Susan Jensen

Since your back area faces north and gets little sun, you could try a worm composter out back in the shade. I have 5 different worm composting bins pictured here: Worm Bins. The larger ones are for a sheltered, shady spot outdoors. The two plastic ones (worm factory and modified rubbermaid) should go indoors. The worm factory can take more trays than pictured (7 max) so you can add more worms to take care of your your organics. A modified rubbermaid can also take extra nested bins which could hold more worms. Hope this helps.

John Fajer wrote:
1. How large is your compost pile?
2. How often, if ever, do you water your compost pile?
3. How frequently do you turn your compost pile?

Hello, interesting to see what everyone is doing. I raise chickens, worms, and garden on my suburban lot, so composting is a big part of the process:

1. I have:
- a 3 ft x 3 ft pile and an Earth Machine composter for chicken manure
- a 3 foot by 5 foot wooden box for garden and yard clippings
- a Worm Factory, a Rubbermaid worm bin, and a box made from a treestump for kitchen scraps.
There are photos on my worm composting website here: Worm Composting Bins

2. I water the open pile about once a month but only in the summer. The challenge in my climate is usually to keep it dry.

3. I turn the open pile about every 3 months. There are few worms in the chicken manure since it is strong. But in the other bins, I have red wiggler worms doing the turning.

We just picked up "aged horse manure" from a farm today -- it did not occur to me to ask the owner if wormer had been used. I hope that since it has been aged for a year it is ok. We're using it for worm composting.