Garden HoseThe most common location for a compost pile or bin is near your kitchen or garden. Your composting should be in a convenient location. This makes it easy to bring your food scraps or garden waste to the composter. If you have a large yard, the yard waste can get quite heavy and you don’t want to carry the heavy material around your yard. Extra work might be a deterrent to composting.

There are a few simple considerations when choosing a location for your compost bin:

Make sure children or animals will not disturb or get into the compost bin.

The ground should be level and have good drainage. You don’t want excessive water to accumulate in your compost bin. Your compost pile needs to stay moist but you do not want too much water or it will not work properly.

Make sure you can easily access the area with a wheelbarrow.

A shady location is best, if the compost pile gets too much sunlight it will get hot and dry out. Again, the pile needs to stay moist and overheating it with external sources will not help.

A water source should be close by. You will want to use the garden hose or easily carry enough water to moisten the pile if it becomes too dry. Remember you just want to moisten the pile with a spray of water not drench it.

If you are beginning with a one bin system, you may want to leave enough room for a second bin down the road. By having two bins side-by-side, you can easily rotate or turn the pile by moving material from one bin to the next.