I have a small garden and want a smallish set up to process our garden waste (grass/hedge clippings) with minimal effort, is this possible?
I already have a worm bin for food scraps and bokashi things that can't go in the worm bin, but the capacity is too small for garden waste. I'm hoping to just chuck stuff in there a few times a year, mixed 50:50 with browns and a bit of water, and leave it to work it's magic.
I know you're supposed to turning it to speed the process and stop it going anaerobic, but is it essential? Can I just add in the top and take from the bottom? I don't need quick results, if it takes the whole year that's ok, I just don't want to deal with a smell/mess if it never composts. Could this work or am I wasting my time? Any tips much appreciated!
by plantlifeleeds
11 Comments
We’ve got one. Have been adding kitchen waste and cardboard for 1.5 years. Bottom 1/4 is now perfect compost. Bin is nearly full. No turning required.
Let it cook.
In my experience these work just fine.
However I don’t know how well this whole put in at the top and take from the bottom approach actually works since you can’t magically make the upper layers float when your take fom the lower door… my guess would be your newer scarps start falling towards the door.
I got some of these gifted over the years (usually filled) and resold them … the results when I disassambled them were always pretty solid so I’d say they work.
One thing to note is you might have to water them from time to time if you keep the lid closed… especially during summer they can become pretty dry and that slows down the process.
Yeah I think it can work I have a similar setup among others.
I think one problem could be if you mow the lawn you will have a bunch of grass clippings at once and if you dump that in as one layer it can cap off the whole bin and make it go anaerobic. So that’s something to watch out for.
Also if you put in hedge clippings be mindful of the thickness of the branches. If there are too thick branches those won’t compost and you will have mostly finished compost with big sticks in it.
I put bigger branches through a small wood chipper and mostly use that as mulch directly on the soil under my bushes.
If you don’t have thicker branches the clippings should be fine and good to mix with the grass or mix with some cardboard or shredded paper to aerate the pile.
I think you’re on the right path. No turning necessary as long as you add browns as you go.
Once you fill it all the way up (maybe once a season), you can pull the whole thing off, set the bin down in a new spot, then refill it with the top 2/3rds of of material, leaving the black gold on the bottom to use as you please in the garden.
Works great, takes a lot longer generally. Don’t forget to water it. I’ve gotten rid of an entire 30lb turkey carcass in about a year in mine. I usually shovel out the bottom couple of gallons every year now that it’s been accumulating for 5+ year. The first year it seemed to take forever to break everything down until I added some stuff like spoiled milk (lactobacillus) and some fresh compost from another pile.
I had ants invade one summer when I forgot to water it for a few months. Not great to manage but it could have been worse.
It will most likely work as is (even if you don’t mind the brown ratio), but what I used to do that was absolutely solid and an insurance that things wouldn’t go wrong, is use a container without a bottom. That way the earthworms would rise to eat and turn the material.
Whenever I took compost from the bottom it was always a DARK, perfectly smelling, full of worms, magnificent friable compost. Just ready to spread wherever, and the worms would just bury themselves.
Heck I started doing that when somehow, worms got into the bin anyways and it was always teeming with them, so I said what the hell let them migrate.
Would absolutely recommend.
I have a Black Soldierfly n farm in two similar to that in my bins.
I put everything into the bins. I put cardboard, meat, coffee grounds from Starbucks, any food scraps neighbors will give me, grass clippings, you name it.
I have been using this for 5 years, and both are about half full.
I’m going to combine the two, move the empty bin to a new area, and then work on finishing everything in the full barrel.
It goes slower without turning. Possibly years depending on what you mean by garden waste. But thats the only downside
If you want minimal effort maybe you can just use the grass and hedge clippings a mulch. Or dig a hole and drop them in.
What’s stopping you from getting a pitchfork and just mixing it once every few weeks?
I have the same set up. The only thing I recommend is putting down some chicken mesh so that nothing tries to burrow underneath.
You can freely feed bokashi to hot compost to boost it, and hot compost outcome to worm box if not hot.