How to Easily Make Compost

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I have made compost for my vegetable garden continually for over 20 years. When I had more time, I had a setup with three bins that required quite a bit of work. I would start the compost in bin #1. After a couple of months of adding layers of green material like grass clippings, brown material like shredded leaves or chipped twigs, and the kitchen compost, I would turn the pile into the 2nd bin and start again. When the time came to start again, I would turn bin #2 into Bin #3. Then next time, I would use the compost in #3 and so on. I would also water and turn bins 2 and 3 a few times as bin #1 was filling up. This method worked well to quickly make compost, but it was very labor intensive.

Now I take a much simpler, although slower approach. I just layer the compost as I go inside a 4 foot tall, 4 foot diameter, ring of wire fencing material. I build the circular pile over 6 months or so, using grass clippings, whatever brown material is available and the compost from the kitchen. When the ring is full, I start another one, leaving the first to just sit for another 6 months or so. When I am ready to use it, I remove the wire ring and end up with the material shown in these photos. Because the inside of the pile composts more than the outside, I end up with some pieces of egg shells or the occasional avocado skin. In the photo at the top of this post, the light colored flecks visible in the tilled section of garden are the egg shells. The garden does not seem to mind and with my cover crop planted every fall and tilled in every spring, my vegetables do great!