Backyard composters on the cheap

Last year we decided we needed to do more composting. Our gardens could use it, and we certainly have a lot of compostable materials. But there simply isn't a place to put a big pile like we had at our old house. The back yard there was enormous with a small front yard. This house is just the opposite. As the HOA president it probably wouldn't be good for me to put a compost bin in my front yard.

So last year we looked into smaller backyard composters. Expensive little things, aren't they? And if they don't work as advertised, you'll need quite a few of them. So instead I decided to build my own.

I got a 50 gallon trash can and several lengths of 1" pvc pipe. First I drilled three sets of holes in the side of the can, one opposite the other. Then I cut the pipe to lengths the width of the can (with a little overlap). Next I drilled a series of holes in the pipes, and inserted each through the holes in the side of the can, securing them with hot glue. I also drilled lots of air holes in the bottom and lid of the can.

Here's the finished product:

How well do they work, you ask? Well, I'm not rushing out to patent the design. Though the design is intended to get as much air into the compost as possible, it's still a cold-pile composter. Perhaps if we were more disciplined in how we layered materials it would work faster, but I'm not sure.

That said, it does work, even if it's slowly. All the stuff we put in last year was composted by this spring. The top layer wasn't composted, but below that was some pretty good compost. The stuff we've been putting in this year is not composting very quickly. I recently went through four of the cans to get some compost for a tree I transplanted, and only one had very much usable compost in it yet.

Also, if I were to do it again I'd find a better way to secure the air pipes. Hot glue doesn't hold for long in the hot sun with hot compost. Nor do you really want the pipes to stay put permanently. It's good to be able to remove them when you empty the compost out. Next time I'd probably cut them longer and find some sort of clips or cotter pints to hold them in place.

I'm also considering drilling some air holes in the sides of the can, but I'm worried about weakening the structure too much.

The main advantage to this approach is that the cans look much nicer about the yard than an open compost pile, and do contain the smell reasonably well. I suspect that those with better discipline in their layering technique might find these composters work fairly well. But for myself, I have to rate this project only a marginal success.