Take 4ft wide hardware cloth and make it into a large loop.

Zip tie it together at the ends, forming a large cylinder with open ends.

Place it on the ground, or a piece of cardboard if it is located on the pavement.

Fill it with your food waste; moldy leftovers, coffee grounds, paper towels, leaves… pretty much any organic waste.

Cover with a tarp, board, or whatever you have on hand to keep the rain out. A compost pile needs some moisture, but too much will just make a stinky mess.

Let it sit.

That’s it. That’s literally all you have to do, or not do in this case. Eventually this will break down and turn into soil that you can then use in your garden.

If you want the material to compost faster it is ideal to “turn” the pile every few days. “Turning” is where you use a pitchfork or shovel to mix the contents of the pile around so that air can get to the other portions of the pile. Another technique is to remove the wire, lifting it up over the pile, setting it next to the current pile, and shoveling the material back in, thereby mixing the material, and getting you some cardio.

Air is important to the composting process, which is why this mesh design is so effective.

Sometimes your compost pile will even sprout some new food. The green leaves seen in these photos are from potatoes that started growing in my pile.

Note: Some composters recommend removing citrus from your piles as worms don’t like to consume them. My family has found they compost just fine. We compost every bit of food waste to include fish carcasses, bones, coffee filters, etc. The stinkier stuff can attract critters like raccoons, so typically we will bury those items in the center of the pile to keep unwanted guests for showing up to the buffet.

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