So to start, my wife was against "smelly, gross-looking" compost piles. She also said "I don't care what you do to the outside of our property, as long as it doesn't look gross". So I took that to mean I had to build a compost bin. It's a cedar two-binner with each bin about 3x3x3', and lined 1/2" hardware cloth. The front pops off for easy access. Wife didn't want to have to look at it constantly while outside, so it's on the north side of the house and always in the shade, and about 10" from the building – not great.
I started with about 5lbs of leftover mushroom compost that I sourced in the spring, and over the last month I've been adding shredded cardboard and kitchen scraps. And pee. So much pee. I've never been so well hydrated.
Yesterday I dumped in grass and leaves from what I expect to be the last time mowing for the season (zone 3b). I was planning on adding water and mixing it after work, but only had a chance to water it.
Probed it at about 8pm last night and it was at 16.7C, ambient temperature was around 16C.
This morning (12 hours later), ambient temperature was 5C and the pile was just about 32C (90F). Just checked from work and it's 10C ambient and 36C (98F).
Future plans are to write a simple webpage to log and graph the temperature.
by pahrende
3 Comments
Are you following a specific method of composting or just kinda doing your own thing? Aiming for a finished product ASAP or next spring? Setup looks good btw, just be careful with material ending up against the siding there
Love this!
Looks great! 👏🏼 Only thoughts are go easy on the pee; a bit is great but too much can start to honk and get / make an insulating cover / duvet for the maturing half (2 stitched layers of tarp with some insulation inbetween is 👌🏼)