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Step 6Fill 'er up
there are other places where you can get composting lessons, so we will keep this brief.
it's good to have a bed of leaves to start with, for both the matured compost and the fresh pile you are about to start. luckily for us, it's fall in new england, so there's no shortage. chuck in any worms you can find too - they always help break down the vegetable matter.
we added our old mature compost to one side and covered with leaves (will help to insulate over the winter, though this isn't essential) and fresh kitchen waste to the other.
the compost on the left will be ready for use next spring when we start planting the garden. once we've emptied that, we then start filling it with fresh waste while the other side matures for a year. and so on, and so on.
update 10/11/08: added a pic to show how it looks now. it has weathered pretty well, and has stood up to having been moved once. should be a good few years left in her yet.
update 04/19/09: added a pic of the first fully developed 1-2 year old compost: really nice and loamy, clean and smell-free. despite this picture being taken only two weeks after the last of the snow had melted, the compost was very dry and crumbly, not a soggy wet mess. we used the blue tray to screen out the larger pieces (mostly twigs, walnut shells, peach pits and the like).
it's good to have a bed of leaves to start with, for both the matured compost and the fresh pile you are about to start. luckily for us, it's fall in new england, so there's no shortage. chuck in any worms you can find too - they always help break down the vegetable matter.
we added our old mature compost to one side and covered with leaves (will help to insulate over the winter, though this isn't essential) and fresh kitchen waste to the other.
the compost on the left will be ready for use next spring when we start planting the garden. once we've emptied that, we then start filling it with fresh waste while the other side matures for a year. and so on, and so on.
update 10/11/08: added a pic to show how it looks now. it has weathered pretty well, and has stood up to having been moved once. should be a good few years left in her yet.
update 04/19/09: added a pic of the first fully developed 1-2 year old compost: really nice and loamy, clean and smell-free. despite this picture being taken only two weeks after the last of the snow had melted, the compost was very dry and crumbly, not a soggy wet mess. we used the blue tray to screen out the larger pieces (mostly twigs, walnut shells, peach pits and the like).
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