Blending is ok if you are dealing with very small amounts of compost. I know many people do it for their worms but I don't see the extra step as really worth it.

I am sure your tips will help some people, but for really affordable compost bins you can make them mostly for free out of old pallets or freecycled chickenwire, etc. Also, blending your kitchen scraps only works if you have tiny amounts to compost. I compost about six to ten 5 gallon buckets full of stuff every week, sure wouldn't want to blenderize it. It would be too liquid anyway. Also the peach and nectarine pits would be hell on a blender . . .

Marcia

For less than $25.00 you can make a good composter from 12 feet of 2 x 4 mesh welded with fence fabric.

Good tips, livvy!

(Not everyone has pallets, or the capacity to haul them home, & not everyone can get or cope with enough material for a number of big buckets of compostables every week.)

another tip I read somewhere recently:
to keep your under-the-sink or on-the-counter kitchen scrap bucket from becoming quite so, uh, fragrant, put some carbon in it, shredded paper or shredded wood chips or tree trimmings.

ACK! I tried the blender thing once and a banana peel wrapped around the (whatchamacallit) cutty spinny thing and now my blender smells burny whenever I use it.

I didnt compost the blendy stuff, I poured it into holes in the garden.

My lowes doesnt even have display models of compost bin. people around here are too snooty for that. Not me tho, I bought a roll of green plasticy fence stuff and Ive got three (or is it 4) bins going.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Sylvia -- that's a great tip on the carbon. My mom was just asking how you kept it from being offensive.

Kimmsr -- Thanks -- I've read a lot of your past postings about compost -- the Florida compost tutorial website taught me most of what I know. I live in a housing complex with a persnickety HOA that doesn't really allow the kind of compost bin I wanted to make. It's not even that nice of a neighborhood, but people on HOA committees can sometimes get a little full of their "responsibilies" I'm finding. I'm going to remember this the next time I buy a house. hee. No really -- I can't believe how much it has interfered with my gardening plans. kind of unAmerican. And the next car I buy is going to be a truck.

Good to know that people haven't had much success with the blender thing...I won't look for an old one at the thrift store.

Marcia -- Gosh, I wish I had THAT much to compost. I always wonder how people get enough compost to use for their garden beds...guess when you have that much stuff, you can. I have a fair amount of produce scraps, but I shred newspaper because I am always so low on stuff. I'm going to try to get some leaves from my brother. When I get that truck I can go straight to the municipal site......

Sawdust works great in the scrap bucket to cover stuff that would otherwise start to stink. Coffee grounds work too but they have a strong odor of their own which can sometimes be too much in tight spaces.

I just planted a bunch of comfrey roots as they are supposed to be good at providing large amounts of high nitrogen materials for composting and green manure. As well as being useful herbs for healing if you are into studying that.

I Know what you mean about HOAs being a problem for gardening. I made it a point to look for a home where there was no restriction like that. Compost does not have to be in a Bin, a tidy pile in an out of the way corner will work too. Heck, in really dry climates, people dig pits for composting since the wind drys piles out too quickly. Composting does not need to cost any money what so ever.

We often put our compost container outside to air out in the sun after emptying it. We also leave them outside whenever we go away on trips. The sun/rain/snow/whatever the weather brings helps to keep it fresher. When all else fails, run it through the dishwasher. Otherwise we empty it so often (we are mostly vegetarian, and do a lot of canning) that angle isn't a problem.

We change to a new one when the old one gets really ugly. We use large plastic containers with lids such as ice cream or whatever comes in. Actually we get them from other people, we generally only buy ice cream that comes in smaller and cardboard-y containers, like Breyers or Ben and Jerry's.

HOAs can be a pain in the butt, fortunately the only time we lived in a place with one of those they didn't have any rules about compost bins. We had ours, a ring of chicken wire, between the air conditioner and the house. It was a townhouse, i.e., connected on both sides to other houses. Now we have 5 acres and do large scale composting. Remember, bags of leaves on the curb are a gift for you and your garden. :-) I get leftover produce from a local stand, between that and all the leaves I stash each fall, I can make almost as much compost as I want. There is never enough, no matter how much you make!

Marcia

livvy: So what composter did you end up with? Did you buy the Biostack? I really like mine.

Karen

If you're looking for cheap or free name-brand composters, there's always Craigslist or your local Freecycle. I got a Biostack from Freecycle several months ago (FWIW, I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE it!). And the person offering it turned out to be a fan of my husband's comedy group, so she actually delivered it right to us in exchange for an autographed DVD.

I have one of the high-powered Vita Mixers and a dedicated container for compostables. That thing even breaks up bones if I throw them in. But a banana peel did the same thing, wrapped around the hammers and made it overheat and shut down. Fortunately no permanent damage was done. Now I just chop up banana peels with a knife before I throw them in there. Maybe that would help? I certainly haven't had any other problems, even with a regular blender. You might also consider a used food processor instead of a blender - the sharper blades might do a better job on reducing the food trash to compostable bits.