Make compost in your backyard

Composting is nature working.  Compost s miracle happening in the backyard.

It is very easy to make compost. It is not dirty, smelly or fishy. If you follow certain guidelines you will have clean compost without much effort.


Compost Bin:  First you need bin to make compost.  If you do not have resources to make one or you do not like to build one then buy one. Check out  the compost bins here.  You can build your own compost bin.

wire mesh compost bin

You can a make a simple bin from wire mesh.  Make sure it has at least 3 ft diameter and is sturdy.  The one shown on the left are tied to a tree.

wooden compost bin

You can also make a bin from wooden planks.  The one on the left is 4 ft x 2ft x 2 ft. See full illustration here.







Material:  You need browns and greens for your compost.  Browns will provide carbon and green will provide nitrogen.

greens ready to be shredded 

Shred leaves and other greens.  You can use various leaf shredders to shred leaves. Check here.

browns being shredded by mower

You can use your lawn mower to shred leaves and greens.  Use grass clippings to provide green.  See illustration to how to use lawn mower to shred leaves.

shred pizza boxes add to compost 

You can shred cardboard boxes like pizza boxes and add to the mix.  They provide excellent browns to the compost.  Spray some water over the shredded cardboard to just moisten it.

compost full of shredded material

Fill it up as things are going to settle down after a while.  Add more of the clippings on top.  Mix green and brown thoroughly.  You can also layer brown, green, brown so on.  Each layer can be about 3 inch thick.  Add some moisture by spraying some water.  Do not make it soggy.

Leaves are back.

Summer is gone and fall is back and so are the leaves. The blog went dormant during the summer and we are back again. I found that it is better to mulch the oak leaves first. Run your mower or tractor (riding mower) in mulch mode and just run over the leaves. This will break down the leaves. Then run it with the bagger. Now there will be less volume and you do not have to empty the bags very often. Empty the bags in the compost. All the you have do the process twice but it makes it less laborious.


Check out my previous post Shredding and mulching leaves- my previous post.

Search for leaves shredder.

Shredding and mulching leaves with lawn mower.

I use my exisiting lawn mower to shred leaves.  This answers many questions regarding building or making your own leaf shredder or mulcher.  I have highlighted the steps I do to shred leaves.  My yard is full of oak leaves and this works really good.

Run your lawn mower in discharge mode.  Direction of mower depends upon the discharge side.  Idea is to collect leaves in a pile.  My mower discharge to right so I run it clockwise as shown in figure 1.  The size of the pile depends how many leaves you have.  If you get too many leaves then your mower may start stalling.

Iclose the discharge chute and convert my mower in to mulching mode and run it over the partially shredded leaves pile.  You will be amazed in the reduction in the volume of leaves at this stage.

Once the leaves are completely shredded, I use the bag attachment to collect all the shredded leaves and throw them in my compost.  Easy and simple. I think.

How to mulch leaves and make compost in your own backyard and Various Leaf Shredders

Shredding of the compost ingredients is very important in order to have success with compost.   Mulching with mulching lawn mower is one option specially for leaves.  We mulch oak leaves with mower.  Run the mower on leaves couple of times. 

I use my The Yard Machines 21" 3-in-1 deck push mower to mulch leaves and any small twigs.   I use the bagger when mowing the grass so that I can catch glass clippings.  I add those clippings to the leaves.  The grass clipping provides the necessary nitrogen to the leaves (carbon) and the compost gets hot.  This is nature at work. 

For shredding and mulching the leaves, I will put the mower in discharge mode and go clockwise and collect all the leaves in the middle of the yard.  They are already broken in to pieces at this time.  Then I change the settings to mulching and run the mower over the leaves twice.  This reduces the volume of the leaves drastically.  Then I run the mower with bag attachment and collect the mulched and shredded leaves.  It seems to be lot work but I tell you it is much easier then raking and bagging the leaves. 

There are some shredders available specially for this purpose.

Flowtron LE-900 The Ultimate Mulcher 8 Amp Electric Leaf Shredder
Flowtron’s LE-900 Leaf-Eater Mulcher/Shredder quickly recycles yard and garden waste into nutrient-rich mulch that's ready to be disposed of or reprocessed into compost. Powered by regular household current and featuring special positions for leaves (coarse to fine), grass, thatch, and pine needles, this handy tool reduces 11 bags of leaves to just one bag, saving money on expensive trash bags and trash pickup.

WORX WG430 13 Amp Electric Leaf Mulcher/Shredder  The new Worx leaf mulcher makes collecting leaves easier, quicker and leaves your yard tidier. By simply dropping your leaves into the large feed hole they are mulched to 1/11th their size and drop right into a bag you fit under the unit. Its unique design accepts both plastic and paper bags and delivers an exceptional high mulch efficiency rate of 53 gallons/minute. This is achieved with the safe flex-a-line bladeless mulching system, offering the added benefit of tool-less cutting line replacement. Assembly is also tool-less and coupled with its compact design allows for convenient, easy off-season storage in your garage or shed. The design incorporates a dust reducing clean air motor cooling system and an oversized on/off switch for ease of use. The 13 amp motor delivers 8500 rpm and accommodates a 13-Inch cut diameter all in a package that weighs only 20 lbs. The WG430 comes with 24 replacement lines and 1 universal bag holder.

Eco-Shredder ES1600 14-Amp Electric Chipper / Shredder / Mulcher  The Eco-Shredder is the easy way to help clean up the yard after trimming the bushes and raking the leaves. No gasoline engines to try to start. The Eco-Shredder is the environmentally friendly way to help clean up your yard. The top hopper accepts twigs, small branches and other leaves and debris. The side chute accepts branches up to 1-3/8" in diameter. It can even save time and money by allowing you to make your own mulch.

Browse and shop for leaf shredders

Compost Leaves. Composting really works. Make your own compost bins.

We used to collect all the leaves and put them in bags and leave it on the curb for pickup. We used to have some times 70 bags in one day. I know the leaves got recycled but do not know what happened to the bags. There are lot trees in our neighborhood and we get plenty of leaves.  Filling the bags with leaves was enormous task. 

We tried to mulch the leaves in the grass.  There were so many leaves that it will cover the whole grass with thick layer and kill the grass.  We started composting 2 years back and as We are learning and it is getting better.   We want to share the experience with others.  It is fun and gives you lot of satisfaction. First I looked at the composter on line and they were expensive.  One on Amazon was selling for $300.  If you can afford it go ahead and buy it.

Browse for compost bins.

I had some left over fence.  I made two bins out of it.  I put it next to a tree for support.  The one on the right was totally done last month and I spread the compost in the garden.  The left one is in progress.  We have been getting lot of rain recently so I covered up the bins.  Rain is also hampering my leaf collection venture as it is soggy and wet outside.

God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done. ~Author Unknown

You want your compost to be moist but not soggy.  Compost also does not work if it is dry.  Then it just sits there.  Keep it moist till it is done.  I checked it yesterday it was warm and turned it.  This weekend plan to mulch leaves and put them  in the right had side bin.  It is always helpful to mulch the leaves.  I use my garden tractor with bags.  I have also used the lawn mower to mulch the leaves.  Collect all the leaves in one space and run your  mulching mower over them.  Mulching reduces volume of the leaves so that you can put more leaves in the compost bin.  It also helps the composting process.  Add some greens also.  I usually get grass clippings along with the leaves.  There are lot of things you can add to compost.  Do not add meat.

Home made compost bins.

You can try some sturdy plastic fence to make your bin.  Support your bin properly.