Composting

Hubby and I are buying 5.5 acres of land, mostly wooded, and I would like to start composting. I was thinking of getting one of those barrels that you can crank to turn. Something Like this.
I’m not very agile and I’m not sure I can turn over the compost in a container sitting on the ground.
How do I start composting? Do I need some sort of enzyme starter? Do I need worms in the compost? I plan on having only a small garden and some flowering plants around the house. My knees don’t work so well anymore.

I built one for a lady out of 55 gallon drum.
I like doing a heap in the yard or wood line.
You can take a wire fence for cattle or hogs & make a circle, like a tomato cage, but larger diameter for leaves & forget it.
As the leaves compost down add more leaves, & so on, after a year or two start another cage for leaves & harvest the first one.

For the OP question: yes, there are starter cultures you can buy. It should start on its own if you have a good mix of green/brown, add some garden soil that has some worms in it will help.



I have used three different methods.



My first life, in NE PA, I nailed three wooden pallets in a U shape, put it off to the side of the yard. Yard waste, kitchen scraps.. Everything went into it. Yeah, raccoons would visit and paw through it at times. I would just shovel what they spilled out back into it.

Convenience – Excellent. Just take whatever you had a dump it on the pile.

Success for useful product – None. I think I just never generated enough to make it work. I was single so minimal kitchen scraps and really did not rake or bag grass clippings or leaves, so very little actually went in. It really broke down to nothing. Lol!



In Nawth Kackalacky I had a 50 x 100’ garden. I dug a trench where I would plant a row of something the next year: a shovel wide and maybe a shovel deep. Over the course of a year I would just dump stuff into it and push some dirt on top as I went. Not filling it with stuff, but… kind of spread out as I went. I guess it was always a few inches deep after green stuff wilted and coffee grounds, apple cores and all. It might be a pile that filled it, but it would settle down to a couple inches kind of thing.



Convenience – Excellent. There was always a place to just dump and run. You could come back later to fill if you were in a hurry or just did not feel like it.

Success – Great as far as I could tell. By planting time all except the newer parts were all but discernible from black soil. Within one year, you might see some pieces of orange peel, or chicken bones or something like that. I would move it to the next row as that one filled and just not plant there that year.


I am suburbia now and we have one of the rotating barrels. Just put kitchen scraps in it and give it a turn or two after I dump in.

Convenience – Excellent – at first. Open, dump and run. Later… It needs to be dickered with to work. It can dry out, so needs to be watered. It can get too wet so needs something to help dry it a bit. Over the winter here in Delaware, nothing composts down, it just freezes. You need to get a good mix of colors too, greens/browns, to make it work effectively. It can get smelly if it is not working fast enough, stuff rots more than composts. It takes some looking at to see what it needs, usually green, water and some worms. Give it a turn or two and a few days later it is working again.

Success – Excellent, but a PITA! Just make sure you get one to where a wheelbarrow will fit under it so you can slide a wheel barrow under it, open the hatch, turn the barrel and let stuff fall out into the wheel barrow. The one we have is too low AND narrow to fit a standard Jackson M5!! Bastages. You can’t really be accurate enough to put a 5-gallon pail under it to fill. I have a large piece of black plastic. Spread it out, dump (yeah, you need to get a shovel in there to help unload it too). The end product is very nice if you paid attention.

I bought a composter that rolls. Half full, too heavy. Would like to put rod with baffles in it and a handle. Only scraps are coffee, filters or tea bags. Water, mix sand, maybe fertilizers, forget it, dump out somewhere as no good, borrowed one that is attached to a stand and flips end over end. Same issue. Best was a syrup tub by my back door. Stir occasionally. Worms came up through drain holes. Perfect. This winter I dug a hole in garden and buried. Will stick with that

I have a bin thats a royal PITA, so now I have a pile, sometimes i run the tiller through it.

I got one at TSC with a base and roll barrel with 2 compartments. But it sits so low there is no good way to dump it. I'm thinking about building a stand to put it in that would still let it rotate, but that is open below enough to roll in a wheelbarrow.

I think Woody's idea of of doing a trench is likely the best way. Only have to deal with it once and your garunteed success

When I first tried composting, I did something similar to Woody's first one, U shaped, but with three sections. I was too busy, had too many distractions, and was never really good at maintaining it. I took a composting class. I tried having greens, browns, a certain amount of moisture and turning it periodically. Operator error.

I would rake up leaves and put them in a pile in a corner. The pile would be good sized and would break down.

I also rake up leaves, pile them on the garden, and turn them in. I have had great success doing this. If I get it done in the fall, by spring, the leaves are almost all part of the soil.

I had a a plastic bin that was stationary, with a lid. It was hard to work with. Whenever I would just tip the whole bin over, there would be stuff on the bottom that never composted down. I actually had two of these and during 2019 I got rid of them. Now I am back to adding leaves right into the garden.

I know two different people who dig a hole in their garden and add their kitchen scraps, then cover it back up. I knew someone who drove around, took bags of leaves that people left on the curb, put them on his garden and worked them into his soil.

It all takes a little focus, maintenance, and a little moisture, but not too much.

Seems most replies have had issues with the rotating composting bins. Has anyone had success and could share some tips to keep them rolling happily, easily?

I would agree also that right into the garden soil is the best, easiest solution. In my current situation: suburban bedroom neighborhood, it is not a viable one for spring through late summer. All available planting areas are taken up with plants! I squeeeeee in whatever I can to get the most out of small areas. There really is no area I can plan for nothing but to compost in. I am kind of stuck with the bin thing.

Rotating my bin isn't the problem. Getting the compost out is my hang up

I'm more of a lazy composter. I don't turn it. There are several composting methods out there so just need to find one that works for you. But there's no need to buy anything.

One way of composting is to do it 'in place', just dig a hole and fill it with leaves, paper, cardboard (browns), grass clippings, kitchen and/or garden waste (greens) and cover it up. Nature does the rest and that spot will be ready to plant in a few months.

Also, if doing a permaculture type garden, just pull or cut your weeds and drop them in/on the bed, spread leaves, grass clippings, wastes, etc over the beds as a mulch......again, nature does the rest.....although depending on what kinds of 'wastes' as in kitchen waste you put down it can attract mice/rats/or other scavengers.

Currently I have tied some pallets together to create a 4 sided bin and dumping everything in there in layers,, then covered with a tarp over the top to keep it warmer and drier. (too much rain/moisture stops the breakdown process). I had mowed the yard 3 days ago and dumped all the clippings in there, over the top of a bunch of leaves & kitchen scraps and yesterday when I went to add more scraps and some wood ashes, there was noticeable heat coming from the pile of clippings that should help it break down faster.

At the end of the garden season, I'll set up a new composting spot and start over again......leaving the first pile to age thru the winter, or I'll try spreading it as mulch to overwinter the beds.

Also, if you get chickens and have a run for them you can toss all the scraps & whatnot in the run and the chickens will keep it turned for you

Went out to the farm to get Compost out of an old compost pile for my sons garden bed.
We only got two 55 gallon drums full, he has a small bed for tomatoes, peppers, greens & herbs.
The stuff looked like peat, coffee chaff compost about twelve old.

At my old farm place, I tried keeping a compost "pile"
At my old lake place, I refurbished and tried to use a compost generator someone made from a plastic 55 gallon barrel... Both were unsuccessful as I could not keep the bears out of it.... Buggers...

Now at this farm place we feed all that would go into compost to the chickens.. We buy compost "dirt cheap" yuk, yuk, at the local land fill.. This for the garden raised beds and such..

We still have bears here, but at least they don't make the mess out of that as they did at the other places..