Compost bins

I'm reporting back on my spinning compost bin. I can't give it especially high marks. It is filling up quickly, faster than the stuff can decompose. I think I need to add some grass clippings in there (primarily food scraps now). I don't think the number of fruit flies in it is any worse than other bins but the way it opens leads to them flying out and into me. Annoying. I am hoping it will go away with adding leaves or grass or if the bin gets really hot (or cold in the winter??) or we have less fruit waste in there.

So...I'm back to using the earth machine style until the other catches up. That one has fruit flies too but the way it opens makes it a non-issue. But...found a hunormous dead rat under the deck. I'm hoping Bandito and Fuzzypants earned their keep and offed him. I'm not sure the rat has to do with the compost but it is the first one we have seen around our house. Again with the melon and fruit (??).

I'm not finding the compost groove that I had before. I am noticing a significant reduction in trash though and will keep at it, especially with trimmings from our CSA share. Hopefully by next year we will have a raised bed garden to put the compost on.

My husband refuses to get me one, his version of a compost bin, - throwing old fruit and veggies under the pine trees in the back yard. After one day of hard gardening, standing up surveying my work, I turn around and see: celery, tomatoes and a few orange pieces. I put my foot down. No compost bin, fine, but don't make the back yard look like a slop pin! (I use to feed slop to my aunts goats, so I KNOW what slop looks like!)

I want a wooden compost bin so I can toss it, it's to bad the spinner isn't working so well. What do you mean by earth bin?

[spotty_dog]

So I'm reading this amazing book about Pacific Northwest vegetable gardening and how it's significantly different from gardening east of the Cascades. The author wrote this book on composting that is available free on the internet: http://www.soilandhealth.org/03sov/0.../03010200.html

You might find it interesting, maybe it'll give you some clues about making your bin work. The book I'm reading has a great chapter on compost with some similar information in it. (Vegetable Gardening West of the Cascades).

[oceanchild]

Can you remind me which one this was, Nellie?

My husband is on a composting kick. His current plan is to half bury some trash cans with holes in them (? - I think I'm remembering that right), but I know deep down he would love to buy an expensive machine.

[Cumberland]

http://www.earthmachine.com/index_r.html

i think this is what nellie was referring to....

I recently bought an spinning or tumbling compost bin, like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Achla-CMP-05-S...373523&sr=8-18


The Earth Machine compost bins look like this:
http://www.earthmachine.com/

I've had two of those before. Sometimes local governments or recycling groups will offer them heavily discounted. I had two issues with them. The first is probably entirely my fault and related to the assembly -- the middle section kept coming loose. The lesson there is to put it together carefully because it is harder to fix when full of compost. The second issue is that animals can burrow underneath it and get into the compost. That wasn't a problem in Denver nor here until we got the chickens. The combo of the chicken food and the compost created a rat problem. Like the beginning sewer scene of Ratatouille sort of rat problem. To combat that, I would suggest putting down some sort of mesh or rabbit fencing sort of screen between the bottom of the composter and the ground.

I'm using the earth machine that was here when we moved in and still has stuff in it so it would sort of a be a PITA to put screen under it.

Thanks for the suggestion, Alison. I'll have to check that out. It seemed easier before! It is still on the easy side. The bins aren't getting a lot of direct sun so I wonder if the compost is reaching that ideal temp which would probably also kill off the fruit fly eggs. I think it is too wet. I usually don't think that is a problem (not a compost fanatic and not in a rush) but that makes the tumbler really heavy and hard to spin. There is a drain on it that I'll have to try. I bet if I could spin it a few times before opening, the flies wouldn't get mixed up and not fly out.