I love the worm and moth pictures! You're such a dedicated composter. I use the "add it and forget about it method." Unfortunately it takes much longer for things to compost this way.

Aaron really wants to get one of those off the ground tumbler composters....we'll see.

@june: Yah, I've considered one of the tumblers, but comparing tumbler size to the size of my current pile, I don't know if it has enough capacity. But then again, if it really cooks compost in 21 days, lower capacity may be okay.

Compositing is also just a form of meditation and exercise for me. Me, the dogs, and the pitchfork. Better than lawn-mowing, since there's no blaring engine to content with.

Great job catching the moth. Those flying insects are a pain to capture. I have never heard of your way to compost. It's interesting how everyone finds their own way.

My "way" of composting has evolved, and I have no idea if its even truly effective. I just like using my pitchfork, really.

In my mind at least, by forking the whole pile to a new location, I'm ensuring that the whole thing is thoroughly and completely mixed. Anything that was on the top ends up on the bottom. Stuff from the bottom ends up on top.

It seems to keep pretty good moisture distribution, plus it gives me a really good chance to embed new edibles into the middle of the pile. That's important when there's 140 pounds of dogs running lose in the yard, with a pair of really good noses.

And Moses just loves apples. He doesn't care if they have some mold on them.

Gotta bury'em deep.

the butterfly is beautiful but im so scared of worms i can be in the dirt covered head to toe but worms have always creeped me out how is that seeing as though my favorite place to be is in the dirt messing around in my garden?

On a whim one weekend I slapped this together with some stray wood laying around my garage and a barrel that my dad had in his (among a few other spare parts)



I'm new to composting and very new to gardening altogether, but I can't wait until next year.

The main reason I went this route was because of my dog. I'd start keeping just a free stack in the back of my yard but he would utterly destroy it.

I'm still experimenting, but it decomposes really quickly in this rig. The first weekend I stuffed it completely and by the next weekend it was half down. So far I've mainly been adding grass clippings and vegetable scraps. Every so often I give it a spin or two to keep it mixed.

Austin, that's a super cool contraption you have there. And I suspect it cost a lot less than buying a kit new. I'm eager to try something similar because I have 2 dogs and a similar problem. Although, I think the raccoons are the big problem at the moment.

It was extremely cheap. The only thing I had to buy were the hinges for the door that we made on the barrel. The rest were parts laying around either in my garage or my fathers.

I'd looked previously at buying something similar but they were pretty costly ($150-200 locally).

I'll keep everyone posted on how it goes. My big question right now is if I should let a batch cook down and store it somehow or just keep adding materials in.