How to Start Composting With a DIY Bin

I have been wanting to start a compost bin for years, but I wasn't sure if it was realistic since I have a shared backyard. I was under the impression that I needed a lot of space, and I was scared to try because I knew I would fail at some aspect of it. Finally, after reading the tips offered by successful gardeners on the internet, I decided to just go for it and figure it out along the way. I ended up creating a DIY bin for free, and it is one of the best decisions I have ever made!

What is Compost?

Compost is a mixture of food scraps and yard trimmings, among other things, that heat up in the sun and eventually turn into the perfect fertilizer for your garden or house plants. It may sound simple, but there's actually a science behind it since the chemical composition of the bin is vital to how quickly and safely the scraps break down.

When creating and learning to master the art of compost, it's important to note the most effective combination of gasses that will help your bin thrive.

Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Levels of Moisture/Dryness

The ideal carbon: nitrogen balance is 30:1. Food scraps from the kitchen are classified as a number 1 as they are 20 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen. Grass clippings have a nitrogen ratio of 15 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen. Dried leaves are 60:1 carbon: nitrogen. Paper products, including tissues, newspapers, or anything made out of wood pulp have a ratio of 100:1 carbon: nitrogen.

I know this may not make sense, but it's important to note so you can figure out what you will be putting in your compost, and how often you will be adding specific material to maintain balance. Another category includes sawdust, broken-up cardboard, and wood chips which is 300 parts carbon to 1 part nitrogen.

For example, if you add one handful of produce scraps to the pile, you can add one handful of dried leaves. If you add two handfuls of produce scraps, you can neutralize that with one handful of shredded newspapers, whereas three handfuls of produce scraps can be balanced out with one handful of sawdust.

So there is a science to it, but not to worry. The examples given above are simply to provide an outline for you to follow and has been extremely helpful for newbies to composting like me. But if you lack access to some of these items, not to worry. Your compost will eventually break down. These tips just help speed up the process. The main point is that you want to balance out nitrogen-rich materials with carbon-rich materials.

Can all Food Go in the Compost?

It's complicated. Experts do suggest that people avoid putting any meat scraps and dairy products into the bin. If meat products don't reach a high enough temperature, harmful bacteria might not be killed and further breed in your bin into a toxic composition.

With compost, you can throw fruits, vegetables, teabags (hold the staple), or even eggshells and coffee grinds. It doesn't matter if your food scraps are old, expired, or growing mold. They have already started the decomposition process.

As a vegan, my diet is comprised of a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and other compostable materials like tea-bags and fresh/dried herbs. My mom is plant-based, too and it didn't take us long to accumulate enough waste to start a decent-sized bin.

Tips for Quick Decomposition

1. Chop, chop, chop!

If possible, chop up your food items into small pieces. They will decompose faster this way. Before starting out, I thought it would be fine to throw an entire head of cauliflower in there. Eventually, it would have broken down. But since I work with a fairly small bin I wanted to help move the process along in any way that I can. So I chopped it up.

If you have a lawnmower, be sure to run over leaves or straw before putting them in. The purpose of this is to expedite the process and get you "black gold" faster and more efficiently.

2. Moist, not wet

Your scraps and leaves will eventually decompose no matter what you do, just as it does in nature. But if your compost is soaking wet, it will begin to smell rancid. Also, this will make it slimy - not the typical soil I'd imagine you want to use. If it's too wet, feel free to add grass clippings, shredded paper, straw, or leaves. Avoid adding branches as these don't break down easily, especially in a DIY bin. If it's too dried up, this can slow the breaking down of matter. You can solve this by spraying it with some water. Or you can simply add food scraps that are wet, like fruit, etc. Personally, my bin is never too dry. It is quite small and gets wet with frequent rainfall. If I'm home when it rains, I'll even put a cover over the top of my bin to avoid excess water.

With that, there are holes drilled into my bin all over, including the top and underneath of it. This is to allow for extra sun exposure and to give easier access to little critters I want in my bin - like earthworms and ants that help break it down. I also keep the bin on top of a brick frame to allow for proper and continual drainage. Otherwise, rainwater and excess water would sit at the bottom of the bin and make it stinky.

3. Mix it up

It's essential to keep your bin aerated by mixing it as frequently as possible. We try to mix ours at least once a day. This is mostly to get the mixture at the bottom to the top where the sun hits it the most. By mixing it, this will keep the decomposition aerobic which means it is exposed to air or oxygen. This will also help prevent any smells. Aeration also prevents methane from forming, which is a potent and dangerous greenhouse gas emission.

Store-Bought vs. DIY

Compost bins available for purchase can range anywhere from mid-twenties on the lower end to $300+ for the much larger, more efficient contraptions. But as you could imagine, it is unrealistic to keep a huge bin in a backyard like mine, so I opted to create my own.

How I made my own compost bin

With careful planning and a desire to be frugal, I decided to opt for an old storage bin I hadn't used in a few years. I drilled probably a few hundred holes in it on all sides. I started to layer my bin with a hefty dose of dried up leaves I found in my yard and then placed a layer of food scraps I had accumulated. I added dry grass and some soil, too. I left it out to cook in the sun and was sure to keep it aerated by tossing the mixture around at least once a day. When it became a bit smelly, I simply added more dry matter like leaves and grass clippings.

Within a day, it had accumulated its very own ecosystem inside of this plastic bin. There were lots of earthworms and millions of other small insects to help break down the scraps. It is crazy that there's literally no smell when kept aerated properly.

Fast forward to just a month later, and nature has given us the most beautiful, earth-smelling black gold we could ever ask for. We have even started to use it in our flowers, tomato and basil plant, and even our indoor plants like our aloe vera. They are all thriving, blooming, and looking better than they typically would since we are beginner gardeners.

Not only did we accumulate free soil in just one month, but it is also nutrient-rich, mostly organic (because of the food scraps we put in it,) and extremely sustainable. We needn't worry anymore about spending money on soil and lugging big bags to our garden of dirt that's laced with all kinds of funky stuff.

The only regret I have about composting is that we didn't do it earlier.

Some Problems We Encountered

Since we are dealing with a small bin, we accumulated lots of scraps far faster than they could break down. We ended up trashing some scraps because there was no room left in the bin. Overall, we still significantly reduced the amount of waste we had been producing previously.

Wetness. Even with all the holes we made, sometimes it would get so drenched from the rain that the mixture was slimy and stinky. To fix this problem we would empty the bin in three different sections to dry out on the grass. We did this while we spent time outside. That way, we could make sure there weren't any rodents that made their way into our piles. This was a good way to dry everything out on hot days, despite the extra work. My mom and I had a lot of fun working on the bin and smelling the soil on a daily basis.

Branches. In the beginning, I didn't take the time to separate small leaves and grass clippings from tiny branches. Eventually, I ended up handpicking the branches out because they don't break down. This wasn't too big of an issue but is definitely something I will remember in the future.

If you're thinking of starting a compost, but are feeling a little hesitant about it, please try! The only way to get better at something new is to just start. You might have some challenges along the way, but you will get better, just like I did. And before you know it you will have free fertilizer for your garden!

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