Inside worm composting comes to mind first. Five or ten bucks for a Rubbermaid container, and maybe twenty bucks for some composting worms Eisenia fetida or Eisenia andrei. A lot less money than a tumbler.

Most of my ingredients for my seven outdoor piles comes from other sources. Hundreds of bags of neighborhood leaves, 100# of used coffee grounds from Starbucks, etc. Perhaps your neighbors would like to give you their compostables instead of starting a pile on their property.

You didn't indicate if you have moved from where you once grew vegetables and maintained a compost pile. Never having used a tumbler type composter, I can't personally address their efficiency in creating compost or their ease of use. But if you've still got a yard and do some gardening and leaf raking, grass cutting etc., you've got the makings of an open on the ground pile.

It's just me, too, so I don't generate a lot of kitchen scrap material either, aside from coffee grounds. But I have a big yard and gardens - have no end of weeds and leaves and plant material. Grass clippings I have to get from the city compost site as my lawn crew uses mulching mowers. And there's always shredded junk mail. Hardly without thinking, I can amass quite a large volume of compostable materials.

I compost for one, too. I start with a big pile of Other People's Leaves in the fall and chuck in the garbage and yard trimmings as generated. If I get a hot pile, good on me. If I don't, well, then I get leaf mulch. Both work in the garden!

I am a "solo composter" also. I use two tumblers, as one fills up rather quickly and this way I can compost in stages.

I don't recommend tumblers, plastic bins or anything costly for composting unless you have some sort of site specific reason to use such a thing.

If you don't have lots of space, yard waste or leaves. Just make a circle with hardware wire or chicken wire about 3' across and perhaps 3' high.

Otherwise just use a normal big style bin with pallets or posts and fencing or whatever is easy. If you have leaves, grass clippings, other yard/garden waste to put in or can steal the neighbors bagged stuff, then you can have a big pile going all the time.

If it is just a small amount of leaves, clippings and your household kitchen scraps and shredded paper products, that is ok too, it will just take a long time to fill up the pile.

By the way, I don't turn compost, we just add to the pile till it fills up and then we let it age for most of a year.

Here is a link that might be useful: TCLynx

You dont say if you are in an apartment or do you have still have a garden, I only have balcony and Indoor plants, I have a worm farm for food scraps and a large size pot for composting leaves and dead flowers. The pot for composting flowers started with about 2 inches of soil and some old pvc pipes standing in will holes drilled about the leaves etc hold them up this is just for air circulation, it sits on the corner of the balcony with a nice pot of flowers for a lid, i put my small amounts of leaves etc in there and just let it sit, some times i put them back around the plants when they get quite decomposed sometimes when i have too few scraps I add it to my worm bin, the worm bin is just a rubber maid type box with holes in the top + 60 worms, I dont have any drainage holes. it sits under the sink in the kitchen, but I am careful not to let it get too moist. I dont to a proper harvest of the worm casings, I just feed one end then the other, the oposite end of the feeding end I scoop out and put it about or mix with water and water the plants. Not very professional set up but ok for just me and a few plants and worms

You soil people are inspiringÂthanks for the advice and encouragement!

I'm still living on the property where we once had the vegetable garden, and I'm still gardening. The big vegetable plot is no longer in use, but I have a large flower garden and I'm growing a few vegetables here and there and plan to grow more in containers next year. I have plenty of room for composting.

I've been reading through some of the posts here and was surprised to find things like paper and cardboard can be composted. This is great! I use cardboard a lot in the garden, but love the idea of composting smaller pieces. And dryer lint. I never would have thought of that.

I assume weeds can be composted, as long as their seeds aren't included. True?

I suspect I have a large supply of spoiled hay in the barn. And I know I have some old horse manure. I see a compost hunt in my future . . .

Thanks again!

Susan

As a single person you must ask yourself if you can feed adequate amounts to a compost and then decide which manner you wish to feed it.

Make no doubt about it....you wont be feeding a pile as you once did and you must decide whether the bother is worth it.
Sure, its better to give the waste to a compost pile, but many communities have curbside pick-up for just such use.
Toronto and Province of Ontario has such a program....called green bin...it regularly picks up compostibles with the garbage and takes it to composting centers.
If such a program suits your needs, then maybe look into it, otherwise, make a compost pile that suits your being able to feed it.

It is always worth the "bother" to recycle all your home food scraps, and other compostables whether you are single or not.

This is especially true if you are growing your own food, since it gives you access to an excellent source of soil building materials. Everyone can make a difference, whether its with a compost pile 30 feet across or 30 inches across. A single person can use one or two regular 32 gallon trash cans with a bunch of holes drilled in the bottom and sides to collect materials.

I have just such a can that I've filled with fall cleanup materials from my small garden for two years. I haven't emptied it yet, the worms eat the contents and nutrients feed the surrounding soil.

This is a similar concept to something they are starting in Africa, the keyhole garden. See the link for a youtube video on keyhole gardening.

So many people think that they can't make a difference and just give up and do nothing. You *can* make a difference, try it, you might like what you see.

Cheers,
Kyle

Here is a link that might be useful: KeyHole gardens in Africa

Tclynx says:

"I don't recommend tumblers, plastic bins or anything costly for composting unless you have some sort of site specific reason to use such a thing.

If you don't have lots of space, yard waste or leaves. Just make a circle with hardware wire or chicken wire about 3' across and perhaps 3' high."

I agree with this. My 1/4" mesh bins are 4' in diameter, and 24" high.

"adequate amounts"?

I compost everything that'll rot;
it goes into a pile or a lasagna area or a hole that I cover up (notably a whole blackened Thanksgiving turkey year before last but that's another story).

Nature doesn't measure how much material is deposited in a certain defined space before deciding whether to make it rot or not.

Whales die, & doodlebugs die.

Once they die, they rot/decay/compost/return to the earth from which they came.

Nature doesn't discard doodlebugs because they aren't whales, & Nature doesn't care if my volume of compost is large or small; it rots everything just the same.

Everything that lives dies.

Everything that dies rots.

It all leads back to compost.

Sylvia, Whales and doodlebugs?! ;-)

yes.

certainly.

of course.

whales representing larger amounts of compost (such as those generated by big families & by farmers)
& doodlebugs smaller amounts (such as single people & those living in urban environments).

If I'm a doodlebug, I can't contribute or compost as much as a whale, but I'll just keep on contributing my little bit of doodlebug doo & eventually my little doodlebug carcass.

Maybe I should have said earthworms instead...

Everything that lives dies.

Everything that dies rots.

It all leads back to compost.

I'm going to save this on my hard drive.

Any single women in their give-or-take mid twenties in the Salt Lake City area and passionate about composting?

Ha! I can see the ad now:

. . . and I'm sincere and love long walks in the rain, romantic evenings at home, and making leaf mold together.

I actually posted more-or-less the above on craigslist once--just for fun. Would you believe I got a reply? I recently bought a chipper. Now I have the compost bling.

A chipper! That was my birthday gift a few years ago. Still my favorite toy--and a GREAT way to break down those leaves and start making leaf mold. Very fun. I'd have responded to that ad (if I was still in my twenties). Don't give up!

I have a question for Kyle about the garbage cans. Are you using your cans as compost tumblers (as someone else suggested on another posting) or just to store scraps until it's time to add them to another composting area? I'm reluctant to build a chicken-wire or pallet compost area and was looking for some kind of tumbler set-up. Do you think I could use a can with holes in it and just roll it around on it's side to mix things up? And if I did, I'd probably have to load it and leave it, right? No adding things on top until it's finished. Perhaps two cans would work--one I add to and one that was full and "processing." What does everyone out there think? I don't know what I'm talking about and I'd love suggestions.

Diana

Diana, I can't speak for Kyle, but you can check out the link below for my humble (but weirdly beloved) trash-can compost bin. I originally planned on just rolling it around to mix it, but decided I was too impatient and dump it all out into our wheelbarrow to mix it. I do roll it around to aerate it on a regular basis, but don't rely on that to properly mix the contents.

I was just going to use the one can as a continuous bin, sifting out finished compost when appropriate, but it filled up so quickly that I'm considering getting another can and letting the first finish without adding new material.

Here is a link that might be useful: My set-up

Whiteowl:

Think maybe that little pitchfork might be a potato fork.

My theory is...whatever works. Lol

Les

When I was a young man I had a worm bin under the kitchen sink. A girlfriend found it, became disgusted and threw it out. A co-worker suggested I just get a replacement -- girl friend.

@lesce:

Probably. It's actually called a "Spading fork", according to the label, but it makes me happy so I'm going to keep pretending it's a baby pitchfork. :-D

I'm a single person and I have 4 compost bins. And if I had more space, I'd have more! I stack my biostack layers until I've filled 5 layers, which takes a month or two in the summer. By then, another one has shrunk down by half (less than 3 layers). I eat lots of fruits and vegetables, and get usually a whole grocery bagful of kitchen waste from another person in my neighborhood each week, plus another half a bag to full bag from some neighbors. I also generate lots of garden waste. My garden plot isn't huge, but I find a use for all the compost, including using it as potting soil when I give away plants.

alisande, with all that space, you can either have a compost pile, or just dig your kitchen waste into your soil as you produce it, each day or each week. If you dig it in, you won't have to shovel it around later.

I know of one household in my town that has a community composting operation. They're the dropoff/pickup point for a CSA (where you pay in advance and get a boxful of random produce each week from the farm), so when someone comes to pick up their weekly box they can also drop off their week's kitchen waste in a 5-gallon bucket, and pick up an empty bucket.

I'm also single, but feed so many more from my garden: children and grandchildren, family, friends and neighbors, and some that I've never seen before with their bags and buckets. It's all good.
The city vacuums up leaves every year from those ignorant of their value. They bring me 30 cubic yards. I add grass clippings from the local prison, yard waste, my urine, and veggie scraps. Huge pile, which I spread on my 1/3 acre garden right before they start vacuuming in October. Smiles all around.
Single just means you have more freedom, and can please more people.

steve2416 right about pleasing people. I help out my elderly neighbors with their yard work and get the waste as a result. It's a win/win.

If you're adventurous, you could go dumpster diving. You can usually fill an entire garbage bag with veggies that your local grocery store toss into the trash. If thatÂs not for you, maybe a landscaping company can provide you with some materials.