Green Living Home

Jun
29

Question: How to Get to your “Done” Compost?

Posted by Helen Cooper under Home Remodeling Tips

You’ve been layering your greens and brown organic material into your compost bin for months. The pH is perfect, the temperature is consistent and the worms are happily munching away making that loamy, rich compost you’re doing all this for. Now what? You top layers are full of the stuff you just dumped in, and you have no idea how to get to that compost at the bottom without mucking up your perfectly-placed layers.

Don’t forget the other important step of composting. Turning your bin. No, we don’t mean the bin itself, but those layers of materials that you have so painstakingly accumulated from your yard and kitchen scraps.

To turn your compost to get to the done, or even almost done, compost, take a pitchfork and stick in down low in the bin and turn the mass over, flip it bottom to top. Keep doing that until you have access to the bulk of your bottom materials and remove. You can let the compost continue to season in a corner or your garden or yard until the consistency is that of soil.

Another option is to buy a compost bin that flips over, so you can remove your compost from the bin with little effort, and less disturbance to your layers. The Urban Composter is just such a model.

Remember, keep turning that mass until you can get to the compost you want. Then leave the rest and continue on layering your way to rich compost for your yard and garden.

Green Living Home