Do you throw away old fruit and vegetable scraps, egg shells, tea bags and coffee grounds? Our semi-vegetarian household goes through lots of fruit and vegetables and being from England I drink lots of tea! Our trash bags no longer contain anything that can be recycled, we make sure all our recyclables go into our recycle bin, but our trash bags are often full of orange peels, banana skins, bell pepper cores and other scrap fruit and vegetables. We also have a monthly clean out of our refrigerator and often throw away half a lettuce, half a cucumber etc, that have gone bad.

With all of our waste fruit and veg we decided to start composting. A Home Compost bin is easier to setup than you might think and we found a cheap solution at our local hardware store. The “GardenView” Super Composter is approximately $50 and is available in the garden center section of most large hardware stores. The Super Composter holds 115 Gallons of compostable waste and stands about 3ft tall. The product is made from 90% recycled plastic and features a snap shut lid to keep unwanted pests out.

I am usually pretty good at assembling DIY products so I tackled the “Super Composter” by myself, these are the assembly steps;

Step 1/ Two of the upright sections are fitted together, this was the trickiest part of the assembly and would probably be alot easier with two people.

Step 2/ A third side is added and the compost bin is starting to take shape!

Step 3/ The final and fourth side of the compost bin is attached and the compost bin is already feeling sturdy.

Step 4/ Four orange clips are fitted to the corners for strength and the catch for the lid is fitted.

The final stage was to fit the wind and critter proof lid! The entire assembly took less than 15 minutes and I was extremely pleased with the quality of the final product.

I had read that compost must be kept moisturized but not wet through so I had to choose the location for the compost bin carefully to avoid direct contact with water from our sprinklers. I settled on a position at the side of our driveway which would be easy to access and away from sprinklers. The guidelines on the packaging recommend placing the composter in full sun to speed up the composting process but the Texas summer should provide enough heat, even in the shade.

July 2009 will be my first month actively composting our household and yard waste. I will be filling the compost bin with fruit and vegetable waste as well as dry grass clippings, weeds and soft stem plants. I will also be donating my beloved tea bags and coffee grounds to the compost heap! Watch this space, hopefully we will be able to report some beautiful home made compost soon.

Martin Composting diy compost bin, home compost, home composting, super composter