A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Composting

Right now my compost pile has everything under the sun in it. Including birds and other wildlife picking through it. It is not anything I would want to put in my garden.
I have found the composting information on the website, but what I need help with are ideas of what kind of container to use. I don't want to just throw it on the ground for the animals, and the kids tend to scatter everything from here to Egypt when they dump the compost bucket.
I need something very cheap, even maybe something that I already have on hand. Would a big plastic rubermaid bin work with lid and put holes in top and bottom for rain to get in and water to drain out?

Welcome, Gayle.
The smallest containers I can think of that would produce anything would be trash barrels. In a standard Rubbermaid tote, by the time your compost broke down into usable material, you would have about a gallon of compost, maybe.
People pile on leaves and yard debris of all kinds plus kitchen waste and often paper waste. (Worms love paper).
People most often choose a corner and construct a bin or two out of whatever is most easily acquired. Pallets make good walls.
Important is turning the material every once in a while and keeping it moist.
Good luck!

Thanks for the information..I was thinking rubbermaid tote because I have a couple I used to pack the kid's stuff in for Scout camp. They are about 4 foot long and 3 feet deep. I thought they might be easier to stir then a garbage can...but I guess I could secure the lid and make the kids roll it around the yard ROFL.

Yes, you can do that. It sounds like your totes are larger than the ones I had in mind. They might work as well. But don't ruin something that is still good and usable.

OK..I found an old plastic trash can on wheels that already had a few small holes in the bottom. I drilled a few more holes so that it will drain well. Now my only problem is finding the right stuff to put in it.
Being that it is only Febuary there is no "green material" around, and all of the "brown material" like leaves and such are all wet from the weather. Would the wet decaying leaves be considered the green material at this point? Straw is not easy to come by right, but I can go out in the field and get hay that grew and went to seed last fall.
I have no newpaper, but my parents are starting to save some for me to put down in my garden this spring for a weed barrier.
Any ideas or information on this would be very helpful. Thank you ALL for all of your help and support.

Now comes the biggest adventure of all... getting the kids to keep our household compost buckets straight and not put yuck in my raw veggie only compost. OH and not to dump my GOOD compost out over the hill with the yuck.

No once leaves turn brown they are brown material forever. Basically greens will heat up and browns wont.

If there are any cattle or horses around their poo would be a green.

OH COOL...yeah I can go over to my sister's and get LOTS of poo... she has 4 horses and 3 cows.

My next compost question is: Coffee grounds and tea grounds/leaves...go in yuck compost or my good compost? If they go into the good compost are they also a brown? lol

As much coffee grounds and tea bags as you want in your good compost! They are lovely additions.

They are browns not greens. Actually you don't need to compost coffee grounds they can go directly into a flower bed. Or if you have a place to put them where the worms can come find them that's good too. Worms love coffee grounds.

Is ground, unused coffee good for anything or does it need to be brewed first? We have two quite old, unused containers of ground coffee. I was going to try to start composting and would hate to waste this stuff. I think the coffee is too old to drink so I wouldn't like to bother brewing if I can use the unbrewed stuff.

Just dump it in( old unbrewed coffee grounds), as well as stale cereal, Floor sweepings, Fingernail cuttings.
Just make sure you have 'about' 75% brown( dry things, leaves, Shredded white paper, tissues,, etc) to 25 % Green,( grass cuttings,Brewed coffee, fruits, veggie peels anything with moisture in it , used tea bags ) other wise it will smell really REALLY bad.

Thank you! I've got to make myself some sort of compost container asap.

you do not need a container to compost. Just put the pile in a location that is far from trees since they will run their roots into the pile and sap the nutrients in the compost.

I understand what you're saying about the containers. I made a bin out of pallets and the field mice decided to living in the corners of it... Strange to me, but that drew all of the wild cats to my yard (which in turn ended up using my gardens as litter boxes). I went to the county dump and here they supply free recycle bins. They're a standard trash can, but designated to recycling. Well... composting is recycling right? LoL! Well anyway - I picked up three cans. I've filled them with my compost and when I need to turn them - I'll go back and get three more bins. Then I'll just dump them into the empties. I wont get a ton of compost, but it still makes me feel better!

I started out using the trashcan. You will need to put holes in the bottom for drainage since compost should be kept damp and that means adding water. It should be kept as moist as a wrung out sponge. For me that wasn't enough compost to do anything constructive with. Shortly after I started composting I was working with a big pile. Now with all my trees it is usually 3 x 6 x 3.

I bought a bunch of cheap 30-gal storage bins and drilled over 100 holes in them. I basically fill one up every time I mow the lawn.