When you have decided to start composting, the first challenge you face is how to build a composter, or at least buy one that you like. There are literally hundreds different composter designs ranging from just a pile on the ground to a high-tech automatic spinning tumbling composter. If you are looking for the most environmentally friendly designs you will want to build your composter out of biodegradable materials, preferably recycled materials. I found some very interesting pictures in a book that my father used as his Gardening How-To book back in the 1960's.
The first one is just a large pile. The bottom layer is made up of sticks and branches, which allow drainage and the migration of worms; make the stick layer at least a foot thick. Next is a layer of soil that the worms will live in. On top of that comes a layer of material to be composted and it is immediately covered with another layer of soil. As you can imagine, this type of compost pile is designed for large scale composting activities. When you have many layers and the pile is too high to be easily managed, cover it with soil and grass clippings and just let it sit and compost. I'm not so sure the people in your apartment complex would enjoy it if you set something like this up on the front lawn, so this is only feasible for people with large properties or for farmers.
This next one is some kind of easy. It is a metal barrel (the ones that you see used as fireplaces by the street people in big cities) with lots of holes punched into the sides. The holes allow plenty of air to get into the compost pile so that the bacteria and/or worms can do their work (if you do worm composting, or vermicomposting, the decomposition process will go much more quickly. Putting holes in the bottom of the barrel would be a good idea as well; that way worms can move into your composting system and excess liquid has a chance to drain out. You would want to fill the barrel three-quarters full with bedding (find out more about bedding on my worm composting page. Then you would bury the material that you want to compost in the bedding.
You can also find many videos explaining how to simply build a compost container. This one is one of my favourites because it is cheap, quick and easy.
The coolest thing about this setup is that you can shovel the finished compost out of the bottom. Not everyone has the space to build an 8 foot by 8 foot compost container and not everyone needs one that big. You could scale this idea down to dimensions that suit your needs. This container would probably cost you a maximum of $50 in materials and a bit of labour whereas a small sized manufactured composter will run you over $100 retail.
Here is another video. This one shows you how you can build a compost container for less then $1. Any large wholesale store will probably be happy to give you some of their old packing skids. The 12 coat hangers is where you will have to spend your dollar.
This next video shows you how to quickly, easily, and cheaply (are you noticing a pattern) build an open air leaf composter.
If, after all these videos, you think you need to buy a manufactured composter you can do so no problem. There are many websites that sell them online and our local home and garden store should have some as well.
Once you have your composter up and running be sure to check out our compost troubleshooting and our composting tips to further improve your composting prowess.
