Hi Tricia.

How come you dont want to leave the pile on the ground? And what do want the juices for, compost tea?

So far in each of my three years of composting i've become steadily lazier in the process and the results have turned out about the same each year. This spring I just mixed together leaves, woodchips, grass clippings, hay, weeds, and horse manure into about a 1.5 yard size pile. It shrunk down considerably and Ive since been adding kitchen scraps to it every week. I just dig a small hole somewhere on top of pile with pitch fork , toss these scraps in and then bury them - no critters bothering the pile yet.

So in my opinion the only problem I see with your plan is you are overthinking the whole thing. I did the same thing though. Now I just mix a whole bunch of stuff together and let it rot! Others here may have a lot to say against lazy composting but in my limited experience active (hot, whatever you want to call it) composting is too much extra work for too little gain.

If I wasnt using compost as part of my homemade potting mixes I would probably stop making it all together and just use the materials (except manure) as mulch for in-place composting right on the garden beds.

Brian

In a properly constructed compost pile you should not get any "juices", any water seapage you get means the material is too wet.
There is no good reason to line the container with anything, 1 inch mesh chicken fence fabric should do a good job of containment by itself. I've not had a problem with material falling out 2 x 4 welded wire fence fabric, until I pulled the fabric off the pile to turn it.
As long as your compost piles do not exceed 6 feet in diameter additional areation will not be necessary and could cause the loss of moisture in the center of your pile where the bacteria will be most active.
You will find the weight of your compost will cause that compost to fall down to the ground anyway so the bricks and landscape fabric in an attempt to keep it off the ground will be useless.
There would be no reason to spread the contents of the garbage can on a tarp to dry out, simply mix that with new, dryer material.

Thanks to both of you!

It's entirely possible (probable) that I'm overthinking. I tend to do that. I get a new idea, get excited, and run with it, thirsting for knowledge.

To answer your questions, I read about others using things like pallets under their piles and since I don't have them, thought I could repurpose some bricks. You are correct about the compost tea, because I have been planting a lot of new plants lately (fairly new homeowner) and like to water the little guys with good stuff once in a while.

Thank you for your suggestions, they certainly make it easier for me to get started! I appreciate it.

"...i've become steadily lazier in the process and the results have turned out about the same each year..."

AHA! Confirmation of my 'laziness breeds efficiency' theory, I really should get that tattooed on my butt.

Lloyd

How will you turn this pile with the landscape fabric , bricks and chicken wire in the way ?

It is easier ( for me ) to build a more stable fence with a moveable opening simply to keep the dogs out of the pile and to let me get in to stir . I have a dog that likes to eat decomposed grass clippings - yuck ! I also have an armadillo that loves to rummage through the compost and constantly upended the chicken wire circle no matter how well I staked the wire down - even weighted the edges with bricks . The armadillo won every time .

Now I have the shed as one side and left over chain link gates as the other three sides . I can swing one side open to get in and all the other critters stay out . With very little mixing , I have perfect compost in no time thanks to the heat and rains .

I prefer compost directly on the ground with no floor . Much easier to manage and allows the earthworms easy access . Start off simple and go from there .

"AHA! Confirmation of my 'laziness breeds efficiency' theory, I really should get that tattooed on my butt. "

I was going to say that you should get it tattooed where it would be seen regularly, but I was afraid you might take that as a challenge.

I bought chicken wire (they now call it "poultry netting" now? When did that happen?) but made out of recycled plastic instead of metal. Now I'm reading these comments, thinking I might have a critter problem. I guess I'll figure that out soon enough!

The biggest critters in my neck of the woods (suburban Long Island) are my Labrador, squirrels, bunnies, chipmunks and an occasional tortoise. There are probably raccoons around but honestly, I've never seen them. I don't plan on using kitchen scraps so maybe I'll be safe. We will see!

I'll set it right on the ground, see how it goes. I can always reuse everything for different uses, so if it fails and I need metal chicken wire (Excuse me! Poultry netting!) then I can do that.

Thanks all!

In my neck of the woods, chicken wire is made from metal and poultry netting is made from plastic. Of course we are in the back woods.

I dont thinks bins of any kind are requirement but they can help keep things tidy and also segregated if you want different stages of piles next to eachother. I nailed together three shipping pallets to make a three-sided enclosure and put scrap pieces of deck lattice across the front (just to keep my dogs out).

If you are not putting kitchen scraps in the pile I would expect zero critter problems. I would also expect minimal to zero critter problems if you did use scraps and buried sufficiently in the pile.

And you are right Lloyd laziness does breed efficiency and then efficiency enables more laziness! perfect

...laziness does breed efficiency and then efficiency enables more laziness time for drinking beer!

:)

Lloyd

My bins are free standing hardware cloth bins. Hardware cloth requires no bottom, no lining, and no stakes to hold it up. Chicken wire is flimsy and would require some means of support. Lining a bin is unnecessary. Very little falls through the sides of my bins and my wire is an undesirable 1 x 3 inch mesh. Anything that does fall through, I could easily rake up if I wasn't busy drinking beer with Lloyd.

The neatest thing about my bins is how easy it is to turn the compost. I walk around my bin while tugging upwards. The bin comes up and off, and I set it aside where I refill it---with the top of the pile now on the bottom and the botton now on the top.

I don't believe that water will stay in a reservoir on top, and there are easier ways to make "tea" anyway. This isn't true tea, I guess, but I often put seaweed and compost in a bucket of water, leave it for a week or two, and use that as a foliage spray.