Compact Compost Bins for Small Gardens

Compost

• Compost must include "green" items and "brown" items, both vegetative. Greens include fruit peelings and vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, filters and tea bags, and trimmings from yard work (as long as you don't use pesticides). Some gardeners add animal products like egg shells and cheese rinds; others worry about attracting rodents. Brown matter is dry vegetable matter such as autumn leaves, pine needles, homemade sawdust and paper products like newspaper. Making compost is a matter of layering: a big layer of brown material, a thin layer of manure and a big layer of green material; add water. You must mix occasionally with a garden fork, but otherwise, let time do its work.

Uses

• After six months or so, a significant change occurs. You look in the bin and no longer see carrot chunks or apple cores; instead, the contents is dark, dry and flaky with a rich, earthy smell. Once you start using compost, you never have enough of it. Layer your compost over your vegetable garden and work it into the soil to add fiber and lightness; you can apply a 3-inch layer of compost around shrubs and trees as mulch, to hold moisture into the soil, regulate its temperature and keep down weeds. Compost is the ultimate soil amendment, nudging any plot of earth closer to being well-drained and fertile.

Closed Bins

• Compost bins are available in all shapes and sizes in commerce, some plain, some with fancy labor-saving devices. The closed-bin type looks like a plastic barrel with no bottom. It has a lid on the top for putting in materials to be composted and a slot near the bottom for removing mature compost. These bins fit into tight spots and do the job, but both mixing and harvesting are challenging. The top opening is too small to allow for a good stir, and the slot to remove compost is very close to the ground.

Tumbling Bins

• Make mixing easy on yourself and get a tumbling compost bin. It looks like a rotating plastic garbage can on its side on a frame. You put the compost materials inside the can and tumble it every few days to mix. Mice and rats have a hard time getting into these composters and the compost changes form faster than with other types of containers: You can have finished compost in four to six weeks. The arrangement is slightly broader than a closed bin but still fits into many spaces. As with the closed bin, harvest isn't easy, and the amount of compost that fits in is very limited.

Piling

• With a piling system, you have to imagine the bin. Piling is perhaps the least esthetically attractive compost option but it is one of the most practical. All you require is ground space to pile the compost layers and a pitchfork for turning. The big advantage to piling is that you can "heat" the compost by adding twice the carbon (brown materials) as green materials. This "cooks" the compost much faster, producing a usable product in weeks instead of months. The disadvantage is its unsightly and sprawling nature. To use this system in smaller areas, create a tube of chicken wire the size of a garbage can or smaller, whatever fits your available space. Pound three or four stakes to hold the tube upright, and put your compost materials inside. With very small tubes. staking is not required. These bins are portable, and once compost is ready to use, you can simply pick up the tube of compost and carry it to your garden.