For most gardeners there are times of the year when the garden is creating a lot of waste that is best used to create compost and kept out of the landfills. If you have spent anytime gardening, you know the benefits from composting both to your garden and to the overall ecosystem we live in. The problem is not convincing you to compost, but to find ways to do it easily but without taking a large chunk of change from your wallet.

There are a host of ways that you can build your own compost bin or bins. You can find plans that teach you how to do it with concrete blocks, or we've all seen some that use shipping pallets or other scrap lumber. These are economical enough, and can be made to almost any size that you wish (keeping in mind that you need enough waste mass to get the compost pile to heat up.) But they can take up a good amount of room, and candidly many home brew compost bins are not the most attractive things to have near your garden.

At the other end of the spectrum, you can find some very expensive compost tumblers that do a great job of creating good compost, and doing it quickly and with just a minimum of effort. But, as effective as these are, some of them are several hundred dollars, and are fairly big contraptions, and tend to dominate the area of your yard or garden where they are situated.

There is a middle ground if you are looking to purchase an inexpensive composter. You can get something quite functional and makes a nice addition to the garden area from an appearance standpoint.

One of the most popular composters of all time is the Earth Machine composter. This small unit (about 10 gallons) can not only be purchased at many stores, but it has either been given away or offered at a discount by many local government agencies, which helps to account for the fact that over 2 million have been sold.

A slightly larger unit that is still priced well under $90 is the Soilsaver compost bin. It has a few features that make it easier to use, and help keep the rodents and vermin out of your bin.

Each of these bins is inexpensive and can work well for your garden, but each also has its own strengths and weaknesses...