Why FOUR is the right number for compost bins
How do I feel about the right number of bins a year for compost?
I don't seem to have a problem filling the four I've got. I put most of the weeds from the garden in the compost (just not ones that are in seed.) I put the kitchen garbage (salad detritus, egg shells, coffee grounds, stale bread, banana peels) in the compost. I used to get coffee grounds from a shop down the street but stopped doing that when we bought the house in Maine (and I brought one of my five compost bins up to Maine at that time.) It seems bizarre to me that we generate that much garbage, but I suppose when you throw in all the garden weedings plus some summer grass and some fall leaves you've got four bins filled.
But do I *need* four bins of compost? Four times I do the hard labor of breaking apart the bin, shoveling the contents into my gardenway cart, rolling it to my garden plot and then spading it in? Do I do this enough to use four bins?
1.) Fall Mulch
I need an entire bin for mulching the fruit and nut trees for the winter. It takes me about six months to cure a bin so that's the bin I used the prior winter that got topped off in the spring.
2. & 3.) Spring and Mid-Summer compost for planting
I need two entire bins for making up beds in the spring. Maybe three bins, but one of them can be used later in the summer. So that would be the two bins I top off to cure in the Fall.
4.) A spare to have available to use in the winter when two are curing and one is just filled.
I need two empty bins going into the winter, or one half-empty and one all the way empty. The empty one is the one I used for mulching in the fall. An 1/2 empty one is one I started after using a mid-summer bin. (I'm starting to feel like I'm playing a shell game here.) But I need two that are topped off and curing for the winter will be the two I use in the spring. So that means I have to have a fourth to have two curing for the spring and two to use in the winter.
So, yeah, I have one in use and two cured and ready for spring and one curing ready for the next use. That suits me. Four. Four is the right number.
I don't seem to have a problem filling the four I've got. I put most of the weeds from the garden in the compost (just not ones that are in seed.) I put the kitchen garbage (salad detritus, egg shells, coffee grounds, stale bread, banana peels) in the compost. I used to get coffee grounds from a shop down the street but stopped doing that when we bought the house in Maine (and I brought one of my five compost bins up to Maine at that time.) It seems bizarre to me that we generate that much garbage, but I suppose when you throw in all the garden weedings plus some summer grass and some fall leaves you've got four bins filled.
But do I *need* four bins of compost? Four times I do the hard labor of breaking apart the bin, shoveling the contents into my gardenway cart, rolling it to my garden plot and then spading it in? Do I do this enough to use four bins?
1.) Fall Mulch
I need an entire bin for mulching the fruit and nut trees for the winter. It takes me about six months to cure a bin so that's the bin I used the prior winter that got topped off in the spring.
2. & 3.) Spring and Mid-Summer compost for planting
I need two entire bins for making up beds in the spring. Maybe three bins, but one of them can be used later in the summer. So that would be the two bins I top off to cure in the Fall.
4.) A spare to have available to use in the winter when two are curing and one is just filled.
I need two empty bins going into the winter, or one half-empty and one all the way empty. The empty one is the one I used for mulching in the fall. An 1/2 empty one is one I started after using a mid-summer bin. (I'm starting to feel like I'm playing a shell game here.) But I need two that are topped off and curing for the winter will be the two I use in the spring. So that means I have to have a fourth to have two curing for the spring and two to use in the winter.
So, yeah, I have one in use and two cured and ready for spring and one curing ready for the next use. That suits me. Four. Four is the right number.