Where should I put my compost pile?

“Where should I put my compost pile?” is a question that nags most compost newbies that I work with. Should they put it in the shade? What about the sun? Does it need a lot of space? What about animals? These are all common and normal questions, but they neglect to address the single, most important factor regarding the success of any given compost heap: you. As the composter, your own physical abilities and daily routines should be the first point of consideration when determining the ideal location of your pile.

I can’t tell you the number of composts I’ve “fixed” through simple relocation, and making the heap more accessible to the daily routine of the composter. One woman I received a phone call from had her heap boxed in with wooden fencing on the far side of her rather generously-sized property. “I know I love to compost, but I just don’t ever seem to add my food scraps to the pile,” she lamented, as we made the five-minute walk from her house to where her heap resided. “It’s a mystery!” (Reader: it was not a mystery.) If she was going to use it, her pile needed to be closer to the place where she spent her time cooking, so I gathered her compost and moved it into a simple stone enclosure just outside of her back door. The woman’s compost practice flourished soon after.

Another friend told me his compost was “broken” and asked if I might check it out. When I arrived on his property, I found that he’d piled his heap into a very tall and narrow chicken-wire enclosure, making turning a clumsy and onerous procedure. As a result, decomposition had essentially halted. I cut open the chicken wire and re-circled it, adding about three feet in diameter to the heap. A little more space made turning the pile much easier and so he stopped putting it off. A week later, his compost was humming along at a neat and active 110°F.

See what I mean?

I often encounter this problem of “mysterious” neglect when people build their compost in out-of-the-way places, or have cumbersome set ups that make basic interaction a challenge. It becomes hard to develop a new habit. Your pile will thrive when you locate it in a place where you can see and interact with it easily, and when you build it in a way that allows its maintenance to align with your abilities. That’s why I joke with people that making your first compost is a little like going to therapy. In order for it to work, you need to look within—not, necessarily, toward some locatable set of stable, external factors.

In general, having your compost pile located in a place that you see and will be regularly around acts as a reminder to care. It also helps you learn. Your day-to-day observations will teach you all kinds of things about your heap: what smells and what doesn’t, what combinations of stuff will decay more quickly than others, what inputs you need more or less of, and how fast decomposition is occurring. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you pick up on the “language” of your particular pile when you just look at it every day.

Not everyone has access to so much space that their only compost concern is their own preferences, though. Living in cities means living with other people and it’s important to take their needs into account, too. For example: if your ideal compost location ends up being directly beneath the bedroom window of a neighbor, you might want to rethink your approach. You could also brave a conversation. You never know, you might make a new compost pal.

:)