Composting at home; a Frugal Urban Homesteaders Guide

In previous posts we talked about how food waste in a problem in the US as well as the benefits of home composting.

This post outlines different types of home composting and how we have built our system.

Types of composting

There are several methods of composting, including:

• Pile Composting: This method involves creating a large pile of organic materials and turning it regularly to aerate the pile. This style is often done by homeowners that have yards measured in acres further outside of towns.
• Bin / Container Composting: This method is similar to pile composting, but making or using bins to contain the compost. This can be done by homeowners with smaller lots and typical suburban fence in back yards.
• Tumbler Composting: A compost tumbler is a rotating container that allows for easy mixing and aeration of compost materials. This is another style often done by homeowners with typical suburban backyards.
• Worm Composting (Vermicomposting): Worm composting involves using worms to break down organic waste into nutrient-rich worm castings. This can be done at a smaller scale with some very committed people even doing this in their appartments.

For our setup we chose bins. Living in town and doing this in our backyard immediately ruled out having an open pile which would be unsightly and too easily make a mess.

We already had one compost bin which has internal baffles that as the material breaks down it was supposed to fall down, but it’s far from automatic. So we figured if we’re going to have to manually process anyhow some big containers would be sufficient. We found these Outsunny bins at Home Depot for about $50, and bought 2 of them.

We installed some large pavers in the landscaping rocks under our deck to create a flat surface to install these bins.

We have established a process where we add all of our new inputs to one bin until it gets very full and is mostly past the hot stages. Once full we will stop adding more to that bin and move to the second bin for new additions. Meanwhile the first bin, although no longer running hot, has largely done the bulk of breakdown 60% or more, now enters the warm, or steady, stage of composting. It’s mostly brown, a lot of the inputs are no longer recognizable, but some like wood chips still are, and we still need time to continue mixing in the edges and letting it finish. This can take several more weeks or even a couple of months depending on temperature and attention. It’s still recommended to monitor water content and turning/mixing/aeration during this stage to eventually end up with an even throughout compost product to add to your garden.

While the first bin is finishing, we have now moved to the second bin. For us this second bin often starts with a round of wood chips from chicken coop clean out which we do monthly. This kicks off the new batch with a healthy dose of dry browns. Typically we will add water and some coffee grounds right away to this to kick off the start of the second bin.

We currently are only using the baffled (round shaped) bin as an overflow. The baffling system seems like a neat idea, but it is ultimately harder to work with than the rectangular open top bins on the right.

Below is a picture of our current setup.

Tips for Successful Composting:

• Maintain a balance of green and brown materials: Green materials, provide nitrogen, while brown materials, provide carbon. Ideally this ratio is about 3-4 parts of browns to 1 part green.

• Keep your compost moist but not soggy: Water your compost pile regularly, but avoid over-watering. If over-watered the pile can turn in to a bit of a slimy mess. If that happens add more browns and turn. The correct moister content is often described as a wrung out sponge, but I’ve found that just a little bit higher water content really seems to help it progress.
• Turn your compost pile regularly: Turning the pile helps to aerate and mix the compost and speed up the decomposition process. Also, during decomposition the microbial activity will spike generating a lot of heat, it’s nice to mix this up and pull in some of the additional material in the high activity zone or the ‘hot spot’ to keep the whole pile processing as quickly as possible.
• Protect your compost pile from pests: Cover your compost pile with a tarp or other protective material to keep out pests like rodents and raccoons. Another benefit of using bins like we did, they came with lids. The lids will keep any loose browns from blowing away with the wind while also offering a way to make sure the chickens stay out of it.

By composting your organic waste, you can make a positive impact on the environment and improve the health of your garden. So, start composting today and enjoy the many benefits of this sustainable practice.

What we put in our composter

With the frugal urban homesteader mentality we’ve tried to challenge everything that we put in the trash can by asking. This includes questioning everything we put in the trash can and exploring to see how we can either eliminate it, minimize it, or move it to a different outlet like recycling or composting.

• Fruit and vegetable scraps
  • This was one of the first, and most obvious things to remove from the trash can.
  • Our first step is to offer these scraps to the chickens. When they’re either done, or don’t want that particular item we will add it to the composter.
• Paper and cardboard
  • Another big space consumer in our trash can is paper and cardboard. Although not food waste, these paper products make great “browns” for our compost and another item that would be disappointing to take up landfill space. We purchased a paper shredder from here to help us break this down for addition to the composter.

• Prepared food scraps, meat, dairy, and bones
  • Things like meat, dairy, and bones are often advised to be left out of compost piles, but these are also organic food waste that we would like to keep out of the landfill.
  • In our case we have found a counter-top device generally marketed as a composter that drys and grinds these items allowing us to add them to our compost without the typical concerns of attracting pests.
  • I’ve shared more about this topic in another post.

Conclusion

In conclusion composting at home can be done in a relatively easy and inexpensive way. Doing this allows us to keep food waste and paper waste out of the landfill reducing our total overall climate impact and offering benefits to our gardening and self-sufficiency goals.