Hello -we want to start making compost at the home of my parents in law. They started growing some plants in big pots last year (tomatoes and green leaf things) - they enjoyed this and did get some produce but were not overly productive because of poor soil and they really need a compost supply. They use cow dung mixed with the soil but in my experience things grow much better with compost as well. They dont have a lot of space do a messy compost heap is not a good option. We were wondering what is the best way to make a suitable compost bin - what material (wood or metal), how to make it, how much aeration it need etc. We do not have access to any ready made models that we could buy, neither do we have any place to buy compost worms. Thanks!
If your short of space I'd recommend a stacking type. they also make tumblers. https://www.instructables.com/id/compost-tumbler-1/ this is a easy DIY https://www.instructables.com/tag/?q=compost&sort=none is a list of DIY composters and https://www.instructables.com/id/Terracotta-home-composter/ is still my favorite
The basic principle of making compost is to try to get the organic matter into a space approximately 1m cube. This is optimal for achieving a hot compost. I have found a number of compost bins which are essentially a sheath of plastic that you place on the ground and fill. You could make a good compost bin with wood or metal. The sides don't need to be "breathable", but it needs to be open at the bottom to allow worms to come up, and open at the top to allow you to get in an mix it up weekly. Keep the compost covered with a hessian sack or similar breathable cover to stop it drying out. If I didn't have access to something ready-made, I would bang 4 heavy stakes in a metre cubed into the ground, leaving a good metre above the ground. I would then use old hardwood fence pailings and place 2 of these on the ground parrallel to one another, then another 2 on top of those two on the other side. Start to fill with organic matter to keep them in place, and continue all the way up to the top. If I could draw, I would draw it for you, but I hope you get what I mean. Paula.
How small is small? What inputs can they get their hands on? Grass, Leaves, Twigs, Food Scraps? Have you thought about a worm bin? The problem with small gardens is, compost bins don’t seem to get enough stuff to really turn the inputs into compost you end up with a cold compost system or they do so slow you are waiting a couple of years and then you have to sift out the old from the new (However this could be fixed with a stacking system). You also have the problem of not being able to position them in the optimum position due to needing the whole garden. Worm bins once they are going can turn a huge amount of organic matter into castings in short time. The location is not as important as with a small compost bin and will provide you with castings that are high in nutrients. Having a tiered system worm bin enables you to pull out only the bottom layer and then put it back on the top once you have used the castings. The worms will also provide a steady stream of worm juice which can increase the productivity of your garden.
I agree that a worm farm is worth looking at. For composting you are really going to need 3 bins. One to fill, one maturing and one to use. You can make 1 m x 1 m x 3 bays out of scrap wood and metal and leave the front open, or slide something down the front to close it to keep it pretty. There are also commercially available plastic bins that have 3 compartments stacked vertically - but they cost a bit and getting it delivered to you might be prohibitively expensive. Like this one.
what about an in-ground compost / worm farm.. basically a piece of large diameter poly pipe with holes drilled, burried vertically in the ground with a cap. I haven't made or used one but read about it somewhere.
thanks for all the replies. i have heard about worm farms, but as I said in the original post there is no where here to buy compost worms (I live in India). I dont know if I am correct but I understood that you have to get a special kind of worm, not just dig up any old earthworm??? However normally I find that there is a wealth of various types of decomposers on my compost heap / cowdung so could any of these be introduced? I dont think long break down time is a problem here beccause its the tropics - only time it takes long is in the hot dry season but watering the bin would take care of that...
