If you’re interested in starting an organic garden at home, you should look into recycling your food waste using some form of composting. Counter composters come in many forms, and gardening organically is a good way to feed an organic garden and reduce kitchen waste. I’ve rounded up suggestions of some organic garden supplies that I’ve used in my own garden, and many of our members also had organic gardening tips to share when I asked them for their best advice for someone who wants to start composting.
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How does composting work? The short version.
Composting is basically just letting organic waste decompose over time so that it ends up being rich, fertile soil that can be added into your garden to feed your plants. Most compost is made from garden waste like grass clippings and leaves, with kitchen scraps added if you want to mix in your vegetable waste.
Some people don’t put meat or bones into compost piles and some do, but I tend to err on the side of not putting meat or anything oily into it. Greasy things can slow down or ruin the decomposing process, and if you have your compost outside, meat scraps can attract animals to the pile.
You can get really technical about composting if you want to, but a basic compost pile just needs to have a good balance of greens (“wet” food waste or yard waste like grass cuttings) and browns (like old leaves), it needs to be wet enough for the decomposition to happen, and you need to let air into the pile by turning it. Keeping air flowing encourages aerobic bacteria to flourish in your pile, and it prevents it from smelling.
Anaerobic (no air coming in) can encourage different bacteria, and they don’t smell good. Letting air into the pile will prevent the compost from smelling bad. Healthy compost doesn’t smell like much other than dirt.
If you want to get a good, basic book to guide your composting, this is the one that I used when I started composting.
What kinds of composting are there?
You have a lot of options to choose from if you want to start composting at home. These are some of the methods that you could use, depending on how much space you have.
The pile method.
This is the easiest way to compost things, but it takes longer and usually uses more space because you just make a pile and dump everything on it. Over time, this works to create really rich soil, because everything decomposes naturally with no effort on your part.
This isn’t the best way to compost kitchen scraps, though, because it can attract rodents and other pests. It you’re going to do this, make sure to keep your pile far away from your house! This method works best for yard waste like grass clippings and old pruned branches that won’t attract animals.
We have a spot in the back of our yard where we’ve been throwing yard waste and old leaves for over 20 years, and the soil back there is the richest soil in the yard! We just keep throwing stuff back there, it decomposes, and when we planted fig trees in that area they went nuts and grew like crazy because the soil is so fertile.
Compost bins.
An enclosed compost bin, or multiple bins that you can use for compost in different stages of decomposition, is a good way to keep your compost enclosed in one spot. There are different types of bins that are more or less complicated, but you can use all of them to keep your compost in one designated spot. You’ll need to stir the compost to let air into the center of the pile on a regular basis, so if you’re short don’t get a super tall bin!
Worm composting.
Vermicomposting is good for people who don’t mind worms, and who only have a small amount of kitchen scraps to compost. The worms eat the scraps that you put into their container, and they basically poop out worm castings that you can put on your plants. You can get indoor or outdoor worm composting systems to set up if you want to go this route.
Trench or pit composting.
This is an easy way to compost without having to turn a pile. Dig a hole in your garden and put the scraps and yard waste in it, then cover it up. Microorganisms and worms in the soil will naturally decompose the scraps, and the soil in that spot will eventually be better.
I know people who have raised beds in their gardens, and they have one that’s the composting bed. It rotates every year so that it’s being planted in sometimes, and used for composting sometimes. That way they can make compost without a lot of effort and improve the soil in their raised beds over time.
Tumbler composting.
Tumbler composting is another way to compost outside yard waste and food scraps, and it makes it easy to turn the pile to get air into it. You put all of the waste into the tumbler, then you turn it daily or weekly to mix it up. The tumbler makes it easy to keep air in the pile, and it speeds up the process of decomposition.
Electric counter composters.
These are popular devices, but they’re not really producing finished compost, they’re basically dehydrators that are grinding up the food scraps from your kitchen. I have one and I like it because you can dehydrate vegetable scraps and peels, and it eliminates the possibility of animals coming into your compost bins to get the food scraps.
You do have to mix the ground-up scraps into dirt or a compost pile to add it to your garden to finish decomposing it, but it’s a good way to eliminate mice and raccoons foraging in your compost bins!
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Which method is best? Pros and cons.
Different composting methods are going to work better or worse depending on whether you have a big yard or not. If you live in an apartment you might be limited to food scraps for the material that you want to compost, so worm composting or a counter composter machine might be best for you.
If you have a big yard and lots of yard waste like leaves and sticks, you can do a compost pile in a corner of the yard, or you can get bins or a tumbler if you want to add your food waste to it.
The other considerations are whether you want to spend a lot of time on it or not very much, and why you want to compost in the first place. If you’re trying to improve the soil for a garden, it might be enough to do some trench composting in one part of your garden. On the other hand, if you’re just trying to reduce the amount of food waste you’re throwing out, an electric composter/dehydrator will take care of that.
You also have to think about whether keeping food scraps in a container on your counter while you collect enough to compost is going to start smelling. There are ways to avoid that, like using a counter container with a charcoal filter, or keeping your scraps in the fridge or freezer until you’re ready to process them.
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Best composting supplies ideas.
Depending on what kind of composting you plan on doing, you’ll need different supplies and tools. The simplest methods are to just dump everything in one place and let it rot, which needs basically no equipment at all.
If you want to use a bin system, you can get a premade compost bin, or you can build your own system of bins using wood. I’ve seen some really cool compost bin systems that use old wood pallets, but you have to be careful about what kind of wood you’re using. Any kind of wood that’s been treated with chemicals can be bad for a compost bin if you want to keep it totally organic.
The other tools you’ll need are compost turners or a basic pitchfork, and a water source to make sure you’re keeping the pile damp enough so that the microorganisms can do their work in the right conditions if it’s really dry where you are. You can also add compost enhancers to the pile if you want to speed the process up. You don’t need to do that, though, you can just let nature do its thing and it will still decompose.
See more zero-waste kitchen tips here: Easy and Realistic Zero-Waste Kitchen Tips
Advice from our members.
Sally from Top Dogs Gear has these composting tips for people who have space for a large compost pile outside:
- For collecting scraps in the kitchen we have a nice smallish container that sits on the bench top. We line the container with a plastic bread bag which can unroll at the top for unexpected larger scrap collections.
- Avoid putting meat and bones in your compost, crush eggshells before putting them in the compost. If you want to put onions and citrus in the compost, think of cutting them up into chunks first.
- Aeration is important for good compost making, whether you have a compost tumbler you rotate for mixing and aeration, or you have a ground based compost pile. We use an old thick tent pole to drive into our ground based compost pile and make nice aeration holes, but you can also turn your compost pile over for great mixing and aeration.
- Adding some mature horse, cow, sheep or chicken manure really helps to make a good compost.
Diana from Islandia Designs has this composting info:
- We live on 1 1/2 acres, grow most of what we eat, and have over 100 trees! We do not have a garbage disposer. The first thing we do with food scraps is feed them to the chickens, next is put them in our worm bin to make worm castings, then the next choice is the rotating compost drums. If none of those are feasible for the food or garden waste we dig trenches and bury it in the soil.
Jennifer from Popwheel Art had these tips:
- My recommendation is to make sure it’s not too close to the house because of smells and rats.
- Also, people should check with their garbage collection service. The service I had before we moved did compositing of kitchen waste, including meat.
Anne Londez from French Vintage Prints has these tips:
- I have two composting frames in my garden that I fill alternately. When one is full I empty it into the empty one to turn it. I also put the leaves which fall on the terrace into empty soil bags (preferably shredded) with a little water and leave them to decompose to make leaf mold, which is good for mulching. The leaves which fall on the lawn I leave to feed the trees naturally.
- I compost garden cuttings (unless they are diseased), raw eggshells, egg cartons, sometimes cardboard (non plastified), raw vegetables and non exotic fruit as the colder climate I live in doesn’t work for exotic fruit, which need high heat and humidity to decompose. Orange and citrus peel don’t go on my compost as they tend to inactivate the bacteria.
Janick from Nea Jewelry has this excellent advice:
- A quick add-on tip for those who do city collection composting: I keep the bag in the freezer until it’s time to take it out on pickup day! No odors or juices or flies and all.