A Heap of Nutrients

At the New York Botanical Garden, from left, a three-bin system, a perforated trash can and the Earth Machine. (Photos By Ursula Chase -- New York Botanical Garden)

The problem with such beautiful monsters? "You have to build this," Brown said.

Compost piles divide in other ways. A pile that just sits will break down over time, but it may take as long as two years. It will not achieve the high temperatures needed to kill weed seeds. An active pile creates virtually weed-free material in a matter of weeks or months, but needs a lot more precision and work.

Gardeners who love the alchemy of the hot pile must mix materials high in carbon, such as leaves and straw, with a lesser amount of nitrogen, found in fresh clippings, kitchen scraps and livestock manure. The materials must be kept moist and turned occasionally.

When it cools, it is finished, though all compost should be screened through quarter- or half-inch hardware cloth for final use.

Another form of bin is a commercially made tumbler that requires the dedicated gardener to crank the device daily. PBM Group in Lititz, Pa., makes three models of its ComposTumbler ( http://www.compostumbler.com/ ). The smallest contains 4 1/4 bushels, the largest a healthy 18 bushels. The company says its two larger models make compost in just two weeks, a claim most seasoned gardeners find difficult to believe.

But Donna Stecker says the 9 1/2 -bushel model in her garden in West Springfield makes "rough compost, I would say in two to three weeks." The downside: The tumblers are expensive (Stecker's model today costs approximately $300, the larger one $400, plus shipping), and need to be turned daily. Stecker cranks the handle five times to cause the drum to revolve once. She got it about seven years ago, and it now is not used with as much zeal.

"If you're going to be diligent and it gets hot, it's great," said Stecker, a volunteer at Green Spring, which uses the large version. "It's a lot easier than getting out with your pitchfork and turning it."

The classic enthusiast's setup is the type of multi-bin system found at Green Spring's vegetable garden. Here, one bin takes a mass of raw material in the fall that slowly breaks down over the course of a year. The other bin has older, finished compost.

At the New York Botanical Garden's Home Gardening Center, Jodie Colon has set up three basic bin types, including a plastic composter called the Earth Machine. The pride of the compost demonstration area is a custom-made, three-bin, wood-and-screen system with slotted boards that are removed for turning and unloading.

In a typical "turning" setup, once the first bin is full and semi-composted, you rake it all out and put it in the second bin to make way for new material in the first. As that breaks down, you shift the contents of bin two, then finished, to bin three, and repeat the first step. It's an assembly line for the die-hard composter.

Whatever container takes your fancy, one principle remains: Quick compost takes work, slow compost takes patience.

Two more Web sites to check for composting tips: http://www.solidwaste.org/ and http://www.agnr.umd.edu/users/hgic . The latter is the Maryland Cooperative Extension Home and Garden Information Center; click on Publications, Online Publications and Soil and Composting.

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