This little cart was designed for carrying bags
of potting soil or peat moss around in the back yard, but it is also the
perfect solution to a problem I had in envisioning how to make small
batches of compost from my kitchen and garden waste. I was starting to
get discouraged after reading many articles online that insisted that 3'
x 3' would be the minimum size
space for making humus, unless I went with red wiggler vermiculture.
Except for a few plumbago shrubs, all of my outdoor plants are in pot-in-pot containers in the ground or raised planters suspended above the nice clean gravel pictured here. No grass to mow, and nothing to weed. Space is at a premium and I do not generate a lot of waste, so I wanted a very small compost pile. And I did not want compost made exclusively out of worm casings. I wanted dark rich sweet smelling compost that would be nice to handle.
Also, the
sunny spots and shady spots in my back yard change places
seasonally, so I needed a portable bin, and one that would be light
enough to move from place to place.
I reasoned that here in the hot desert the "stew" would break down rapidly if I were careful what I put in there, turned it frequently, and chopped up the waste before introducing it to the pile. So my first experiment was with layers of shredded newspapers and egg carton material, spent flower heads, citrus rinds and other vegetative food scraps, topsoil consisting mostly of sand and clay, and recycled potting mix from plant experiments that did not work out or that got transplanted. To turn the "stew" I just tip the cart over on its side and let the contents roll around, using the gardening tool to break up clumps. After a couple weeks I noticed that the material was starting to look rich and dark and it smelled really good.
Imagine my delight today when I went out and found this little fellow writhing around in the mix: