The compost post

I built these compost bins back in 2004, I think. They're just concrete blocks stacked up on three sides to make a place to throw composting material. Each bin holds about one year's worth of compost. I emptied the bin on the left, the larger one, this spring into the vegetable garden. We've been filling up the bin on the right since last fall.

My backyard compost bins. No meat products, but every vegetable, fruit, and yard clipping imaginable.

Now, we switch bins. The bin on the right will stay the way it is through the winter so it will finish decomposing and be ready to go into the garden next spring. We'll put new waste into the bin on the left from now on. I've already dumped a bunch of apples into it, as you can see. They decompose very quickly. We'll add all our household composting stuff over the fall and winter and into next summer. Then we'll switch bins again.

When we lived in San Francisco, the city had a program to get people to compost. We got a composting bin at a very low price, and the instructions were simple. While some people get all bent out of shape about what ingredients make for a proper compost pile, the city simply told us that "compost happens." I've taken that advice. And so it goes.