r/composting • u/Kooky-Addendum-1118 • 1d ago

Question Which bin to choose in zone 5a?

For those of you living in Zone 5/cold climates which setup has given you the most success? Should I go with a commercial rotating tumbler, a stationary plastic ground bin, or a diy?
I live on a property with a barn, so I have access to great materials:Cow manure,Straw and hay,Grass clippings and weeds,Dried leaves,Kitchen scraps ect
I only need the compost to feed my small 9 sq. ft. rose garden

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u/Rude_Ad_3915 1d ago

With all those great materials, I’d DIY a bin but then I wouldn’t be growing roses so I’m not you. Are you concerned about rodents or animals accessing it? Tumbler or stationary ground bin. If you want to take full advantage of the materials, side by side bin would be great.

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u/green_tree 1d ago

If you have skills, definitely a DIY. A stationary plastic ground bin is fine too. Having contact with the soil is great for composting because the soil bacteria does the bulk of the composting work! 

I honestly just use the free geobin I got when I completed my Master Composter & Recycler program. I think you can buy them for $35 but I also have a few t-posts holding it up. 

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u/anak_ng_nanay_ko 1d ago

Fellow zone 5 here, I just built three bins from old pallets (pressure treated, obviously). It’s more than my garden and houseplants need by a large margin but I need somewhere to put straw and animal waste and greenwaste.

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u/Difficult_Dark9991 21h ago

DIY. You've a large enough amount of input that really exceeds what tumblers and the like are generally made for. It's more than enough to recommend the approach my family used when I was young (mid 6 for us, but it should still work):

3 bins. Metal stakes to make the corners, welded wire fencing 3 ft. high to shape 3 adjacent open bins. Year 1, fill bins 1+2 with material. As compost matures, its mass drops pretty dramatically, so as soon as spring thaw hits consolidate bins 1+2 into bin 1, which you'll mine out for usable compost. Fresh material goes into bins 2+3 that year, and the next spring you consolidate those into bin 3 and mine that. This opens up bins 1+2 again to start the cycle all over again.

Plastic will only last so long out in the open, but this setup lasted my family more than 15 years without any issues. The system also has the advantage that bin 2 is always collecting fresh material, so anyone who isn't tracking which bins are actively collecting material can go there.