My Epic 3-Bin Compost System

I recently did a write-up and a plan of my 3-bin compost system over at The Grow Network.

“I’m done with dogs digging in my compost.

I’m done with not having enough space.

I’m done with messy piles and pallets and half-baked composting systems!

By golly, I’m David the Good and I wrote a whole book on composting—it was way past time for me to step up and build something epic!

Here’s my almost-finished 3-bin composting system, made from concrete and pressure-treated lumber:

The bin to the left is where all the kitchen scraps and yard “waste” go to break down. I’m not worrying about greens and browns and proper ratios. I’m just going to chuck everything in there.

For most people, getting together all the materials for a “proper” pile with a 24-1 C/N ratio and enough mass to heat up is a heckuva process. It doesn’t relate well to our normal lives where we just want a place to toss banana peels and onion rinds.

With this system, we will just dump in material until it reaches the top, then dump it all over into the next bin and start again with the first bin. The third bin is for the finished compost a few months later.

Here’s the design, all drawn out in glorious 2-D:

The amusing thing about this project is that we built it on the land where I’m also building my house . . . and the compost bin was finished before my home.

Priorities!

You can read the rest over at The Grow Network.

In other news, it rained all day yesterday so I did not finish my lumber storage area. It’s sunny now, so I am off to the land!