Composting success!

I've wanted a compost bin for years and finally have one that works!  It was fairly simple to build and is stackable and movable.  Here are the easy to follow instructions I used. 

 I followed the layering guidelines for composting outlined in "Four-Season Harvest" by Eliot Coleman and "How to Grow More Vegetables" by John Jeavons.  I placed the bin under a deciduous tree close to my garden spot and away from our dog.  I loosened the soil underneath using a spading fork and then placed a layer of sticks on the bottom for aeration.  Then came about a 3" layer of straw (recommended over hay because the hollow stems allow for better air circulation), a 1"-6" layer of moist "green material"(I used vegetable scraps and freshly cut grass), about a 1" layer of soil to keep flies down and provide bacteria and organisms to begin the breakdown process, and then a layer of "brown" material (I used day lily stalks that had been cut off and discarded by my mother-in-law).  You water each layer after adding.  The idea is to alternate "green" material (vegetable scraps, coffee grounds, tea bags, bread, pasta, egg shells, etc.), soil, and straw.  So far I've gotten 2 good layers going and have only used part of a rectangle straw bale.  Instead of adding soil and straw everytime I need to empty the compost bucket, I use the spading fork to lift up the straw and soil and place the vegetable scraps underneath then recover.  One bucketful does about a 1/4 of the bin at a time, so I just alternate where I add the new scraps.  I found the perfect 2 gallon bucket with a lid containing a little bit of my husband's protein powder in it, so the protein powder was relocated and the bucket became my compost bucket.  I keep it on top of the fridge and empty when it gets full. 

I started the compost bin about a month ago and was surprised the other day when I looked at the side where I started adding scraps and realized that the only recognizable food scrap was egg shells.  Everything else had broken down into rich black compost!  It's not totally ready to use because the straw hasn't broken down, but I was really excited to find that it was already working!  I can't wait to add it to my garden beds!

Lifting the layers with a spading fork.

Compost!