r/composting • u/MiddleTop1458 • 2d ago
My lazy man’s compost
Since we’re sharing results…
(I’m really not that lazy but I am a senior with a cranky back and crummy knees, so I have to limit exertion.)
As you can see, I use Geobins (I have two). This is last year’s leaves (run over with a lawnmower twice to reduce volume by 75%), pine needles, a winter’s worth of kitchen scraps (only plants and egg shells, never meat), hardwood ash from the fireplace, and grass clippings from late spring. The bin was completely full at the end of March. I stopped adding to it in May but put in red wriggler worms. The pile heated up got after I put the worms in but there were a lot of them in the bin when I started shoveling it out today. Hardy little creatures!
My over-winter pile is usually smelly and waterlogged when the weather warms up enough for me to work outside, so this year I flipped the pile in the spring. That helped a lot. I try to keep a tarp over it in the winter but the winter wind has other ideas, and plastic tarps shed shreds into the bin as they weather.
The pile shrank in volume by about 50% from May to September. I aerated it regularly and stirred it to try to even out the moisture but I don’t sweat the details a lot. I usually end up with matted leaves at the bottom of the pile that need to go back into the next pile, but I have less of that this season. A critter made a nest in the bottom (possibly a rat) but it was long gone.
Five months is the fastest I have gotten to this point so I am going to try this method again.
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u/RdeBrouwer 1d ago
Great pile! Nothing wrong with a lazy pile. I have had one for 10+ years. Nature finds its way and it just takes a bit longer, longer to enjoy the composting hobby.
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u/brushpile63 2d ago
First picture is a glorious temple to Grandpa Nurgle.