WOW, Tom, Congrats, you are doing great.

Tom,
I've been looking into the black garbage cans as a make-do compost bin lately. Sounds like yours is working great!! How do you turn/mix it all? I was thinking that part would be hard and it's what is holding me back at this point.

Also.. do you fill them up all at once or little by little?
Chelsie

Chelsie--I haven't tried composting in garbage cans, but one way to really mix things up in something like that is a bulb auger. It's like a giant drill bit, designed for planting tulips, but great for mixing compost, also.

Chelsie, I use a pitch fork but the bulb auger sounds good. I drilled three 1 inch holes in the top and many on the sides and 6 on the bottom. When I start, I will have picked up a lot of shredded paper and coffee grounds and either leaves or grass clippings to get the can at least half full...preferably 3/4 full or more. But you could just add material until you get it full. It's up to you. If you have enough for 1/2 or better, then it will start to heat up right away. Otherwise, it will stay cold until then. Of course, the pile will shrink everyday when its cooking...so you can add to it often...kitchen scraps and more of the above. Turn it often. don't add much water at all if you have a lot of green. After I see it looking like compost in 3 or 4 weeks, I usually quit adding at that point and start another one. If all goes well, you'll have good rich black compost in 2 months. ~Tom

Tom, your system sounds great. Could you post pictures? I have trouble imagining how you turn the greens and browns inside a tall garbage can with a pitch fork. With an auger, yes, but with a pitch fork, hmmm. You have tricks up your sleeves that we need to learn....

Thanks for posting and sharing your good ideas.....

Marquette, I'll see about a photo, but it might take a while because 3 ugly garbage cans full of holes is no inspiration for a pic! It's really nothing to turning compost in a garbage can with a pitchfork. You slide it down the inside edge as far as it's easy and lift upward toward the center. You then slide the fork again down the same edge and lift toward the center or towards the opposite inside wall. You continue this process until you are as deep as you can go, hopefully the bottom. By that time, the other side is much higher than the side you started on. You then draw it all back down and begin on another side the same process towards its opposite side. If you are patient, and do small steps, it does not require great strength. You can do North and South walls or if you are really inspired, you can do all 4 walls. ~Tom

I started up a compost garbage can this afternoon! It has a clamp on lid, so ill just put it on its side and roll it around the yard to mix it up...

Congratulations, Tom!

I wanted to comment about the excess watering. I have several compost piles but I don't have them in garbage cans. Instead I've chosen to make a cylinder open on both ends of hardware cloth about 3 to 4 ft in diameter and 4 ft long/tall and use that turned on its end as my compost pile(s).

Because of the wire mesh, there is a lot of evaporation going on. I struggle to keep my piles watered, especially since it is getting hot around here now.
I'm thinking because your cans are almost totally enclosed except for the holes, you may not have that much evaporation going on. I wonder if that is good or bad (or neutral) for the compost? I'm thinking I might do better going the garbage can route. Just wondering.

My piles don't heat up that quickly but then I only add a little at a time, takes me about 3 months to fill one of these piles up to the top. I wonder if it would heat up quicker in a garbage can?

Actually, I'm quite happy the way things are going. I've put the compost piles "in place" where I'm building new gardens in our rather small backyard. And I'm not quite ready to do planting, just outlining the edges now so it doesn't bother me that I may be doing more cold composting than hot.

But I was just thinking about future piles...seems like the garbage can way is easier on the water bill...

elphaba--where are you?

In most of North America, it's easy to get too much water in compost. In some areas (like Utah), it's tough to get enough water. If we knew where you are we could give better advice.

i have one of those big wooden planters that are wide at the top and tapers towards the bottom. they have slats about 1/4" wide between the boards which is good for air circulation. you can remove the bottom if you like but i didn't. my pile is heating up as i write this. my ingredients were straw (different than hay), cow manure, grass clippings, kitchen scraps (veggie and fruits pealing and spoiled whole pieces)and a couple of pounds of used coffee grounds from good ole starbucks. cut or break the larger pieces of veggies down. i am starting lasagna beds and will get some horse barn waste etc. from a coworker who has two horses. like it has already been said don't overwater. just use a garden watering can and fill it. that should be enough water for the whole pile. bury fruits and veggies within the pile. i mistakenly left some spoiled swiss chard on top one evening and by the morning the critters climbed into the pile and stole them. Also don't add too much grass clippings without using alot of browns cuz it will stink to holy hell. ever leave a big of grass clippings for too long and then open the bag? same for your compost. consider sheet composting/lasagna bed.

I've been judging the water content of my compost bin by the condensation on the lid. If it is wet and dripping, it's ok. If it's bone dry, I add some water.

Thank you, Tom, from another newbie! I just started my first trash can of compost. :)

How large are your trash cans? I have two 30-gallon cans, and I'm wondering if they'll be large enough to heat up in there, even when they're full?

Hi Anitra,
Two cans are 32 U.S. gallons and one is 45 U.S. gallons. In the heat of the summer the 30 gallon cans should heat up just fine only a little above 1/2 full. I start one up by getting enough material for about 1/2 full and I toss in a handfull of soil (or material not composted enough yet). I also put in a good measure of coffee grounds available free from many convenience stores and coffee shops. This way it gets it hot quickly. I try to get it started at half way but I also continue adding until its full. The funny thing is that if its hot, 120 degrees are more, it will shrink in size almost day without adding. The above posts on a can would conserve water is in fact my experience. One poster said that they use the top of the inside lid as an indicator for when to add water. That's pretty good. ~Tom

I tried the method described in this thread, and it works pretty well. For browns I've used newspapers, brown supermarket bags, cardboard, all ripped up, as well as shredded leaves. Not shredded, leaves break down too slowly for my speed. I use a leaf-blower/vacuum to shred leaves: tedious, noisy work, but what can you do?

For a thermometer I found a twelve-inch in the grilling section of Walmart for $4. I poke it through one of the holes on the side of the garbage can.

When drilling holes in the can, don't make the holes too large if you have chipmunks or problems w/other varmint running off with your fresh greens. Those rascals can reduce the fresh kitchen scraps on your compost pile in record time, and that's the reason I had to find a closed container for composting. Tom, thanks for posting your ideas.

By the way, someone posted elsewhere that if liquids are seeping out the bottom, the contents are too wet.

Hi Marquette, sounds great. If you open the container and poke the thermometer down the middle, it will read hotter than if you can only go in an inch or two from the side.

It's easy to overwater so I try not to do that. I've had slime before and it is hard to get rid of it. Turning a lot helps not only get it evenly composted and help oxygen get to more parts of it (faster composting), but it also helps to distribute the water and helps dry it up faster. Too many greens (nitrogen) or too much water in my experience can cause smells. Either shredded paper or sawdust or lots of bread mixed in can help eliminate smells and dry up excess moisture.
~Tom

Hello Tom,
The thermometer I bought has a twelve-inch-long prod, so poking it through a hole in the side of the bin gets the prod just about into the middle of things.

I will say, though, that rolling the bin around on the lawn (or whereever) to mix things up does not work. On the contrary, rolling compacts the unfinished compost inside the bin. Better to dump things out and fluff it up and mix it up, like you say, and then fork it back into the bin.

When things are compacted, they don't break down. When airy and flyffy, things heat up and decompose.

I really like this method. And this winter, I'll have a nice-looking bin close by the kitchen door, so the scraps go into the bin directly from the kitchen, instead of going the usual route to the garage, where it tends to stay too long and get smelly before going on its final journey to the bin.

If I get good and organized, I'll have another bin w/lid close by holding shredded leaves.

I've used 2 large trash cans with holes for composting over 3 years now. I keep trying to convince myself to go out and buy a "composter" but I've always squished that idea and decide to keep my cans. They've worked very well for me. I honesty don't see myself changing, other than adding a third can.