Nowadays there are literally million upon millions of people making their own organic compost, although of course, everyone has their own reasons for doing so.

While some people simply want to save some money by not having to buy commercial compost, others are doing it simply for the fun of it, or perhaps because they care about the environment.

• Likewise, many avid gardeners choose to make their own compost simply because it beats the pants off the compost you can buy at garden centers, not too mention the fact that unless you make it yourself, you can never be absolutely sure it really is organic.

In this article you will learn how to build your own homemade home compost gardening equipment and accessories, building composting equipment is easy with the right compost plans!

• Whatever your reason is, you will of course still require some composting equipment, although the equipment you require will to a certain extent depend on what your composting requirements are.
• In all likelihood, you probably already have some equipment which you can use, rather than go out and buy expensive pieces of equipment from a garden center.

Building Your Own Compost Gardening Equipment

What You’ll Need to Get Started

Generally speaking, you’ll need the following in order to start your own compost making process at home:

1. Compost thermometer
2. Compost turner
3. Compost bin
4. Compost starter
5. Organic compost

• Over and above these five items, you’ll probably also require a few other miscellaneous items depending on what you already have laying around at home.

Irrespective of what you may be thinking, building a compost pile certainly doesn’t require any prior gardening experience at all. To the contrary, it involves nothing more than simply throwing away all your unwanted organic waste, such as fruit and vegetable feels, bits of paper, and even garden waste, but of course you need to throw it all away in the same area.

• Ideally, you should try to designate one corner of the yard for your compost pile so that the smell won’t be a problem for you when you’re out relaxing in the yard.
• Once you’ve set aside an area of the yard, you can begin your pile with any kitchen waste you have, providing of course it’s biodegradable.

Pests

Unfortunately, it is a well known fact that a compost pile often encourages certain pests to pay you a visit, such as rats and mice, not to mention various other forms of wildlife such as squirrels and even raccoons. If any of these tend to be prevalent in your area, then you may need to consider starting your compost pile in a covered bin.

• Interestingly enough, rodents often only become a problem if you’re combining regular yard waste with your compost, but for the most part, rodents shouldn’t really pose much of a problem.
• You should also avoid adding any type of meat products to your compost pile, including old bones, because while it maybe good for the compost, it also tends to attract rodents.

Starting Your Compost Pile

If you’re satisfied that your designated area is suitable and won’t interfere with other yard activities, you can go ahead and begin your pile. Ideally you should start off by dumping all your biodegradable kitchen waste or garden waste, and then you can continue adding more organic waste as it becomes available.

In other words, whenever you’re preparing food you should be setting the peels to one side so that you can add them to your pile when you’re finished.

• If you use a lawnmower to cut your grass, don’t forget to add all those clippings as well.
• However, you should avoid adding sticks, twigs, and even long bits of class, simply because they’ll make it more difficult for you to manage the pile.
• You should ideally continue adding to your pile for at least three to four weeks before you turn it.
• This is crucial, because heat will be generated within the pile, and of course the heat is essential in terms of composting.

Maintaining Your Compost Pile

Once the composting process is underway, you can continue adding waste to it as and when it becomes available, because of course, you should be turning the pile every few weeks. When it’s time to turn it, you should also determine whether or not the pile is moist enough. You should also bear in mind that while a compost pile should be moist, it shouldn’t be to wet. Likewise, it also shouldn’t be allowed to dry out to much. Of course, if your compost pile is off the ground, then having a few drainage holes will prevent it from becoming too wet, but if it’s on the ground then you’ll need to add in some dry material, such as some smallish pieces of cardboard or even scrap paper.

Alternatively, you could consider starting your pile on a slight slope so that any excess water can drain away.

• If you tend to get plenty of rain in your area then it’s even more important to take certain precautionary measures.
• If on the other hand you notice that the compost is too dry, then you’ll need to spray it with some water.
• If you do need to add water, it’s a good idea to turn the composite shortly afterwards in case excess water has accumulated at the bottom of the pile.

Optimizing Your Compost Pile

There may be occasions when you notice the composting process is not going as fast as what you’d like it to. In that case, you can simply had a few layers of soil, or even some readymade compost, both of which will help to speed up the process. Essentially, this is because by adding this to your pile, you’ll be adding more bacteria, and in so doing, you’ll be making it possible for the organic waste to decompose quicker. Two other very important factors with regards to a compost pile is the presence of nitrogen and carbon. In fact, nitrogen and carbon should be present in a 1: 1 ratio. Essentially, both of these elements come from brown and green compost. The composting process can also be sped up by adding worms to the pile. In fact, many insects and worms will automatically end up in your pile after a while.

Considering just how easy it is to build a compost pile, one cannot help but wonder why more people don’t do it.

After all, it’s a great way for getting rid of a huge amount of household waste, rather than relying on the landfill sites. Apart from the environmental aspect, building your own compost pile will help to ensure you’re your garden flourishes. In fact, you’d be surprised at just how quickly a garden responds once you begin turning in some good quality homemade compost. You can be rest assured that once you’ve witnessed the results firsthand, you’ll probably never be without a compost pile again. Now that you’ve discovered how to build a compost pile, all that’s left is for you to go out and designate a piece of your yard, and then begin adding your biodegradable waste.

1. Plan Out Compost Bin Materials – What materials you are going to need to use to construct the composter structure out of.
2. Estimate Budget – You will need to have a strict budget lined up on what exactly you are prepared to spend on this project and exactly what are reasonable prices for the materials and labor.
3. Homemade Composter Design Plans – Does your compost bin need to spin? Electric composters that compact materials and automatically made the soil for you. These can cut the time it takes to create compost in half, sometimes even more!
4. Time Investment – Be ready and willy to dedicate a certain amount of time to this project until you are finished, it won’t finish itself!
5. That just about does it for this post on building your own composter bin plans from scratch. I will pickup where I left off during the next post, part two, and I will even be releasing a new featured video on the subject. That’s all coming up next so stay tuned and don’t touch that dial, the master compost gardener will be right back! In the mean time, why don’t you go ahead and take a break you have been working hard!

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