Ezzirah, the only one bin system I have seen was made to rotate and tumble the compost to mix it. Why would you not want to go back to a 2 or 3 bin system? I did have wire bin that hooked together, when I wanted to turn my compost I would unhook the ends of bin ( boards on each end) and set it up again next to the pile and fork the unfinshed compost back into the bin. The only way I can think of to turn a trash can would be to dump it out and then load it again, which sounds like a lot of work.

Larry

Well, the two bin system I have sits in a very inconvenant (sp?) part of the yard. So I literally would forget to turn it, water it, basicly give it the care and attention it needs.

One bin I can sit at my back door and throw stuff in and turn as needed.....

I have some attachments that fit into a drill motor, one is for weeding and the other is an auger for plant bulbs, would something like that work? My son has something, I think he called it a "claw" that he uses in his compost and garden. I have never used anything like that but he like it, but his compost pile is really large.

To make compost in a trash can, drill lots of holes that are at least the size of a golf ball so you'll have good air flow, or you're likely to end up with a stinky mess. Line the can with aluminum window screen material that will keep the compostable materials from falling out of the holes and to keep rodents out of your bin.

If you have a snugly-fitting lid, you can place the can on its side once a week and roll it back and forth for a couple of minutes to stir up the materials. Then, place it back into the upright position. Otherwise, use Larry's suggestions for turning the material in an upright can.

As for the bins you haven't been using. If they have been sitting there for a year, the material in them should be mostly decomposed already, if not completely decomposed. Just dig in with a shovel and see if you have compost. If you do, take a shovelful of compost from your own bin and add it to the materials in your trash can bin to serve as "compost starter". If you have good compost in those bins now, take it out and add it to wherever you need it. Then start piling on new compostable material.

If your bins have a lot of material that's been in there a year and hasn't decomposed, just stir them up and start piling more stuff on top of them.

I "cold compost", meaning I never turn my pile, and I still get tons of compost from it every winter, and it heats up and gets smoking hot in the summer months without me watering it or turning it. I don't turn it mostly because of snakes. After finding both venomous and nonvenomous snakes in and around my compost pile the first few years here, I stopped turning it. I just pile the stuff onto the pile all year and, when I am ready to add compost to a bed (which I've been doing this week), I rake back the undecomposed newer materials on top, and shovel out the compost that lies underneath it. Then, I rake the undecomposed material back onto the pile, and continue adding to it until the next winter. I usually empty out my finished compost from February through April, or I stop earlier if I see snakes out and about.

When I first stopped turning the piles, I was worried that they wouldn't heat up enough and that they wouldn't decompose well, so for the first summer I wasn't turning, I'd stick a shovel into a pile and lift the shovel up, and the decomposing material in my shovel would be hot and would have steam rising from it, so my pile is doing just fine without me giving it any real attention.

Because we have acreage, I have several compost piles in different places, generally placint them close to where I'll need them because moving wheelbarrow loads of finished compost a great distance isn't any fun. My big compost pile is roughly 20-25' long, 6-7' wide, and the height varies from a foot or so high in spring after I've removed all the finished stuff, to 6' to 8' tall in summer when I am piling on plants removed from the garden after they finish producing. Cornstalks, for example, help the compost pile get really big, really fast when I pull them out of the garden after the corn is harvested.

Even if snakes were not an issue, who would want to spend time turning a pile that big? Not me. I have two other big piles in different locations, and several slower piles further away where we pile up brush instead of burning it. The brush piles decompose slowly but they do decompose, and they are in out-of-the-way locations that no one sees from the 'civilized' areas of our land.

Thanks everyone for your thoughtful replies! I am now curious to go back there and see what is one the bottom of the pile! You bet if there is "the good stuff" I will be putting that in the garden.

(I discovered I didn't have clay, I have mostly sand that was unworked! So getting that compost in is vital at this point!)

I made a composter out of a cheap plastic 50 gallon trash can last spring. I drilled a large number of holes in the sides, bottom and lid that were about 1/4" in diameter or less. There were a lot of holes though, probably every 4" in every direction. I put some grass clippings and leaves in the bottom, then started putting vegetable scraps in there. Each time I added scraps, I would add a shovel full of garden soil or some leaves or grass clippings. To mix it up, I rolled it on its side (this wouldn't work if it was completely fully, unless you secured the lid, which I haven't tried yet). It got hot last summer and I sort of forgot about it to be honest, other than adding a bunch of dead plants at the end of the gardening season last fall. Recently I went out there and was thrilled to see that it was almost completely turned into compost! I recently drilled holes in a second container and set it up near the back door next to the patio where it is convenient to use. It doesn't smell or anything. I'm now looking for a good deal on a couple more containers so I can keep one full of leaves and grass clippings for adding each time I add vegetable scraps. By the time this one is full, the other one will be empty and ready to fill again. This year I plan to compost all of the lawn clippings, and as much vegetable scraps and shredded paper as I can get.

I got this design from an old book put out by Storey Publications that my brother sent me. I can't remember the name of it, but it had a design for a plastic garbage can composter. I liked it because it was cheap and easy to build, and it didn't take up much space or look bad in the back yard (it just looks like a trash can :) I am curious to see how much faster I can get compost if I keep rotating it and adding water when it dries out, instead of just forgetting about it like I did last year :)