Turning your compost

September 3, 2011 — It’s the ‘dirty little secret’ of composting. Mike McGrath discusses whether or not you really have to sing, “turn, turn, turn” to your compost piles. Plus answers to all your growing questions.

Listen to the mp3

I’m starting two compost piles and am wondering how often I should turn them. I decided to clean up our side yard—it hadn’t been touched in about eight years—and collected a lot of leaves that I figured should make perfect compost for my veggie garden. So I shredded them all up and put some in a compost tumbler I inherited from my grandfather, and the rest in a simple ‘plastic fence’ style composter (the kind some extension offices give away or sell for cheap). I thought it would be best to just leave the piles alone and only turn them once or twice a month, but my father says I should be turning them every three days. How often should I turn my compost? And should I turn the tumbler more often than the “pile”? Get the answer »