Post #19 Three Bucket Composting: An Easy Method for Very Small Spaces
Blog Description: A little-known method of composting kitchen scraps in small spaces.
Composting. It’s a fact of life, right? Well, it certainly is when you are a gardener.
If you aren’t making it yourself, you’re buying it from someone (or some company) that is. So why not make it yourself from ingredients you’d otherwise be bagging up for the landfill or throwing in your green waste bin?
Good question.
Suburban gardening in subtropical zones can certainly pose some specific composting challenges. There’s the vermin, the flies, the smell! We have answers for that.
Our three bucket composting method is your answer to streamlining kitchen scraps directly to your garden. This method offers the least amount of effort for that compost gold your plants literally feed off of!
Check out our blog on composting in place to bypass the three bucket method and learn how to compost raw materials directly into your garden beds cleanly and efficiently. Choose the method that works best for you and your garden.
So what is the Three Bucket Method?
It is as simple as procuring three five-gallon buckets with tight-fitting lids, plus a plastic bowl to keep in your kitchen. Find a functional place to store them, out of the way and preferably right outside a backdoor. You can store them directly in the kitchen, but it will smell up the room for a minute when you open the top bucket. I store them on my back patio.
Stack the buckets on top of each other and start with the top one. Toss your scraps, including fresh produce trimmings, bones, any expired leftovers from the fridge, and old/rotting produce into the plastic bowl.
No, the bowl won’t smell, as long as you remember to toss it into the buckets regularly. Make a habit of tossing the bowl into the top bucket every evening or throughout the day when it gets full.
If fruit flies become an issue, use a screen over the bowl. You can put a cover on the bowl, but this will cause anaerobic decay quite quickly that will produce a smell when you open it – much like the buckets themselves.
When the top bucket is full, put it on the bottom of the stack and start using the next one. When that one is full, put it on the bottom and start the third bucket. When the third bucket is full, put it on the bottom.
Now take the first bucket out into the back or side yard.
Note: No matter how you slice it, rotting food is going to get a little messy. So roll up your sleeves and wear some rubber gloves. Hey, we’re all gardeners here!
Pull aside the mulch in a bed, dig a shallow hole, then quickly open the bucket, dump the contents in the hole and immediately cover them with the soil you dug up. Pull the mulch back over the soil.
The smell will be a lot like fresh manure, so a word to the wise (especially the wise with HOAs!), it’s best not to do this in your front yard. Blue flies will show up instantly to check it out (really it’s incredible how fast they appear), but they will leave too once the compost is covered. The smell will dissipate quickly as well.
Rinse your bucket (and your gloves) with a hose and put it on the top of the stack to start filling again. By the time you empty a bucket, it will be only about a third full, so the hole you dig does not need to be very big. Banana and papaya circles especially love this extra food!
I don’t even remember where or when I learned this method, or if I conjured it up in a dream! All I know is that it works fabulously.
Although we love the chop and drop, composting in place method, rotting fruit and vegetables, and other kitchen scraps, may be found by vermin if you just bury them in your beds.
Bucket composting, using this three bucket method, is a great alternative. Besides a momentary frenzy of pretty blue flies, once the soil and mulch is mounded over the bucket compost in your bed, it is pretty benign. And the plants will thank you!
So, how are your gardens growing? Have you tried bucket composting before? Are you interested in trying it out? Let me know what you are up to, I love hearing from you!
Until next time, Happy gardening!
Mary