This week I finally got around to fixing up my compost bin. I saw this awesome looking 3 bin compost creation, probably on Pintrest, and just had to make it. I gathered all the materials and put this monstrosity together.
The idea is to place all your fresh compost material into the first bin, when that fills up you transfer it to the second bin, and then refill your first bin. Then in order to finish your compost you mix it by flipping it back and forth between bins two and three. After a few months you should have great compost.
Now here is where the problem comes in. I NEVER get the first one filled. This bin is so big that even though we save all of our kitchen waste and add some grass clippings and some used shavings after the baby chickens, this bin never really fills up. I finally have somewhat of a pile but if I throw it into the second bin there will only be few inches of compost that still needs to decompose leaving me with just a covering on the bottom of the bin which just gets mixed with the dirt that lines the bottom. I have nothing I can really scoop up to put on the garden.
To hopefully fix the situation I split the second bin in half, making a smaller area to work with and hopefully better compost. I lined the bottom of the bin with cardboard to help keep out any weeds (the barn cats couldn't resist getting in the way). The plan is to mix this smaller bin weekly or monthly to hopefully have good compost for spring. I am not always good and following through on my plans but hopefully I will have some compost to add to my garden next spring.
Composting is an easy way to add organic matter to your garden. There is no right or wrong way to do it, so gather those kitchen scraps and start improving your gardens soil composition!