a worm bin.
As each tray starts to fill up with vermicompost, fill another one with bedding and food and stack it on top. The worms will soon creep up to where the food is, leaving the old tray behind. By the time you’ve got three or four trays stacked up, the bottom one should be free of worms, so you can remove it and harvest your compost.
Quick Starter Kits
We’ve covered a lot of ground so far, and if you’re new to composting, you may be a bit lost about where to get started. We’ve put together some quick equipment lists to help you dive into one of the techniques we’ve described above.
Hot Composting:
- Geobin Expandable Compost Bin. As described above. Affordable, perfectly sized for a hot compost pile, and easy to unwrap and move.
- Reotemp Backyard Composting Thermometer. If you don’t already have a deep-fryer thermometer or something similar, you can use this to track the temperature in your compost heap. It’s got a 16-inch probe that can reach into the middle of your pile, with markings on the dial indicating the ideal temperature range.
- Lotech Compost Crank Twist Aerator. Most people turn hot compost piles with an ordinary shovel or garden fork, but this augur-style device can make the process a little easier, especially with bins that open at the top (like the Geobin).
- Black Polyethylene Tarp. It’s often helpful to cover up hot compost piles with a tarp to hold in warmth and moisture. The black color will maximize heat absorption from the sun.
- Let It Rot!: The Gardener’s Guide to Composting. A tried-and-true instructional primer on composting.
Tumbler Composting:
- Vivosun Outdoor Tumbler. Described above. A reliable dual-chamber tumbler.
- Bamboozle Food Compost Bin. Grate for saving up kitchen scraps to put into your compost, with an odor-fighting carbon filter in the top. It’s dishwasher-safe and stylish enough to sit right on your countertop.
- Espoma Organic Traditions Compost Starter. The decomposition process can be slow to get going in a brand-new tumbler, and sometimes it’s helpful to kickstart it with some helpful bacteria. Finished compost works just as well, but if you don’t already have some on hand, you could use this instead.
Cold Composting:
- Demeter Metal Compost Bin. Described above. A good-looking alternative to an open heap of compost in your garden.
- Exaco ECO 2000-NP Kitchen Compost Pail. Holds even more scraps than the Bamboozle, so you can wait a bit longer between trips to the backyard.
Vermicomposting:
- Worm Factory 360. Described above. A large-capacity worm tower with lots of handy tools.
- Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm Red Wigglers. The most important part of a worm composting system: the worms. There are surprisingly few types of earthworms that work well for vermicomposting, but Red Wigglers are generally considered the gold standard in the U.S.
- Worms Eat My Garbage. Mary Appelhof’s classic guide to composting with worms.
Final Thoughts
All these instructions can make home composting seem like a complex, intimidating process. But most of the directions above are best practices rather than absolute requirements. As long as you get the right balance of green and brown ingredients, nature itself will do most of the work. And the more practice you get, the better you’ll be at turning piles of scraps into rich, crumbly compost.