Hot and Cold Composting Guide

Image by normanack

Cold Compost

This is the easiest of all compost heaps, as it takes very little maintenance and almost anything green or plant like can be thrown on as you go. This is the main difference between the two. Hot compost begins with a good stock of kitchen and garden waste, whereas cold compost begins with a little which is then added to. Vegetable peelings, hedge trimmings, grass, even cardboard and paper can make up this pile, and all it will need is a little watering in dry weather in order for it to keep moist. Citrus is not a good idea as it can add too much acidity, yet teabags, eggshells and banana skins all add to the “flavor” to the compost, whilst a layer of cardboard retains moisture, and twigs aerate the mixture. Although relatively simple, this compost does have its drawbacks. As it is cold compost it can take up to a year to rot, however compost accelerators can be used depending on how organic you’d like it to be. Also, weeds thrive, so it has to be carefully waded through making sure no dandelion heads or thistles have wormed their way in!
Some gardeners like to plonk worms onto their compost, and profess that it speeds up the process. However, this decision is entirely up to you.

Hot Compost

Trickier to begin with, hot compost has all the advantages cold compost doesn’t. The heat generated will kill off any weed seedlings, and the rotting rate will be increased significantly. However, it is up to the individual to decide if this is worth the extra effort you must put in in order to create fabulous soil for your seedlings a and not just a pile of mush. In as little as six weeks you could reap your rotting rewards, and benefit from a superior product.
To start you will need at least a bin full of waste material you would like to rot. At the bottom of your new compost heap place sweet corn stems, twigs, branches, anything that will lift it a little and allow air to circulate. In layers add the material and then an activator such as manure, ammonia of sulphate (read the box) or an accelerator from a garden center. Make sure the heap is damp but not dripping, a fine rose on a watering can or the end of a hose will give the perfect balance of moisture. Within a week the heap will warm up and be hot to the touch, this is the time to bring the outside contents into the middle, which will begin the warming process again. Once the heap is cold all of the times, despite mixing, leave it to finish off and voila… Compost made easy!

This post was written by Martina Mercer who often writes on such things as plug plants and other garden related topics.

How to Build a Composter

Materials List:

For this project you will need the following…

• 5 Gallon Plastic Bucket with Lid
• 1 Can of Black Spray Paint
• Two Metal Stakes (pre-drilled)
• Candy (Optional)
• 2 x 2 inch bolts with washers and nuts

We bought all of the above at our local Home Depot and it cost less than $30, that included an optional candy bar to fuel our energy levels! Here is our receipt;

Composter Materials Receipt

Many of the materials could be found in your garage already so be sure to check whether you can re-use some existing materials found at home.

Construction:

Once you have the project materials the first step is to detach the metal handle from the bucket.

Remove the Handle From the Bucket

Now we can drill a selection of holes in the bucket to allow oxygen to reach our compostable mixture inside (this accelerates the composting process).

Drill Holes in the Bucket

Once you have a number of holes drilled the next stage is to attach the metal stakes to the bucket using bolts, washers and nuts.

Insert a bolt through the metal stake and into the hole in the bucket where the handle used to fit;

Attach the Bucket to the Posts

Attach Both Posts to Bucket

We bought our pre-drilled metal stakes in the fencing department of the hardware store and they made the project much easier but you could use some wooden stakes.

Now we can find a sunny spot in the garden and test the homemade composter by placing both stakes into the ground.

Test Fit the Composter in a Sunny Spot

To boost your composting power you will need to spray paint the bucket a dark color, we used black spray paint, this will allow the suns energy to heat up the composter much faster.

Paint the Composter Black

Note: We remove the composter from the ground and laid it on some old cardboard boxes to perform the spray painting process.

The Finished Homemade Composter

The final stage is to spray paint the lid for the bucket and attach it to the homemade composter;

The Finished Homemade Composter

The design allows you to easily add your compostable fruit and vegetable waste and the bolts allow the composter to be rotated everyday to get more air into the compostable mixture. The composting process will be accelerated by the aeration and the heat generated by leaving the compost bin out in a sunny spot.

We hope you enjoyed our “How to Build a Composter Guide” and we hope you try making your own version of this simple homemade composter. If you do build a composter we would love to hear from you, let us know your composting experiences.

Given our slow progress with the static Garden View composter we wanted to try our hand with a Tumbler Composter and I found this great looking Suncast tumbling composter;

Suncast Tumbler Composter Review

It cost around $90 from our local hardware store and would probably fit in the back of an SUV or truck, the box was rather large!

I quickly opened the box and tried to assess how complicated it would be to assemble.

The Tumbler Composter Opened

The first stage was relatively simple, I just had to collect all the shiny metal tubes and connect them together in the right order, hey presto, a frame was built!

The Tumbler Composter Frame Assembled

The next stage was a little trickier, the kit includes a torturous looking set of tubes which allow the tumbler to agitate the compostable materials whenever you spin the barrel. It was difficult to assemble with just two hands but I just about got it locked together;

The Instrument of Torture! Inside the Tumbler Composter

The two halves of the composting barrel joined together easily but the bolts which hold the two halves together were fairly difficult to tighten due to limited clearances.

I eventually got all twenty or so bolts tightened down and it was really taking shape.

The Difficult Bolts Which Hold the Two Halves Together

The Assembled Tumbler Barrel

All that remained was to fit the barrel onto the tumbler frame and ensure that the latch was fitted correctly. I was very impressed with how sturdy the whole assembly was once fitted together.

The Barrel Fitted into the Tumbler Frame

The project took me about 45 mins from start to finish and I had to use the following tools;

1. A cordless electric drill with cross head screw driver bit
2. A wrench for all the fiddly nuts and bolts!
3. A small cross head screw driver
4. A set of scissors / shears for all the packaging

The Project Tools Required

We setup our finished Suncast tumbler composter right next to our existing static composter and the pair made a great looking compost corner;

Our Composting Corner - New Tumbler Composter Next to the Existing Composter

Adding a few fresh scraps from last nights meal along with a liberal helping of dry grass clippings and our new composter was already off to a great start…

Compost in the Making

We love our new tumbler composter and will post some photos of the finished compost once it is ready, should take about 4 weeks if we remember to “tumble” every day!

Pride of Place Next to Our Current Composter

Take Our Composting Poll:

The Compost Wizard

This is the new Composter we bought for Bluemoon Farm. It is called Compost Wizard, a 12 cu. ft. tumbler composter.  It is made from 98% recycled materials and comes fully assembled. We put it out by the garden, in a sunny spot to ensure it stays hot, (between 95 degrees and 160 degrees)!

Compost bin outside the fenced garden area

I have started getting the composter composting (?) by adding 1/3 green – nitrogen rich composting material such as eggshells, parts of fruit and vegetables, grass cuttings etc to 2/3 Brown – carbon rich composting matter such as paper, cardboard, straw or hay, wood chips and dried leaves or grass.  After I put matter in, I turn the tumbler at least once a week and when ever I add new items.

Composting matter inside the tumbler

It takes any where from 4 to 6 weeks to break down the materials into something brown, moist, and soil like with an earthy smell, kind of like DIRT! When you add new ingredients, it takes 2 to 4 weeks for those to break down. So far, it has only been about 2 weeks and I have been adding things so I have not started my count down yet. I will let it set after I get it about 2/3 full and just turn it without adding more material. I let you know what happens!!

I wished there was a way to store compostable fruit and vegetables in the kitchen until I was ready to take all the scraps out to the main compost heap!

I was given this perfect solution by my Mother and Father in law for my birthday and it makes the routine of collecting compostable food waste so easy… It is a counter top kitchen compost bin with a built in odor filter and it works great.

Counter Top Compost Bin

My 3.5 Litre Kitchen Composter

The kitchen composter that i was given has a 3.5 liter capacity so I can cram it full off vegetable peel, fruit waste, coffee grounds, tea bags and egg shells! The picture on the packaging shows the bin full to the top but I will be taking my compostables out every couple of days to the main outdoor compost heap so I doubt it will ever get completely filled.

If I ever fill my kitchen composter then I know a visit to the outdoor compost heap is called for!

This counter top compost bin features a built in odor filter, basically a carbon filter, and it works very well indeed.

The bright red ceramic finish matched our kitchen colors perfectly, I suspect my mother and father in law had taken notes during their last visit to the house!

So it looks good, but does the built in odor filter work?

I have already partially filled my new countertop composter with orange peels, several tea bags (I drink a cup of tea each day!), a few pots worth of coffee grounds, five egg shells and some waste bell pepper cores. Needless to say, this mixture of kitchen waste is pretty stinky but the odor filter cuts out all of the smell.

My Collection of Countertop Compost!

This wonderful little counter top composter has made my life easier and it encourages me to compost AS MUCH of my kitchen waste as possible… I now have an easy place to store waste fruit and vegetables when preparing meals, I have an easy place to throw used tea bags and coffee grounds.

This simple device just makes my life simpler and greener at the same time.

The kitchen composter has a convenient metal carry handle and this means visits outside to the large compost heap can include the kitchen composter in one hand and any other compostables in the other.

So, the all important question, where can you buy yourself one of these awesome counter top composters?
Buy on Amazon.com:


I hope you enjoyed reading about my new “green” kitchen addition, please let me know if you have any kitchen composting stories to share…

1. THE CONTAINER:
You can use wood and plastic containers, you can either build or buy them or recycle something like a old barrel, old dresser drawer, wooden crate, think creativly. A container made of wood seems to work the best because it is more absorbent and a better insulator for the worms.

A Guide To Size Of Container;
In Worms Eat My Garbage, Mary Appelhof suggests weighing your household food waste for one week (in pounds), and then provide one square foot of surface area per pound. The container depth should be between eight and twelve inches. Options to one large (and heavy) box are a number of smaller containers for easier lifting and moving and more choice of location. The book illustrates a variety of containers.
Depending on the size of the container, drill 8 to 12 holes (1/4 – l/2 inches) in the bottom for aeration and drainage. A plastic bin may need more drainage – if contents get too wet, drill more holes. Raise the bin on bricks or wooden blocks, and place a tray underneath to capture excess liquid which can be used as liquid plant fertilizer.
The bin needs a cover to conserve moisture and provide darkness for the worms. If the bin is indoors, a sheet of dark plastic or burlap sacking placed loosely on top of the bedding is sufficient as a cover. For outdoor bins, a solid lid is preferable, to keep out unwanted scavengers and rain. Like us, worms need air to live, so be sure to have your bin sufficiently ventilated.

A Suitable Worm Farm Container

2. CHOOSING THE BEDDING
It is necessary to provide a damp bedding for the worms to live in, and to bury food waste in.
Suitable bedding materials are shredded newspaper and cardboard, shredded fall leaves, chopped up straw and other dead plants, seaweed, sawdust, compost and aged manure. Try to vary the bedding in the bin as much as possible, to provide more nutrients for the worms, and to create a richer compost. Add a couple of handfuls of sand or soil to provide necessary grit for the worm’s digestion of food.

Adding the Worm Composter Bedding

It is very important to moisten the dry bedding materials before putting them in the bin, so that the overall moisture level is like a wrung-out sponge. The bin should be about three-quarters full of moistened bedding. Lift the bedding gently to create air spaces which help to control odours, and give freer movement to the worms.
3. THE WORMS
The two types of earthworm best suited to worm composting are the redworms: Eisenia foetida (commonly known as red wiggler, brandling, or manure worm) and Lumbricus rubellus They are often found in aged manure and compost heaps. Please do not use dew-worms (large size worms found in soil and compost) as they are not likely to survive.
How Many Worms Do I Need?
Mary Appelhof suggests that the correct ratio of worms to food waste should be: for one pound per day of food waste, use two pounds of worms (roughly 2000). If you are unable to get this many worms to start with, reduce the amount of food waste accordingly while the population steadily increases.

Worms Bought by the Bag

4. WHAT TO FEED THE WORMS?
You can compost food scraps such as fruit and vegetable peels, pulverized egg shells, tea bags and coffee grounds. It is advisable not to compost meats, dairy products, oily foods, and grains because of problems with smells, flies, and rodents. No glass. plastic or tin foil, please.
To avoid fly and smell problems, always bury the food waste by pulling aside some of the bedding, dumping the waste, and then cover it up with the bedding again. Bury successive loads in different locations in the bin.

The Worm Composter in Action!

Where Should I Locate My Worm Bin?
Worm bins can be used indoors all year round, and outdoors during the milder months. The advantage of mobile bins is that they can be moved when weather conditions change. Indoors, basements are excellent locations (warm, dark and dry), but any spare space can be utilized, so long as temperatures are between 40-80 degrees F. We know dedicated worm composters who have convenient kitchen counter worm bins. Outdoors, bins can be kept in sheds and garages, on patios and balconies, or in the yard. They should be kept out of hot sun and heavy rain. If temperatures drop below 40 degrees F., bins should either be moved indoors, or well insulated outdoors.
How Do I Maintain My Bin?
If you have the correct ratio of surface area to worms to food scraps, there is little to do, other than adding food, until about two and a half months have passed. By then, there should be little or no original bedding visible in the bin, and the contents will be brown and earthy looking worm castings. The contents will have substantially decreased in bulk too.
The Final Word
Taking worms out of their natural environment and placing them in containers creates a human responsibility. They are living creatures with their own unique needs, so it is important to create and maintain a healthy habitat for them to do their work. If you supply the right ingredients and care, your worms will thrive and make compost for you. Happy and successful composting!”

A great resource here in Texas is the Halls Wormery in Blackwells, TX, you can find lots of worm composting and vermiculture information on their site as well as lots of great redworms for sale!

http://www.hallswormery.com/

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.

One area that has annoyed me for a long time is that I could not find any compostable biodegradable plastic bags for all of our grass clippings and yard waste. All that changed on a recent visit to a local Ace Hardware store.

I found a brand called “Bag-To-Nature” that produce fully biodegradable and compostable leaf and yard waste bags. I picked up the box and started reading… These bags are awesome, they have all the strength of regular yard waste bags, they won’t leak and are unaffected by moisture. The bags are made from a blend of biopolymers which allow them to totally biodegrade without leaving any residues.

They can be filled with leaves and grass and dumped straight into a backyard composter, they are also compatible with fast action commercial composters.

Lets get technical! These bags have been tested and meet the EN 13432 Standard and ASTM D6400, that’s smart language for “Yes, they do biodegrade!”.

I’m not going to lie, these bags are expensive! I paid about $8 for a box of 10, but they significantly reduce my environmental impact and make me feel good about doing yard work!

P.S. I looked on the Ace Hardware website and they did not have the yard waste bags, but they do have kitchen waste bags;

Bag-To-Nature  Kitchen Waste Bags

We just finished mowing our back yard and filled two of these large Bag To Nature bags, they were strong enough to take some abuse and tied off easily.

image by Cezary Okupski

The reason may be that no large corporations are producing biodegradable plastic bags, we did manage to find small biodegradable dog waste bags, but we really wanted a solution for our kitchen and other household waste.
A quick internet search uncovered several smaller companies emerging as producers and retailers of the much sought after “biobags”. This is our round up of the most interesting out there;

1/ Lets Start by Defining “Bio-Degradable”

The terms biodegradation, biodegradable materials and compostability are very common but frequently misunderstood. Hopefully we can clear that up by defining the characteristics that a material must have in order to be defined as “biodegradable” or “compostable”. A recent European standard stated that a compostable material must have the following characteristics:

Biodegradability is determined by measuring how fast something degrades or metabolizes into carbon dioxide. To be classed as biodegradable 90% of a product must be essentially “gone” in less than 6 months.
Compostability involves seeing how quickly a product dissapears into compost. The test literally measures how much of the product you can still see in a pile of compost after 3 months! Other key tests involve actually using compost including the product to measure its effects on plant growth, essentially an ecotoxicity test. If you want to read more there is a great site maintained by the association of European Bioplastics;

http://www.european-bioplastics.org/

2/ Biodegradable Bags in the USA

BioBag is a US company that sells certified 100% biodegradable and 100% compostable bags made from a patented material, Mater-Bi. Their product is available in select natural food stores throughout the US and I will be trying to track one down locally.

When placed in a composting environment their BioBags will biodegrade in 10 – 45 days, leaving no harmful residue behind.

You can find out more information regarding BioBags at their site;

http://www.biogroupusa.com/

3/ Biodegradable Bags in the UK

Another company priding itself on creating biodegradable plastic alternatives is Biopac in the UK;

Their products are made from 100% waste potato starch and their new “Biopac Good Bag” rots down completely and safely turning into healthy compost in just 12 weeks if put on a compost heap. The Biopac bags can also be discarded within domestic food-waste trash. The bags ultimately turn into carbon dioxide, water, and non-toxic raw materials, and all that from a potato!

Another cool product is their cornstarch cups which are an equal quality alternative to plastic, and being smash proof, they are perfect for outdoor events! They produce cold cups which are available in different sizes with the option of both slot and dome lids.

You can find out more information regarding Biopac products at their site;

http://www.biopac.co.uk/cornstarchbagsnews/

So happy shopping and let us know if you find any local suppliers of biodegradable plastic alternatives, the future for landfills looks alot brighter!

If you want to read more about biodegradable plastics there is a great book available from Amazon.com all about green plastics;