Turning the compost

Last week I wrote up how I compost all winter (& summer) using the lazy composting method. Its “lazy” because for most of the year there’s no turning and not much work but once a year it does need turning. This is how I go about it.

To start the turning process I like to sift the turned compost from the previous year into the finished compost area. This is a way to pull out twigs, stones, and garbage that has come from the bags of leaves.

On the left is the turned compost after one year. On the right is all of the stuff I sift out of it.

This leaves me with a finely granulated finished compost. As I’m filling the bin I like add some water to it if its too dry so that its ready to use next year.

On left is the finished compost and on the right is the empty turned compost bin. There is a divider in the finished compost because I had some leftover from the current year so I wanted to keep separate so I use it first.

Next I pull the cover off the composting bin and turn it into the turned compost area. The top tends to be the least composted and the bottom tends to be the most composted so I just flip the pile so the top now is on the bottom and the bottom is on the top.

The left picture shows the composting bin after a year of adding kitchen scraps, leaves, and plant material. The right picture show completed turn.

To finish off I add a layer of leaves to keep in the moisture and I also put netting over the top to keep cats from digging in it.

Completed turn. The compost bin can be seen on the right side just prior to putting the pallet on the front again.

The final step in the fall is to make sure the leaf bin is full. I do this by checking the town drop off site and keeping an eye out for people leaving bagged leaves in the back alleys. I get about a truck load of bags (so about dozen large bags) and that seems to last me the year.